Centennial Review - October 2013

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Centennial Review - October 2013

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Principled Ideas from the Centennial Institute Volume 7, Number 9 • October 2013

Publisher, William L. Armstrong Editor, John Andrews

LET’S FORGE A NEW CONSERVATIVE GENERATION
By Allen West
What a rush it is to be with this wonderful group of freedom-loving, God-fearing American patriots. Though only in its fourth year, the Western Conservative Summit has already become the country’s premiere summer destination for Americans who still believe in freedom, family, faith, and the future.

Secular progressives like Obama, Reid, and Pelosi seek to divide this country along the artificial cleavages that they create. Don’t be tricked into playing their game. As conservatives, we believe in unity, E Pluribus Unum. We believe that we are all God’s children. Colors that Unite I’m proud of my black heritage and the history of achievement of blacks in America. I’m proud of the way my parents raised me. But I am and will always be an American first. Conservatives believe that the colors that matter aren’t on our skin, but on the flag. We believe that the only colors worth an ounce of sweat, a pint of tears, or gallon of blood are red, white, and blue. 
We believe in those colors because they unite. Liberals believe in color that divides, as we have recently seen evidenced in the Trayvon Martin tragedy.

This is the conference of the West. Of the frontier. Of people who hacked a nation out of the wilderness and didn’t need Washington to tell them how to do it. Of Take it from this black conservative. Nothing freaks out people who put their faith in God and not the liberals more than the prospect of black Americans federal government. ‘E Pluribus and other minorities liberating themselves from We are here because we believe that the United years of government dependence. States needs a strong national defense, a robust Unum’ still Nothing sends them into a frenzy more than free-market economy, and that the individual holds. strong, conservative Hispanic leaders like Ted is sovereign. We believe in a government that Cruz, Raul Labrador, or Susana Martinez. Nothing makes keeps its power restrained within the four corners of the them more crazed than principled black leaders like Mia parchment of the U.S. Constitution. Love or Vernon Parker. Government is not God Immigration Realities Loving your country is one thing. But loving government Take the immigration debate going on in Washington, is another. And skepticism of a strong central government D.C., as we speak. Too many Republicans have been is one of the great American traditions. Because when browbeaten into thinking that unless amnesty is given to you start choosing government, and not God, you start lawbreakers—those who have disrespected the laws of our believing some nutty things. constitutional republic by entering illegally—Latinos will Here’s what I mean: If you believe that the words never vote for us again. Not me. I believe what Reagan “separation of church and state” are in the Constitution, said: Latino voters are Republicans, they just don’t know but the right to bear arms isn’t—you might be a liberal. If it yet. you believe in the right to choose an abortion, but not the size of your soda—you might be a liberal. If you believe in getting government out of the bedroom, unless it’s taxpayer-subsidized birth control—you might be a liberal. And if you believe that Barack Obama can lower the ocean seas and “heal the planet,” you must be a liberal.
Allen West was a congressman from Florida, 2011-2013, after completing a 22-year career in the U.S. Army with the rank of lieutenant colonel, decorated for valor. This is based on his closing talk at Western Conservative Summit 2013, July 28 in Denver, where he placed third in the 2016 presidential straw poll. Centennial Institute sponsors research, events, and publications to enhance public understanding of the most important issues facing our state and nation. By proclaiming Truth, we aim to foster faith, family, and freedom, teach citizenship, and renew the spirit of 1776.

Allen West from the paintbrush of Benjamin Hummel. For all the Summit 2013 speakers on a Hummel T-shirt or poster, go to CentennialCCU.org.

From every corner of the world, there are people who want their first step on American soil to mark a new beginning, not a broken law. If you are an immigrant who dreams of this land of the free and home of the brave, and wants to come here respecting our laws and way of life, I say to you: welcome!

After all, we are people of faith and people of love. We are people of community and people of fellowship. Our politics, at every turn and every angle and in every issue, should reflect that. To be a Christian means walking the path of Christ. We all talk about getting our fellow citizens off the government’s dole. Well, we can talk, or we can walk. Who here has the courage to act like Christ, instead of simply talking like Christ? Who here has what it takes to volunteer in an inner-city neighborhood, to help a child out of poverty? Just look at the liberal progressive failure in Detroit. Who here has the courage to adopt an abandoned infant? We don’t need to go to other countries to find children who need a loving family and a chance to live the American dream. Who here has the guts to get out into those Latino communities and tutor English? That is how we make English our national language. Dystopian Vision Barack Obama says if you attack big government, you’re attacking the very idea of democracy and pluralism. But wait. Wasn’t it the liberal progressives and their special interests who sued to overturn the marriage referendum of the people of California with Proposition 8?

