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Keyes’ farewell address

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Illinois

A pompous goodbye from the Prince of Pompousville (population: 1):

I want to say a special word of thanks to all of those supporters throughout Illinois who put together an unbelievable campaign, working by the thousands. Against all the odds, against all the lies and fabrications of the media, against every word of discouragement, they moved forward–not because there was something in it for them, but because there was something in it for God, and for their state, and for their country.

But in keeping with the spirit of this campaign, I think that we must face hard truths, and those hard truths include the fact
that, however often this one or that one invokes the unity of our nation, that unity was founded and will only be maintained
upon our allegiance to the principles that have defined our rights, that have defined our character, that have defined
justice for us as a people–those principles epitomized in the great words of our Declaration, which we shall ever respect and
never abandon, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights.”

If I have done but one thing in the course of this campaign, it was done with this purpose: to make sure that from this moment forward, others would move with pride and with courage to stand under the banner of that truth and to invoke in our political life the truth that our rights come not from man, not from constitutions, not from presidents and judges and human choice, but from Almighty God.

And that truth has inescapable consequences–the inescapable consequence of that truth is that it is not our will that is the
standard of justice, that it is not our passion that is the standard of truth, and that it is not our choice that is the ultimate arbiter of the fate of our nation.

We are, as a people in America, like the kings in the Old Testament, like indeed all the sovereigns who have ruled nations
here and there upon the earth–but we are not sovereign as individuals or dictators or tyrants or little elites, we are
the sovereign people.

But even as they were, so we can be, corrupted by those who whisper in our ears that only our passions matter, that only
our desires matter, that only our choices rule.

But those who succumb to those siren-song words of flattery are leading a people down the road of its own destruction.

And that, sadly, is, in America now, the road that we are on.

I will say now, as I have said throughout this campaign, we will not preserve our freedom until we have restored respect
for innocent life in the womb.

We will not rebuild the true strength of our communities and of our schools and maintain the true strength of our economy
until we have learned, once and for all, that we cannot afford to abandon that plan of procreation which is the only
sound basis of marriage and the family. We must stick to our traditions.

And tonight, whatever else may seem to be true, this we know: there are those who are willing to lie to the American people,
to lie to the people of Illinois, and to say, “Alan Keyes stands for traditional marriage, and stands outside the mainstream of public opinion in America.”

But I have news for them all, which we have seen before, and will see again: in every state where this issue is before the
people tonight, they stand with Alan Keyes. They stand with the Republican Party.

And that is why we shall continue. For, we know this truth: that the heart of America is not corrupted, that the
conscience of America is not dead, that even here, here, in what some had called the very depth and heart of corruption
and a lack of integrity, we have found that saving remnant that will continue to move forward, until we have taken this
state back in the name of conscience, in the name of dignity!

Keep faith,

Alan Keyes

posted by Rich Miller
Friday, Nov 5, 04 @ 1:22 pm

Comments

Wow. My brain hurts from trying to merge the concept that Islamic theocracies are bad b/c they often suppress the rights and beliefs of their non-Islamic populations but injecting Christian beliefs and principles into our government is good b/c the ‘Almighty God’ is the ‘ultimate arbiter of the fate of our nation’.

I can’t wait for the new Christian version of Sharia.

Comment by Anonymous Friday, Nov 5, 04 @ 1:57 pm
Gee, going door to door for the GOP slate was a real adventure this year. The name “Keyes” uniformly brought out the worst possible reactions from voters. In my heavily GOP precinct in Lake Forest, his candidacy was a complete disaster. His high profile media campaign clearly made the rest of the GOP look like we were all foaming at the mouth, overly judgmental and extremist fools. Bush and Kirk handily won my precinct. Obama did too. The voters very carefully avoided voting for Keyes.

Unbelievable it truly was. All that hellfire and damnation stuff damned the Keyes campaign.

Its time the silent majority within the GOP spoke up. Those who foisted this disaster on the rest of us need to answer for their actions. Their resignations from the State Central Committee would be a nice start.

Comment by Louis G. Atsaves Friday, Nov 5, 04 @ 3:36 pm
“Its time the silent majority within the GOP spoke up.”

But will they speak up against all cynical, divisive use of religion, including by the current President, or will they just speak up in cases where it is not politically effective.

Comment by Anonymous Friday, Nov 5, 04 @ 4:24 pm
Has anyone noticed the similarities between Keyes and Hitler? Before you laugh it off, think about it. Keyes casts off as evil anyone who disagrees with him. He wants society reformed to fit his narrow view of the world. Then, when he lost the election (27%) he blamed it on the lies of the media and “Republicans In Name Only” who lied and misled the people. Heck, even when he speaks he looks and sounds like Hitler. What a loser. And, yes, Mr. Keyes: I am a Catholic and Jesus WOULD vote for Obama, and NOT you. Jesus was for tolerance and help for the poor. You are not. Get lost.

Comment by CatholicDem Friday, Nov 5, 04 @ 10:48 pm
Like it or not, he is not a party of 1 as we have learned this election. Look at all the southeastern counties in Illinois where Obama lost, and you’ll see this quickly. He is voicing what A LOT of people in this country think and feel. If this were Oklahoma, Keyes may have won handily. We must discover how to counteract ideas like Keyes’. His followers are blind to the associations with Hitler. We probably needed to call him on his lack of compassion, tolerance, and forgiveness a lot more than we did. His people feel empowered by this national election, not discouraged. Let’s work harder to argue vociferously against his ideals and protect Illinois from going the way the country has went.

Comment by Anonymous Saturday, Nov 6, 04 @ 7:35 am
This post has been removed by the author.

Comment by Lance Stevens Saturday, Nov 6, 04 @ 9:31 am