WASHINGTON (ABP) — About 2,000 of America's “values voters,” described by some as a disgruntled constituency, gathered in Washington, D.C., Oct. 19 to be wooed by the Republican presidential candidates.
The three-day event came the same day Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback announced his withdrawal from the presidential race, citing a lack of funds.
Brownback, who attended the event despite dropping out of the race, was welcomed as a hero by many in the crowd, who gave him several standing ovations. He spent much of his speech at the “Values Voter Summit” talking about his stances on abortion and gay marriage.
Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, summed up the event's overriding theme in his opening address. The freedoms of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness don't come from government at all, he said; they come from the Creator.
That view underscores the difference between conservatives and liberals, several speakers suggested. And the preservation of those values is far too important to be trusted to politicians alone, they added.
Perkins, whose group was one of the event's sponsors, told the crowd that social issues like heterosexual-only marriage are not partisan issues or even governmental issues. Marriage between a man and a woman is an institution set up by God that must be “enshrined” in the Constitution, he said.
Speakers framed the next election as coming down to fundamental differences of philosophy and worldview — rather than politics and semantics — between conservatives and liberals.
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, a Southern Baptist, said in his afternoon address that “our liberal, secular friends don't understand” that “our rights come from our Creator, and if we forget to go to our Creator, we are going to lose our way, inevitably.”
“The No. 1 lesson which makes the American people different from the politics of the news media of Washington is that this is a country that is sick and tired of [partisanship] and wants red-white-and-blue solutions,” he said.
Organizers invited all major GOP and Democratic presidential candidates to the event. The sponsors' conservative views on sexuality, abortion rights, sex education, illegal immigration and other issues may have discouraged Democrats from attending. No Democratic candidates accepted the invitation.
Conservative views on such family issues are “the most basic and essential component of any civil society,” Arizona Sen. John McCain told attendees.
“Values are the ideals we hold dear and are best protected by reviving virtues that are often in short supply in the political arena,” the candidate said. “They're the self-evident truths proclaimed and defended in our founding documents….”
The consistent message of the gospels calls Christians to recognize that all life is sacred because all human beings are created in the image of God, he added.
Brownback said his focus on that life is “for the future, for the culture [and] for the family.” The way to ensure future generations are strong and productive is to eradicate abortions and gay marriage, he said.
“May I suggest to you that God has laid on our hearts two great things: the end of abortion and the renewing of American culture,” he said.
Fred Thompson (R-Tenn.), who appeared on stage with his current wife, Jeri, and their young daughter, echoed Perkins' statement that basic rights come from God alone. The Constitution was based upon those concepts, he said.
“The federal government can't cure everything that's wrong and shouldn't even try,” he said. “But we all have a pulpit. We all have a pulpit, and the greatest pulpit of them all is the presidency of the United States, and I will not be afraid to use it.”
Some religious conservatives have criticized Thompson in recent months for saying he doesn't attend a church near his home in McLean, Va., and doesn't like to talk about his personal faith on the campaign trail. Nonetheless, the summit crowd gave him loud ovations when he said he didn't know what he'd do in the first 100 days of his presidency, but he knew what he would do in the first hour.
“I would go into the Oval Office and close the door and pray for the wisdom to know what was right, and I would pray for the strength to do what is right,” he said.
Perhaps the most fiery orator of the opening sessions was Tom Tancredo, a congressman from Colorado. During his speech, Tancredo, who called himself an “unapologetic conservative,” said America is in a bad state because “our enemies are psychopaths and our allies are the French.”
He spoke vehemently against granting what he called “amnesty” to illegal immigrants — “the first part of illegal immigration is illegal” — and called Miami a “Third World country.” Tancredo added, quoting Theodore Roosevelt, that America's communities are turning into “polyglot boardinghouses.”
America is the last best hope of Western civilization, Tancredo said. “This is our culture. Fight for it. This is our flag. Pick it up. This is our country. Take it back.”
He left the stage to the largest standing ovation of the day.
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