GOV. JINDAL ADDRESS TO VALUES VOTER SUMMIT: PRESIDENT OBAMA’S “DITHERING HAS MADE AMERICA WEAKER AND THE WORLD A MORE DANGEROUS PLACE.”
Last week, Governor Jindal addressed the 2014 Values Voter Summit in Washington D.C. The Governor discussed President Obama’s silent war on religious liberty, the fight against Common Core and federal overreach in education, and the importance preserving the American dream and protecting the bedrock foundation of American culture. Governor Jindal also criticized President Obama for his dithering in dealing with the terrorist threat overseas and for not believing in American exceptionalism. Below are portions of Governor Jindal’s remarks as prepared for delivery. These are just prepared remarks, Governor Jindal will speak off-the-cuff for large sections of the speech.
The Governor’s speech is available for viewing here: http://www.valuesvotersummit.org
Excerpts:
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Everything in Washington is politics and political slogans. A few years back, Bill Clinton ran for president with the slogan: ‘It’s The Economy, Stupid.’
The point was that economic concerns are really all that matter. While the economy is important, and the campaign won, I think this is a flawed view of America. Every political strategist tells candidates to focus almost exclusively on economic issues. I disagree.
They think the key to a strong America is economic strength and our democratic system of governing. Here’s what I believe: As America’s culture goes, so goes America. Not – ‘It’s the Economy, Stupid,’ rather – ‘It’s the Culture, Stupid.’
Now don’t get me wrong, I’m all for capitalism and a strong economy. But capitalism and free enterprise will FAIL in a country where people don’t respect the rule of law, don’t care for each other, and don’t share a common view of the dignity of all mankind as God’s creation. Culture matters.
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Democracy only works when it can rely on the bedrock foundation of a culture where people share a common commitment to do the right thing and play by the rules. Otherwise, democracy could simply become the will of the mob. American success relies on a healthy culture.
A culture that admits that some things are right and some things are wrong. A culture that respects life, honors the dignity of every individual, and honors the values of our Judeo-Christian ethic.
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If our culture is sick, capitalism, democracy and military might will not save us. The countries of Western Europe have weakened themselves by adopting a secular worldview that pushes matters of faith to the side.
I have no interest in seeing America go the way of Europe. As for me, I believe… ‘It’s the Culture, Stupid.’
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Now I want to talk to you a little about something that has been troubling me lately--the Obama administration’s attempts to redefine the American dream.
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When you listen to this president talk about the American dream, it sounds a lot like envy and redistribution, blaming people for being successful, more government spending and managing the slow decline of America.
I don’t know about you, but that is not the American dream my parents told me about - An America where we are forever young, an America where our best days are ahead of us not behind us, an America where circumstances of your birth don’t determine your outcomes as an adult.
My dad used to tell me, anybody could become president. Unfortunately, in 2012, we learned how true that is.
We must not be the first generation that mortgages our children’s future and leaves them fewer opportunities than we inherited from our parents.
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After eight years of the most left wing president in history we are planning to leave nothing but debt for our children. The left is in the process of redefining and, thereby, killing the American dream.
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Speaking of a federal overreach, … some of you may have noticed I acted to get Louisiana out of the Common Core. We filed suit against the federal government.
We sued President Obama’s Department of Education for violating federal law and the Tenth Amendment by trying to force federal education policy on the states. Common Core is the latest effort by big government disciples to strip away state rights and put Washington, D.C. in control of everything.
And it has turned into a scheme by the federal government to nationalize curriculum. These are big government elitists that believe they know better than parents and local school boards. The federal government’s actions are in violation of the Constitution and federal law, and we will continue to fight to protect local control of education. We won’t let the federal government take over our education standards.
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This brings me to another matter of great concern– the Obama Administration is waging a silent war on our religious liberty. The Obama Administration is waging an assault on your freedom of expression in all areas of life.
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For those of us who believe in an Almighty God who created the universe and loves us personally, our faith guides us every day: in what we will do and in what we will not do. But this war on religious liberty is going to continue because of an idea, a wrongheaded concept: that religious freedom means you have the freedom to worship, and that's all. Your religious liberty begins and ends in the pew.
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Speaking of rank incompetence – how about President Obama admitting he had no strategy for how to deal with the rise of the ISIS threat in Iraq and Syria? The sad part about this statement is that it wasn’t a gaffe, it wasn’t like the words just came out of his mouth wrong. The reality is that President Obama really had no strategy for how to deal with this threat, and he was happy to declare that to the world.
A year ago, President Obama called ISIS a ‘junior varsity’ team – downplaying the threat. Then ISIS starts beheading Americans, and the president gets up and gives a naïve and weak response.
All of this means that President Obama has made the world less safe. ISIS has grown strong because President Obama ‘hoped’ ISIS wouldn’t grow strong. He was wrong.
President Obama has been pulled tooth and nail to finally do something to confront ISIS. For months, he seemed to do everything he could to avoid engaging. This is a pattern for President Obama.
Let’s take a step back and look at the bigger picture of President Obama’s foreign policy. President Obama does not believe in American exceptionalism - the belief that the United States, because of its strength, visibility and historical commitment to freedom and human dignity, has a unique and distinct leadership role to play in the world.
Often, his knee-jerk reaction is to blame America for problems overseas. President Obama and the modern left have it backward. They believe a strong American military invites war. They have it exactly wrong. A weak American military invites war.
A strong American military is the world’s best opportunity for peace. I realize that the 'citizens of the world' that run the Obama Administration will find this concept to be unsophisticated, but it is the truth. Sometimes the truth is simple and unsophisticated.
President Obama wants the world to listen to his feel-good speeches and bend to his worldview so the U.S. will never need to engage militarily again. Unfortunately, evil exists in the world we live in. ISIS is that evil, and this horrific group should have been confronted and completely eliminated long ago.
It seems in the past few weeks President Obama has finally realized there is evil in the world that cannot be reasoned with and must be destroyed. I am glad he is finally acting, but his dithering has made America weaker and the world a more dangerous place.