Core of Conviction : My Story (9781101563571) (24 page)

 

I stand here today in front of many friends and family to formally announce my candidacy for President of the United States. I do so because I am grateful for the blessings God and this country have given to me, and not because of the position of the office, but because I am determined that every American deserves these blessings and that together we can once again strengthen America and restore the promise of the future.

And I closed with:

 

Together, we can do this. Together we can rein in all the corruption and waste that has become Washington and instead leave a better America for future generations.

Together we can make a team that can't be beat!

Together we can secure the promise of the future.

Together we can—and together we will!

God bless you and God bless the United States of America!

That was my announcement speech. So now, what is my campaign plan? How do I plan to win the Republican nomination? And then the White House?

My campaign plan is simple. I am going to say true things. I love these words from Paul's epistle to the Philippians: “Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.” Those are important words for faith, for life—and even for politics.

So here's what I think, in four parts.

First:
I am a national-security conservative. I believe that a president's most important role is to be commander in chief. I believe in peace through strength. That is, I believe in defending America, defending our allies—and defeating terrorism. Sitting as I do on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, I am reminded that every day, some people around the world wake up thinking about how they're going to destroy the United States. Many of these America haters work in the Iranian government. Indeed, they run the Iranian government. So when I learn more about President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's nuclear ambitions and his declared determination to destroy Israel and the United States, I take him seriously. If history has taught us anything, it is that when a madman speaks, you listen, and then you work to defeat him. At the same time, of course, we must obey the Constitution, and that means that the president must seek authorization from Congress for military action.

And as we oppose our enemies, we will stand by our friends. So I will reverse the Obama administration's pressure on Israel, which seeks to force Israel back to its indefensible 1967 borders. Obama's policy threatens Israel's security, even as it encourages Israel's enemies to think that they can use terror, and the threat of terror, to extract dangerous concessions.

Meanwhile, we will defend the homeland. We will have no more politically correct nonsense about terrorism; we will keep Guantánamo open, and we will use it to lock up terrorists who seek to kill Americans. We will defend our southern border—and all our borders and coastlines.

Overall, I emphatically believe that America has been the greatest force for good in world history. I believe we should continue to be a city upon a hill, a light unto nations. That vision is often associated with Ronald Reagan—the greatest president of my lifetime and one of the greats of American history—but in fact, others shared the same vision. John F. Kennedy also spoke of America as a city upon a hill, back in 1961. And both Ronald Reagan and JFK, of course, were quoting the Puritan leader John Winthrop, who in 1630 set great goals for the new land called America—goals I believe we have reached. So while I admire Winthrop's idealism, I also admire the realism of those who put his vision into practice across so many centuries. The original inspiration for Winthrop came from the Book of Matthew, in which Christ proclaimed from the mount, “Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.” Two thousand years later, I have faith that we can yet again, through our hands and feet, be that shining city.

Second:
As I am a foreign-policy conservative, so I am also an economic conservative. I believe in defending freedom and free enterprise from all opponents, foreign and domestic. If only one word could describe my political goals, it would be “
liberty
.” That's what inspires me and motivates me more than anything here on earth. Economic liberty, religious liberty, financial liberty—they are all connected. You can't truly have one without the rest. I always recall the words of the Muskego manifesto, the words that inspired my forebears to come to America from Norway: Here in America, they wrote, is a land “where freedom and equality prevail in civil and religious affairs, and without any special permission we can enter almost any profession and make an honest living. This we consider more wonderful than riches.”
More wonderful than riches.
That's the way I feel too.

Yet with freedom comes responsibility. And in the past our leaders have been irresponsible. When I came into Congress, the national debt was $8.67 trillion. Now it's headed up to $16.7 trillion, with no end in sight. In other words, it took 219 years for it to get this high, and now, in just five more years, it's almost doubled. No wonder America's AAA bond rating has been downgraded.

As president, I will consider it a duty to cut federal spending. Not only because the economy needs relief from overspending but because the government itself needs relief from overspending. So I won't just put an end to Obamacare; I will put an end to all the spending that has made our government simultaneously painfully gargantuan and hideously ineffectual. That is, so fat and bloated that it can't do anything, even as it suffocates the economy. I'm not against government; I think our current government is a mortal threat to America—just as, in its morbid obesity, it's a mortal threat to itself. But I think that some government is necessary. I am essentially a libertarian on pure market questions, but I know that we need a government to ensure domestic tranquility. I simply want to restore government to the sort of flinty integrity it had when the good citizens of Black Hawk County, Iowa, back in 1853, knew exactly where every cent of that $873.08 was going. And today, thanks to the Internet, we could again have that sort of to-the-penny awareness of where our tax money is going.

So yes, I will control federal spending and bring it into balance—we have to or we won't survive. But in doing so, I will never endanger our security. And if we have another government spending crisis—and I am sure we will—I will continue to defend defense. I will make sure that our men and women in uniform get their paychecks. I have had five biological children and twenty-three foster children, but I feel a special awe toward all the men and women of our armed forces. And I know that the American people feel the same way. We will always support them as they keep us safe.

Yet even as we cut public spending, we are going to foster growth in the private economy. I have specific plans for cutting spending, cutting taxes, and cutting regulation—and for increasing exports, increasing investment, and increasing innovation.