Conservatives have always been on the side of the impoverished fleeing tyranny and seeking liberty. And I can’t imagine how difficult it is to legally emigrate to America. But that does not give anyone the right to break the laws of this great nation. Waving the magic wand of amnesty, rewarding lawbreakers and punishing the long lines of freedom-seekers outside our shores is not the American way.

Here’s a government that tells us what sugary drinks we Liberals pride themselves on some funny things, like can buy, what light bulbs we can have in our house, what getting busload of non-citizens past election officials. I kind of doctor we’re allowed to visit, what say, give it right back to them. Let’s us be the Who has kind of toilet or showerhead we can put in ones standing outside citizenship ceremonies our bathrooms, what type of business we’re with open arms. what it allowed to run. Walk our Talk I don’t want to hear that conservatives can’t compete with liberals who are willing to take your tax dollars to leverage votes. That’s the height of foolishness because it assumes the government is actually competent. Wrong. Government is good at only two things, levying taxes against the productive and redistributing it to their cronies. Conservatives have far more to offer than government cheese. If we can match our actions to our principles, we’ll have a conservative supermajority for decades.

takes?

Oppose all that silliness, and Obama says you hate democracy. Oppose that, and you might find yourself with an unexpected audit slip from the IRS.

But remember, it was conservatives and Tea Party activists that won back the House of Representatives. Elections have consequences, and those conservative congressmen and women that you helped to elect are now all that stands between the progressives and their dystopian vision of amnesty and a new, imported class of government dependents who will vote for them.

CENTENNIAL REVIEW is published monthly by the Centennial Institute at Colorado Christian University. The authors’ views are not necessarily those of CCU. Designer, Bethany Applegate. Illustrator, Benjamin Hummel. Subscriptions free upon request. Write to: Centennial Institute, 8787 W. Alameda Ave., Lakewood, CO 80226. Call 800.44.FAITH. Or visit us online at www.CentennialCCU.org. Please join the Centennial Institute today. As a Centennial donor, you can help us restore America’s moral core and prepare tomorrow’s leaders. Your gift is tax-deductible. Please use the envelope provided. Thank you for your support. - John Andrews, Director
Scan this code with your smartphone to read this and previous issues online. Centennial Review, October 2013 ▪ 2

The influx of freedom-loving libertarians is a great thing for the conservative movement. But we have got to stop attacking each other and start focusing on our common adversary, progressive socialists. Conservatives and libertarians have to stop playing checkers and start playing chess. Opportunity or Dependency? One great issue on the chessboard is the breakdown of the American family. In 1964 at the inception of LBJ’s Great Society, only 7 percent of American children were born out of wedlock. Now, over 40 percent of American children are. If you look at the breakdown by race, the results are even more striking. The white out-ofThe family wedlock birth rate was just 2 percent is breaking in the 1964. Now it is almost 30 percent. Among black Americans, it down. was 14 percent in 1964, 72 percent now. One of every two Hispanic children is born out of wedlock. Yet the inescapable truth that is if you graduate from high school, wait until you are married to have children, and hold a full-time job, you are significantly less likely to end up in poverty. So there is a direct link between the breakdown of the American family, the increase in poverty, and the increase in government dependency. As Reagan often said, the family has always been the cornerstone of American society and the launch pad of opportunity. But the liberal progressives do not want us to promote an opportunity society; they prefer dependency. Nearly 50 million Americans are now on food stamps. That is a 70 percent increase since Barack Obama became president. Along with the worst economic recovery since the Depression—more and more people dropping out of the job market, giving up. That’s Barack Obama’s America. One nation, underfed. One nation, under-employed. One nation, underprivileged. And the great lesson of Obama’s two elections: One nation, underwhelmed. My friends, how about we bring back “One nation, under God”? Energy for the Taking One of God’s blessings is that we’re a nation overflowing with natural resources, with Americans hungry for both jobs and the energy needed to power this first-world economy. On the one hand, millions of people out of work, and energy costs skyrocketing. On the other hand, an abundance of oil and shale and natural gas and unlimited workers ready to pull it out of the ground. All we have to do is take it.

