“I truly believe that your support for my candidacy is critical to the destiny of America. And that is why I have thrown my hat into the ring in the fight for the Republican presidential nomination... We can no longer follow leaders for whom the moral challenge facing this nation is an afterthought...Politicians unwilling to confront the killing spirit of our times declare their moral cowardice and forfeit the right to lead...Our political leaders today neither recognize nor care sufficiently for our national liberty, identity, and purpose. Yet dedication to this Providential purpose is, I believe the heart and soul of what it means to be a conservative and A Republican...I can't promise you that Alan Keyes will be the next president of the United States. But I can promise that were going to raise the standard high in this country and were going to make it so clear and so unequivocal that we will be like a lightning flash across the landscape of American depravity, and we will show the way back home. If we will work together, pray together, struggle together in this cause, then we will ultimately win a victory for America. We will make this a country where the heritage of real freedom survives for our children and our grandchildren for as long a God determines that we shall exist upon this Earth.

That is why I have entered the presidential race, and why I urge you to support me in this crucial campaign.” -Alan Keyes

Core Beliefs Based on ‘Unalienable Rights’

Before I can give you my position on various issues, I must first make clear how I approach thinking about those issues.

I believe that we face what is essentially one moral challenge which manifests itself in many areas. Simply stated, that challenge has to do with the corruption of our understanding of freedom, which leads to the abandonment of respect for law and individual responsibility, the twin pillars which ought to undergird true freedom.

As a free people, our way of life depends upon certain moral ideas. As a matter of personal conscience, I believe that Christianity most perfectly embodies those ideas.

But since Americans come from many different religious backgrounds, in dealing with issues of public policy we must derive these ideas from sources that are open to support from all the people.

Nothing meets this purpose more completely than the principles and logic of our own Declaration of Independence, so I have made it the explicit basis for dealing with the moral crisis we now face.

The Declaration is fundamentally a statement of the principles of justice that define the moral identity of the American people. It presents a certain concept of our human nature and draws out the political consequences of that concept,

All human beings are created equal. They need no title or qualification beyond their simple humanity in order to command respect for their intrinsic human dignity, their "unalienable rights."

The purpose of government is to secure these rights, and no government is just or legitimate if it systematically violates them.

But the Declaration is more than just an assertion of rights. It also makes a clear statement about the ultimate source of authority which commands respect for those rights. God, the Creator, the author of the laws of nature, is that source.

Thus the effective prerequisite for human rights is respect for God's authority and His eternal laws. This is also the prerequisite for the idea of government based upon consent, which includes free elections, representation, due process of law, etc.

If we accept the logic of our Declaration of Independence, this reverence for God is not just a matter of religious faith. It is the foundation of justice and citizenship in our Republic.

Therefore, our freedom is derived from our respect for law, especially the highest law as embodied in the will of the Creator. Thus rightly understood, freedom cannot be confused with mere licentiousness. It first of all involves the duty to respect its own foundations in the laws of nature and nature's God. That's why our rights are "unalienable" which means that we do not have the right to surrender or destroy them by our choice or actions.

Indeed, if we make the judgment that our rights are being systematically violated, we have the duty to resist and overthrow the power responsible. This duty involves both the judgment and the moral and material capacity to resist tyranny.

These concepts constitute our character as a free people, which it is our duty to maintain.

After conception, life in the womb is in this respect no different than life outside the womb. We are, therefore, obliged to treat the human being, once conceived, with the same respect that we demand for ourselves. Except where necessary to save the physical life of the mother, abortion is the unjust taking of a human life and a breach of the fundamental tenets of our public moral creed.

Now if we kill ourselves or consent to allow another to do so, we both surrender and destroy our right to life.  We act unjustly and usurp the authority that belongs solely to the Creator. Thus we deny the transcendent base of our claim to human rights.

That's why a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution, with barriers to both borrowing and spending, is the way to secure budget discipline. A good place to start would be to abolish the income tax. Fiscal sanity and moral revival go hand in hand.

The First Amendment prohibition of established religion aims at forbidding all government sponsored coercion of religious conscience. It does not forbid all religious influence upon politics or society. The free exercise of religion means nothing if, in connection with the ordinary events and circumstances of life, individuals are forbidden to act upon their religious faith.

As President, I would do everything in my power, through public speeches and persuasion, by proposing legislation, and by careful scrutiny of the candidates for judicial appointments, to turn the tide against constitutional interpretations that undermine religious freedom. I oppose any efforts to use government power to impose views that contravene religious conscience on matters such as homosexuality and abortion.

If we equate sexual orientation and race, we are saying that sexual behavior is beyond the Individual's control and moral will. We cannot embrace such an understanding of civil rights without denying the human moral capacity, and with it the fitness of human beings for life in a free society. The effort to equate homosexual and lesbian relations with legal marriage represents a destructive assault on the heterosexual, marriage-based family.

I strongly favor school choice approaches that empower parents to send their children to schools that reflect the parent's faith and values. We not only need prayer in schools, we need schools that are in the hands of people who pray. Above all,  we must break the government monopoly an public education.

Black leaders should address the moral decay that has resulted in the breakdown of the two-parent family. Statistics show that today only 36 percent of black children grow up in two-parent families.

When there is such an acute moral crisis in this country, defending affirmative action is a waste of time and energy.

Where U.N. treaties are concerned, we should proceed with extreme caution. One glaring example is the U.N. Treaty on the Rights of the Child, which is the most explicit assault on the authority of parents and the integrity of the family we have ever seen. We absolutely never should ratify it.

Our military forces are not fit subjects for questionable social experimentation. Military preparedness, not political correctness, should be the top priority.

Who is Alan Keyes?

Alan Keyes is a...