Remarks from NRI’s Regional Seminars.
The following remarks, lightly adapted, were delivered by the author in Chicago on April 11, as part of National Review Institute’s Foundations of Freedom Seminars series on the Importance of America’s Constitutional Pillars.
It’s wonderful to be with you all. Especially good to be with National Review, and I know we’re coming up on the 100th anniversary of the birth of William F. Buckley. I had the privilege of knowing him when I ran a state-policy network right next door in Indiana. I first met him in about 1992 when he came to Indiana, and I became very enamored with him, and he had a huge influence on my thinking over the years, as he likely has for everybody in this room and anybody that might be looking on.
But I’ll never forget when I was a backbench troublemaking conservative in the House of Representatives. Bill Buckley showed up at a reception one night and he spotted me and another one of the conservative rabble-rousers over in the corner, and he ignored all of these important people in the room and he made a beeline straight for us. And I’ll never forget, with that little twinkle in his eye, he leaned over to me and Congressman Flake and said, “And what mischief have you been up to today?” So, we remember William F. Buckley. We remember his principles, but we also remember his incredible gifts for sharing a positive vision for this country. Peter and I were just talking about that; what an extraordinary man.
We gather today at a time that I think America is in crisis. Our borders are under siege, inflation is still wreaking havoc on our economy, crime is plaguing our cities, war tears apart our friends and allies overseas. America seems to be neither feared nor respected at this time in the life of our nation.
But perhaps, as Attorney General Mukasey just suggested, perhaps the most concerning crisis that we face is the assault that’s taking place on our deepest values, on the ideals that have always made our country great, and on the Constitution itself.
In my introduction, Lindsay made reference to the fact that I studied the Constitution in law school at Indiana University. But my love affair with the Constitution actually began much before that. I competed as a mushy-headed liberal-Democrat high-school student in the American Legion speech contest, and I found myself at the Columbus, Ind., library pouring over books about the Constitution. You had to write a speech about it, if you’re familiar with the contest, and then you had to be prepared to answer questions. And I remember in that moment it sparked for me the beginning of an understanding about this charter for our nation and about our Founding documents that I hadn’t previously understood. I love Attorney General Mukasey here, your reference to, “We revere our founding documents, but we treat them” I think you said, “like china that we only get out of the cabinet periodically and carefully.” But I came to understand in those days and when I studied the American Founding in college and then went on to law school in my career, the genius of the American Founding enshrined in the Constitution of the United States.
As Lindsay said, Jim Buckley was right. The truth is that few Americans today have any understanding of the degree to which the Constitution’s safeguards are being whittled away. And I would say that that has been a trend now for some time in America.
And as these new threats emerge to our Founding principles, the Republican Party is struggling to confront them, largely because we’re hamstrung by our own internal divisions. Divisions that threaten to undermine our commitment as Republicans to the Constitution and the republic that it created. We’re seeming to replace the agenda enshrined there that our party has been uniquely positioned to defend, with an agenda fueled by personal grievances and performative outrage. It seems more and more populists on the left and the right would deliberately erode constitutional norms for their own ends and be willing to brandish the expansion of government power if it achieves objectives or prevails upon the agenda of their opponents.
Now, this wasn’t always the case. I think for most of American history both political parties were committed to the ideals enshrined in our Founding documents. But sadly, that’s no longer the case.
We live in a time when leaders in the Democratic Party routinely demean the American Founding. Today, Democrats seek to rewrite the Constitution, the First Amendment, the Second Amendment, to redefine the liberties enshrined in our Bill of Rights. They even created a commission not long ago to make plans to pack the Supreme Court to confront the conservative majority that we were able to mint during our administration. And President Joe Biden himself, I believe, has disregarded his oath of office to see that the laws are faithfully executed at the southern border of the United States of America. It represents a dereliction of duty, and just this week, President Biden announced that he was going to make one more unconstitutional effort, already rejected by the Supreme Court of the United States once, for a multi-billion-dollar so-called student-loan giveaway.
But the truth is it’s not just the Democrats. Even the Republican Party today is increasingly dominated by voices that continue to maintain that I had the right to overturn the election three years ago, that speak about consolidating more power in the executive branch as the antidote to the challenges facing our country, and even would now abandon the cause of the sanctity of life at the federal level.
You know every officeholder in this country takes the same oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic. I took that oath as vice president of the United States. I took it as governor and as a congressman. As vice president, I put my left hand on Ronald Reagan’s Bible and raised my right hand surrounded by my family and took that oath. An oath that I had the opportunity to choose would be administered by Justice Clarence Thomas.