Voi ces of CCU WHO HIJACKED ENVIRONMENTALISM? By Greg Walcher Americans have done more to improve their environment than any people who ever lived. Yet our concern for the environment is now being used against us. The conservationist impulse has been hijacked by a huge industry of dishonest money changers whose agenda has little to do with quality of life and everything to do with power.
As a result, the United States is becoming the first country ever to purposely plan and direct its own decline. Melodramatic? No. Our nation is actually adopting official policies promoting a lower standard of living for future generations, literally encouraging our people—through taxes, regulations, and higher prices—to use less energy, travel less, live in smaller and less comfortable homes, give up their cars, and eliminate many other modern conveniences. No nation has ever even considered such a future, much less made it public policy. But the prevailing ideology now decrees that free enterprise is selfish, that prosperity is unequal and thus unfair, and that our people must stop much of their production and consumption—because our pursuit of the good life is allegedly destroying the environment and perhaps the Earth itself. An “us-against-them” mentality has replaced the once-universal support for environmental protection with contention and confrontation. Every day we see ordinary folks denied the right to use their own property, mysterious endangered species used to stop human activity, public access to public lands increasingly limited, even law-abiding citizens hauled into court and accused of outrageous violations. You and I can begin taking back the high ground on these issues by a fundamental shift in thinking, based on one simple premise—we should improve our environment every way we can. We must promote programs that are demonstrably better for the environment than the present regulatory overkill—better in a hands-on, resultsoriented way. Greg Walcher is a Centennial Institute fellow and a former director of the Colorado Department of Natural Resources. He will speak at CCU on Nov. 18 about his new book, Smoking Them Out: The Theft of the Environment and How to Take it Back.
Centennial Institute
Colorado Christian University

Centennial Review, October 2013 ▪ 3

Centennial Review
October 2013

Centennial Institute
Colorado Christian University 8787 W. Alameda Ave. Lakewood, CO 80226
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Let’s Forge a New Conservative Generation
Western Conservative Summit delegates gave a dozen standing ovations to the fiery former congressman as he talked straight about national security, the family, race, poverty, immigration, intrusive government, and energy policy. Inside are Benjamin Hummel’s quirky art on p. 2 and Greg Walcher’s environmental insights on p. 3.
By Allen West

We’re not limited by technology or lack of manpower or supply. You know what’s standing in our way? Barack Obama and his EPA. Less government regulation allows for more innovation and job creation. We

We develop incredible new technologies like Russia rising and China militarizing, with a time for With hydraulic fracking. We create jobs using the North Korea threatening to fire rockets in new technology, which in turn spurs investment choosing. our direction and Iran going nuclear, with the and brings down prices for families who need Middle East on fire and the threat of Islamic to heat their homes and drive their kids to school. You radicalism spreading to all corners of the globe—Barack and I understand this—the president and his misguided Obama cuts money for our military, so he can spend it on progressive acolytes do not. more Solyndras, more food stamps, and Obamacare. Military Meltdown There is one more thing that worries me most of all. Right this moment, we’re witnessing the systematic dismantling of the incredible American military that Reagan built. Barack Obama loves all kinds of spending, unless it’s on our armed forces. Oh, he’ll commit them to battle in places like Libya, and he’ll hog credit for the daring and courage of our Navy SEALs. He’ll use the military as a political pawn to force conservatives to tax and spend more, and as a petri dish for every little social experiment he wants. What he won’t do is give them the resources and support they need to finish their mission and come home to us safe. Rendezvous with Destiny

When Americans were under attack by Islamic extremists in Benghazi, they called for help and no one answered. And in these times we must ask, can we even face respond?

Enough of this progressive poison. It’s time for the next conservative revolution. Once again, it’s a time for choosing, just it was when Reagan burst upon the national stage with his 1964 speech by that title. It’s time for the rendezvous with destiny that he talked about—the destiny that defines the greatness and exceptionalism of this constitutional republic, our America. Let’s stop talking and start walking. Let’s live up to the faith and courage of Psalms and the wisdom of Proverbs, and let our spirits be lifted high, known to all men, all women, all Americans, all of our allies and in all corners of the globe. Let’s forge a new conservative generation that guarantees the American dream for another 200 years. n

Sharpen Your Worldview Worldviews, Calling & Culture is a Colorado nonprofit helping Christians discover their calling and assisting the formation of groups to develop biblical solutions for societal problems. We sponsor the Colorado Centurions Program, in partnership with the Colson Center for Christian Worldview and Colorado Christian University. Learn More at WvcallingCulture.org

Become a Centurion Centurions is a year-long course of adult learning that prepares you to navigate today’s culture with a Christian perspective. Becoming a Centurion will help you gain confidence in applying biblical truth to every aspect of your life—becoming more like Christ in how you think and act. To join the 2013-2014 class, contact us at Breakpoint.org/Centurions

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