Family Research Council
2014 Values Voter Summit
Remarks by Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin (R)
Location: Omni Shoreham Hotel, Washington, D.C.
Time: 4:15p.m. EDT
Date: Friday, September 26, 2014
Transcript by
Federal News Service
Washington, D.C.
(Applause.)
SARAH PALIN: Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you so much. Thank you very much. It truly is an honor to get to be here with all of you and I just want to take some time here to thank you for your boldness, your courage, your ignoring of what the lamestream media does to you and a lot of us so often. You’re strong and America needs you, needs your voice. So, to just get to kind of share some of that, to empower us all and inspire us all, to enlarge our ranks, I want to take the time to thank you. Being here, truly, it is an honor and speaking to Americans who give more and volunteer more and serve more and do all those things behind the scenes that make America so exceptional. You’re the Americans that the media loves to hate, but, you know, I think there – there’s a book out there that maybe some of them just haven’t really understood and in it, it says, consider it pure joy, my sisters and brothers, when you suffer trials of many kinds. And considering the trials that the media dumps on you, this is the most joyful room in Washington. (Cheers, applause.)
Well, with so much going on in the world and in the country – ooh, time is short here for us to do all that we can in order to effect positive change. Time is short. So are you ready to fight back and get back on the right track? (Cheers, applause.) It is time. It’s time. All you mama grizzlies out there, rear up and charge against this lawless imperial president and his failed liberal agenda and the lying lapdogs in the media. And you strong men, it’s time to get off the hind end and expand our ranks and inspire others. I think we’ve all fattened up enough for what’s up ahead. So it is time to stand and fight like your country’s future depends on it, because it does. And take time to rejoice. Rejoice. In two years it’s going to be the end of an error, the Obama error. (Cheers, applause.) All that hopey changey stuff that just did not work, not even a smidgen. (Laughter.) Remember the Greek columns and the stadiums full of fainting fans and all that dream weaver stuff, promising that, ah, the (planet’s ?) going to chill out, remember? And the seas – keep calm, the seas. He’d sink every putt. And you could keep your health care.
But where are we now? Where we are now – we are so over it. We are over the false promises, the messianic oratory and the utopia that man was going to create here on Earth. It’s only us, the little guys, if only we could just understand what they were doing. No, we’re over that and we are ready to get back to work, America, and we are ready to get back to the core values that made America great. The one promise that our president has kept is the one thing that we really must undo to save our country. We did not need this fundamental transformation of America. We need the fundamental restoration of all that is good and strong and free that made America so great. And we must be united. Our core values of courage and fortitude and generosity and hard work, you know, they can actually be what it is that pulls us all together again. All Americans, rich and poor, young and old, men and women. Every race, every background. It’s time to end the politics of division, the left politics of demographics and identity groups and their tactic of distraction. (So ?) the status quo has got to go, united, we will be able to stand. Because here is what they’ve done, these Alinsky-loving, Orwellian, out of touch command and control elitists who’ve been running the show. Well, you know, they used to rail against big brother government and the man. Remember that? They are the man. Their MO is to play the politics of personal destruction against anyone that they would deem a threat to their power. And they distract, bebopping from one scandal after another, knowing that there are so many that you can’t keep up with all of them. So no one’s ever held accountable, from the IRS corruption to you being spied on to, gosh, Benghazi, to bailouts, to, oh, Bush’s war was bad, but Barack’s bombs? Oh, baby, those red lines, the strategery (ph) there that was thought up on the back nine? Barack’s bombs? Oh, they’re the bomb. (Soft laughter.)
Well, goodness sake. Our honored military -- when we talk about these national security issues, our honored military, on behalf of all Americans who do support you -- and we honor you, we respect you -- on behalf of all Americans who feel like I do, to your commander in chief, well, we then will salute him. (Laughter, cheers, applause.) He still hasn’t learned how to salute our Marines.
It is time to end the politics of division of theirs. It is time for the politics of values. And I don’t want anybody to be afraid or ashamed of the core values that we are here celebrating. What are they? Truth is a value. Oh, man, I know all about that difference between truth and the lies that they can tell about you. Well, nearly every day I know my family sees something in the paper that, goodness gracious, we would never have known about us had we not read it in the paper, you know? (Laughter.) Splattered there, New York Times. I learned the other day that I’m in the middle of another divorce. (Laughter.) Or again, the same divorce, I guess, I don’t know. Oh, I read it. It must be true.