During some tumultuous days in the run-up to the end of the year, I’ll never forget my son, who’s a captain in the Marine Corps, looked at me one day and he said, “Dad, you took the same oath I took.” Nothing else matters. You know the truth is that men and women in uniform at this very hour are deployed all over the world. And when they’re given orders, when they’re given directives, just like the directives in the Constitution that the attorney general just so eloquently described, they don’t get to say to their superiors that that one’s not convenient for me. They salute and they execute the order.
I’ll never forget what the late justice Antonin Scalia said of the Constitution. He said, “I’m doing what I’m supposed to do, which is apply the Constitution. I do not always like the result, very often the result is terrible, but that’s not my job.”
The American people, I submit to you, my fellow conservatives, must know that the Republican Party will always keep our oath to the Constitution, even when it would be politically expedient to do otherwise. The Bible says, “He keeps his oath even when it hurts.” And that’s something I know a little bit about. You know let me be clear, I was humbled by Attorney General Mukasey’s comments, but I know in my heart of hearts I had no right to overturn the election. And I believe by God’s grace we did our duty that day to support and defend the Constitution and see to the peaceful transfer of power. But I believe America needs the Republican Party to be the party of the Constitution. We must make it clear that we’ll always defend the Constitution, because truthfully for all my years dealing with the opposition, I believe if we don’t defend the Constitution without reservation, no one will.
So, I think the essential question facing the Republican Party today is this: Will we be the party of conservatism and the Constitution, or will we follow the siren song of populism unmoored to conservative principles and away from the principles of limited government enshrined in our Founding documents?
I believe conservatives understand that to advance our agenda we must work within the framework that our Founders created in that hot summer in 1787. And the truth is that populists on the left and the right would have us trade in our time-honored principles, our commitment to life and to liberty and limited government, for passing public opinion. It’s not a trade I’m willing to make. It’s not a trade we should ever make in this movement.
As an unapologetic conservative, I believe in a strong national defense, in limited government, and traditional moral values. I believe that must continue to guide our movement as it has over the past 50 years. I also believe that should the new populism of the right take the wheel, conservatism as we have known it will cease to exist and the fate of freedom in America and the West will be in doubt.
The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution are the greatest charters of freedom in human history, proven by the test of time. That’s our heritage. It’s ours to cherish and to protect and to uphold forever more, not just because it’s right, but because it’s been bought at too high a price to do otherwise.
It would be President Ronald Reagan that reminded us the stakes go even beyond our shores in the continued vitality of our constitutional order. President Reagan pointed out there’s many countries in the world that have constitutions but that ours was different, he said, because of three simple words: “We the people.” Other constitutions are written by the government telling the people what they are allowed to do; our Constitution is written by the people telling the government what it can and cannot do. That’s the difference.
Reagan said, “If the American Constitution is ever allowed to fall there will be chaos and anarchy throughout the world.” Ladies and gentlemen, I would submit to you, if I and my fellow Republicans ever lose faith in the Constitution, we won’t just be losing elections; we’ll lose our country. But I have faith that better days are ahead. I truly do.
I spent a little time on the campaign trail last year in places like Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina. I had many people tell me, Ramesh, that the problem with Mike Pence’s campaign is that he was running in a party that didn’t exist anymore. That’s not how I saw it. Whatever the polls showed, everywhere I went people would thank me for standing up for conservative values.
I understand there’s lots of cross-currents in politics today. The abject failure of the Biden administration, the way they’ve weakened America at home and abroad. The undeniable fact that things were better under the Trump–Pence administration. But one should not conclude that the broad mainstream of the American public doesn’t still cherish these core principles, and cherish the principles enshrined in our Constitution.
I always think of that verse of King Solomon’s Prayer when he, at a young age, was vested with responsibility. He prayed that God would give him a “discerning heart to distinguish between right and wrong, for who is able to govern this great people of yours.” What I love about that prayer is that King Solomon knew whom he was, but he also knew whom he served. It’s a great people.
And I can honestly tell you in all my years as a member of Congress, in all my years as governor in Indiana, and all my years as your vice president, my opinion of the federal government has occasionally gone down. My opinion of the American people has always gone up. The American people are the most faith-filled, hardworking, innovative, generous, and patriotic people the world has ever known. We just need government as good as our people again. And we will have it, I believe with all my heart.
So don’t lose faith. Don’t lose faith in the American people and don’t lose faith in their commitment to the principles that we speak about today enshrined in our Constitution.
Let’s each of us leave here today and say, as George Washington said, “the Constitution is the guide which I will never abandon.” I think to the extent that men and women in this country, in my party, and from sea to shining sea stand firm on the Constitution of the United States and the principles enshrined there, the best days for the greatest nation on Earth are yet to come, so help us, God.