As for the tax code in particular, I know what a disaster it is. I have seen it from the inside. As president, I will examine various approaches to tax reform, as well as tax reduction. Flat, fair, or hybrid—I'll consider whatever tax system we need to unleash the entrepreneurial, transformative potential of the U.S. economy. Under a Bachmann presidency, every young person with a good idea and a lot of stamina will know that America is the best place in the world to start a dream, and start a business.

Third
, I am a social conservative—and I mean it. I haven't just talked the talk when it suits me politically—I have walked the walk. Consistently. I have been strongly pro-life since the early 1970s, and I have been active in the right-to-life movement since the eighties. In the Minnesota state senate, I was at the forefront of the effort to enact the Woman's Right to Know Act. And in Washington, I have been involved in every piece of pro-life legislation that Congress has considered.

On profamily education policy, I bucked my own party to lead the fight against a liberal, paternalistic, secular education agenda beginning in the nineties, ultimately securing the repeal of Minnesota's Profile of Learning in 2003. Also in 2003, I was at the forefront in pushing for a traditional-marriage constitutional amendment in Minnesota, which, I'm proud to say, will go before the voters of my state in 2012.

I believe we must remember the work of the biblical Nehemiah, who rebuilt the sturdy walls of Jerusalem. That is, today we must reinforce the sort of ethical framework—for most of us, the framework provided by the Judeo-Christian tradition—that protects liberty from anarchy.

So that's the “three-legged stool” that Republicans often talk about—that is, the peace-through-strength conservatives, the economic conservatives and libertarians, and the social “values voters” conservatives. A majority of Americans associate themselves with one or more of these categories. So in other words, a candidate who can coalesce these three groups can win a national election. That's what Ronald Reagan did—twice. And so did George W. Bush.

But in addition, there's a new source of political energy in America today: the Tea Party, or should I say tea parties, because there are so many of them, each proud of its own autonomy and independence. I once said that the Tea Party represents 90 percent of Americans. I now realize that I misspoke. I should have said 100 percent, because I believe that nearly all Americans retain faith in the ordered liberty that the Constitution offers. Americans have rebelled against autocrats in the past; today they have no wish to see czars reigning on imperial thrones.

Tea partiers are also sometimes called constitutional conservatives, because we put so much emphasis, and rightly so, on the Constitution as the basic source of legitimate governmental authority. As I asked of Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner: Show me in the Constitution where you have the authority to give a $700 billion blank check to whomever you choose. And of course he couldn't do it. Too many Washington power brokers haven't much cared what the Constitution stipulates—unless, of course, the issue is accused criminals and terrorists, in which case they tease out exaggerated theories of procedure to hamstring authorities. But constitutional conservatives
do
care.

Tea partiers and constitutionalists speak up for the common sense of ordinary Americans, who are instinctively suspicious of concentrated power and yet at the same time expect the government to be able to do a few things well, rather than a lot of things badly. You don't need to be a constitutional expert to see the need for due process and fair play when it comes to dealing with the IRS or the EPA or OSHA.

In the political center of this country stands a huge group—Democratic commentator Pat Caddell calls them the “radical middle”—of practical-minded Americans who may never have been political a day in their lives but who are now simply fed up with the faltering status quo. They are disaffected Democrats, independents, libertarians, and those who would reject any political label, and yet they all share the same realization: The current system is an insult to American ideals. And when I say that it's “gangster government,” they smile and nod their heads. Finally, they think to themselves, there's a leader who gets it.

So these four groupings—foreign policy, economic, social, and Tea Party/constitutional—represent a powerful coalition in the making. Actually, it was already made in the 2010 elections; it just needs to be revived again in 2012. And then it needs to become the governing coalition of a reformist, center-right leadership that keeps its promises.

So I have described the building blocks of my candidacy. But of course, building blocks have to build. To win the White House in 2012—to make Obama a one-term president—we need a compelling narrative that shows how we can make a team that can't be beat.

I believe that a conventional, play-it-safe campaign will ensure that America has to endure another four years of Barack Obama and his wrecking-crew policies. That is, if the Republican presidential nominee fails to energize key constituencies, or worse, if the nominee is seen as insincere, then we will lose. So we need a fresh effort deriving its strength from the common sense of the American people, from their commitment to the nation's founding values and to the knowledge that the country must rest on a secure moral foundation that puts common sense ahead of trendy theorizing. It must reach out to the whole nation, inspiring disparate groups ranging from churchgoers to homeschoolers to alienated rec room youth searching for something to believe in; it must reach out to Americans, rallying citizens and patriots of all parties.

And my plan is already working. Just seven weeks after I entered the race, after a lot of hard work, I was honored to win the Ames, Iowa, straw poll on August 13. That night I thanked my supporters, reminding them that with their continued efforts, we could restore that next link of liberty, connecting our glorious past to an even more glorious future.

Together, we can do this. I was born to parents in humble circumstances, but out of that, my husband and I helped to build a big family and then a job-creating business. We have cared for unwed mothers and foster children. I know the pain that ordinary people go through, and yet I also know the rules for success. I was forty-four years old when I first ran for office. I am a small woman, but my heart for the animating principles and values of America is great. I love this country as much as it has loved me.

Yes, the presidential campaign will be tough. I am ready. I like to joke that I have a titanium spine. And I am inspired by the words of John F. Kennedy at the 1963 national prayer breakfast in Washington: “Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers,” said JFK as Billy Graham nodded in approval. “Pray for powers equal to your tasks.” That's my prayer, too.