A picture ran of -- in a liberal blog. That’s where it started, just a blog. It was a picture of me after a workout, and I didn’t have a ring on. Well, I rarely wear a ring, especially up in Alaska. You know, it’s chopping wood, or you’re butchering a moose or something. It’s -- jewelry gets in the way, so we just don’t.
But, you know, and by the way, what the heck business is it of the liberal haters anyway? Why are liberals so intolerant? Who cares, you know? (Applause.)
So I’m out in the shop with Todd, and he’s winterizing his snowplane. By the way, he sends his very best. He’s not able to be here because it is moose season and -- it’s true, and he had one more flight to conduct, so he’s out there. He’s winterizing the plane, and I’m helping him. I’m (chapping ?), you know -- and I caught the headline that was that day in the media. And Todd and I, we’ve been together since high school, so I predict what he’s going to say. (Inaudible.) So this time, after reading the headline about a divorce, he says, yeah, responding like, is it the same that they wrote last time? Is it still that same $20 million divorce? Well, write me the check. (Laughter.) It’s kind of tragic to say it, though, but -- well, at this point, what difference does it make? We are used to it. (Laughter, applause.) Well, yeah. Sure as the sun will come up tomorrow, we expect it.
And, see, you too, though. You’re there to -- that’s something we have each other’s back. We connect through this, because it is what happens to you, too. The lies that they tell about you, calling you the intolerant one, the haters, the bigots? Oh, and that disgusting charge of being racist? You know, I’m speaking to the most slandered group in America today. Well, join me in telling the lamestream media, then, that we wear your scorn with pride. You -- the lies that you tell about us, well, you can’t defeat our arguments, so all you can do is change the subject. So we win. (Applause.)
And pulling that race card, pulling the race card, how much longer do you think they’re going to -- oh, it’s just -- it’s not even smart. It’s not even smart, when one simply wants our government to live within its means and to not tax us to and beyond death, not to mortgage our kids’ future, and that being for today’s selfish wants. Because of that, we’re racists? Well, what isn’t smart is when they try to slap that on Colonel Allen West and Dr. Ben Carson and – (laughter) – J.C. Watts and Rafael and Ted Cruz – (applause) – and my husband, Todd Palin. Yeah, no, those truly prejudiced folks – just remember this – they scream racism just to end debate.
Well, don’t retreat: you reload with truth – which I know is an endangered species at 1400 Pennsylvania Avenue anyway, truth. The media’s favorite president, he just can’t stop telling lies. (Laughter.) You know, he just said that the Islamic State, ISIS, isn’t Islamic. (Laughter.) You know who that is news to? The Islamic State, who calls themself the Islamic State. (Laughter.) And it’s news to thousands and thousands of Muslims who’ve joined their death cult. So if the Islamic State wasn’t Islamic, well, why does it have such appeal around the – you guessed it – the Muslim world? And like Jonah Goldberg asks, well, if they aren’t, then why do we give them Korans when we imprison them? (Laughter.) Right. And – right, yeah, just like those pre-planned “hey, heads up, it’s coming!” terrorist attacks that are now only caused by YouTube.
Well, look, Americans can handle the truth. In fact, we crave the truth. Ignorance and deception, they are the enemies of democracy. So we can end this error.
And by the way, we can survive this president. The question is, can we survive the people who voted for him a second time? (Laughter, applause.) It’s the truth that will set us free.
And freedom, that’s another value. Under the three strikes – Obama, Pelosi, Reid – the nation’s business is shackled to repression and to debts and corruption. Well, for instance, their most powerful agency, the IRS, decides that independent Tea Party Patriots, all of a sudden, they’re the enemy of the people. And IRS decides it needed to know the content of pro-life groups’ prayers, and it would conduct two years of massive, burdensome audits of the most loving, giving families in America: our adoptive parents they would audit. They were targeted. The one population that – to most closely examine and to harass and to intimidate by our government? They’re the people who would extend their hearts and their homes to love the orphans and the downtrodden and the helpless. How about that IRS?
How about this, IRS? To advance liberty and justice for all, when you target Americans, right back at you, we get to target you. Do you think it’s time to abolish the IRS? (Cheers, applause.)
Well, what can you expect, though, from a dense liberal elite that now decides who’s going to have religious freedom and who doesn’t? Well, Americans, we crave liberty and we kiss our sons and daughters in uniform goodbye and Godspeed to go fight for it. Freedom, if you love it, thank a vet. And for those of you who have served, I love being able to point you out even if you get embarrassed, and I love to ask you to stand up, you vets, so that we can honor you – we can salute you and thank you, United States military. We love you! (Cheers, applause.) We love you. (Applauds, cheers, applause.)
It just gives me goosebumps. Liberty and justice for all, you secured it for us. And you encourage America’s finest to hang in there and keep fighting for it.
So liberty and justice for all, even for those whom we would disagree with, right? Because it’s an inherent, God-given passion and a need to be free. He created us with that drive to be free. And, friends, we in this room -- we know it. We live it. We are the liberty movement. We the people -- you -- men and women serving in the military -- and look at the representation of our military here in this room -- you have secured the movement that liberates all United States citizens to dream and to think and to believe and to do, and God put dreams in you. You’ve got to get them. That’s how you live life vibrantly with no regrets. And you need freedom to do that.
We’re not afraid of liberty because we know that in a free and open debate, well, our common sense, ethical fair ideas -- they win. But that’s why they’re afraid. They’re desperate and divisive at Value Voters -- they are because you are their threat. You value life, you value equal opportunity, and it scares the bejesus out of them because they know that they can’t argue against those things.
Finally, it is courage that is a value. And this is a time of courage. You’ll be able to hear more about Meriam Ibrahim, as she, the Sudanese Christian who refused to renounce her faith and, with her life on the life and her children’s life on the line -- the anchor held for her, and she explained that her faith was her strength. She was literally in chains (for the gospel ?), you know. She was forced to give birth in chains. And she became a testimony for the rest of the world to see what real courage is. It is her strength coming from God, and she’s not hesitant to share that with the world. I’m so thankful that this group will take the time to honor her this weekend.
And also -- (applause) -- that is so admirable -- and also, we have our fellow American pastor, Saeed -- remember -- and I’m sure that you’ve heard over the last couple of years, because this is his two-year anniversary in being imprisoned -- still imprisoned in Iran just because he’s a Christian. He won’t renounce his faith either. He shares moving letters now, changing lives. And they’re coming from his prison cell, and they’re letters that every free American should read so that we won’t take for granted what it is that we have here with our freedoms.
His courage and Meriam’s -- now, this is seen throughout the world as Christians facing this deadly wave of persecution -- driven from their homes -- those being sold into slavery. They’re marked for death in this full-scale ethnic cleansing that’s happening right before our eyes, yet they stand firm. Their anchor holds, and the least that we can do is stand with them with courage.
So friends, the accuser would say that you are the divisive ones. That the media -- trying to say that our basic core values divide. But how can truth and liberty and opportunity and courage and life -- do they divide? Only under screwed up, Orwellian leadership would they be considered as something to divide.
Don’t be ashamed to proclaim your values and to live them. We are the movement that says yes -- yes to time-tested truths, great virtues, great values. And approaching elections, we’re going to support great leaders that are hammering out and working so hard at that restoration agenda to break this country again from a failed liberal agenda -- defeating crony capitalism and respecting and supporting, again, our armed forces so that we may have peace -- peace through red, white and blue strength -- and to value the sanctity of innocent life, where children are not seen as disposable and babies as punishment as our own president referred to -- now, children are the best ingredients in this messed up world. Why in the world would you want to get rid of them? (Cheers, applause.)
So we’ll support leaders who are not afraid of truth, and we’ll fight for it as ones worthy of a great nation.
So, value voters, don’t let them get you down, OK? America needs you, needs your energy, your confidence, your voice. And we do need to expand our ranks. So go not as prophets of doom and fear, but as messengers of vibrant life and real hope. We are value voters, and our values were our Founders’ values. They are America’s values. And our message is the message that America wants to hear and needs to hear.
So as we fundamentally restore America, keep faith in that. Keep faith in the American Dream and share it, because the message resonates, and it has since that band of brothers dumped tea in Boston Harbor. We can be optimistic, as they were. We can be optimistic about the future of our one nation because we’re under God. (Applause.) So stand up and stiffen your spine. The best is yet to come.
Value voters, thank you for what it is that you do and what you put up with. God bless you, and God bless the United States of America. Thank you. (Cheers, applause.)
(END)