dramatically. dramatic pro growth set of tax cuts and one reason we know if president trump is elected he could pass that. his plan looks a great deal like the other 16 republicans who are running and the house and senate plan. there is unity on the center right on what pro growth tax reform looks like. it would be a very quick piece of legislation to pass and turn this economy around. hillary would continue the problems we have had. another thing at stake in this election. that's the sharing economy or the gig economy. you have heard of uber, air bnb. new ways people are self-employed. there are 400,000 people who work for uber. a third are full time. others on top of whatever else they are doing. doing it between jobs. it is tremendous flexibility.

hillary made it clear she would make that illegal. 400,000 people at uber and others at lyft and other companies. air bnb, letting people stay at their house to make a mortgage, a way for families to support themselves. that would be illegal. why? in her words she wantss to crack down on independent contractors. the theme of the election is that hillary clinton wants you to have a boss. she doesn't like self-employed people. they can't be made to pay union dues. they cannot be as easily taxed as employees. you get general motors to give you one big check for everybody. they collect union dues. that, hillary understands. a country where hundreds of

thousands of people are doing things and taking care of families and making a living doing what they want to do when they want it, they don't punch a clock and get paid on an hourly basis or that job one time and another job another time. the flexibility. the new economy has given, hillary wants to take us back to the 1920s or 30s, back when the labor unions had control of workers and treated them like serfs and everybody was an employee and there was a boss. she missed this transformation. it used to be energy workers in the united states who dug into the ground to get oil and natural gas out of the ground were spat on by the liberals. i'm from massachusetts. i heard them all day prior to emigrating to the united states i lived in massachusetts. there was contempt the liberals

poured out for energy producers. that made some sense when everybody in the business lived in texas, louisiana, alaska, they don't have electoral votes, republican states so you had hatred to those workers. fracking, making it easier to get into oil and gas that's in between levels of shale is now -- where? colorado. ohio, swing state. pennsylvania, swing state. not so funny anymore, mrs. clinton. sanders said he would ban fracking. i'm not sure how presidents do that. he was sure he could. most of it is on private or state land.

she said there are few places fracking would exist if she were president. her words. she declared war on the interesting part of economic growth in three swing states. she wants a tax on guns urging you to go to the group that i run put up called high tax realliry.com. there isn't time to go through all the tax increase she won't tell us how much because the numbers aren't clear. she wants to tax stock trading so people won't trade in new york. they will do it in london. that's a smart move. she wants an exit tax.

she must have plans for how ugly it will get that first thing you want to do is start putting up border guards to make sure people don't leave. she called for a tax on guns to go after the second amendment. i would suggest her position on gun owners, families that want to take control of their own self-defense, are similar to her views towards people in the energy industry. she learned about this a long time ago. and she's older, okay? when she was a first lady, 1 million people had concealed carry permits. today, 13 million americans have active concealed carry permits. [ applause ]

13 million people. it was 3 million or 4 million in the middle of the '20s. it's growing very rapidly. that is a voting block of people who have made a decision to take care of themselves, and their families. they don't take kindly to the idea that hillary says she wants fewer gun owners. that she wants to deliberately tax them and regulate them, harass them, so that they are not able to make those decisions for themselves. and a couple of numbers, if you're counting, florida, 1.5 million conceal carry permit, active conceal carry permits. 1.1 million in pennsylvania. think of the map. these are swing states. 450,000 ohio. 650,000 in michigan. 300,000 in wisconsin. swing states. i believe that by going after

the sharing economy, new technology economy, she is on the wrong side of history, on wrong side of the economy, the wrong side of the future by going after the second amendment, she makes the same decision. by deciding to tax anything and everything that moves. she's reminded people that her interests is in funding the state, not taking care or working with the american people. ladies and gentlemen, high tax hillary.com, check it out, see what the latest atrocity is. and vote. thank you. [ cheers and applause ] >> ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to the stage the president of the iowa faith and freedom coalition, steve schefler. [ applause ]

>> it is my honor and my pleasure at this time to introduce a friend and a mentor that i've known for many, many years. and i know a lot of us may take him for granted. but ralph reed has the keenest political mind in this country. he came to iowa, even after i'd known him for several years, and talked about having affiliation with the national faith and freedom coalition. after he laid out the plan and all that has been done since then in our great state of iowa, making us a force to be reckoned with, i can't say enough about this organization. they've done more than any other nonprofit organization to move the political needle. so without any further ado, my

great friend and my mentor, ralph reed. [ applause ] >> thank you very much, steve. how are you all doing? are you having fun? good. are you looking forward to hearing from donald trump a little bit later this morning? [ cheers and applause ] well, we have just two more speakers left. we put carly fiorina right before donald trump. we thought that was creative scheduling. they get an opportunity to interact as one was leaving and the other was coming. and we're really honored to have them, senate majority leader mitch mcconnell, the other speakers that we've had already this weekend, senator chuck grassley, many others. senators, congressmen, congressional leaders. make no mistake about it, as important as they are, the most important people in this room, and the most important attendees this weekend are you.

and the reason why, my friends, is because 150 days from now, over 130 million americans will go to the polls to choose a new president. and the pressing question this weekend is not who we are for, the most pressing question is who stands with us. and more importantly, who shares the values and the convictions and the beliefs that beat in the hearts and give meaning to the souls of millions of americans for whom their faith in almighty god and their personal relationship with christ is the most important reality in their lives. that's the question that we want answered this weekend. and the verdict that we will render in 150 days will not be only about the candidates. it won't be only about their character, and their qualifications.

because by our voices and our deeds and ultimately by our votes, we will reveal our own character in ways that are both intentional and in ways that are not. you see, this election is not just a window into the soul of two candidates for president. it is also a mirror held up to the american people. that reflects our character and reveals what we believe. the french philosopher joseph demattery said, every nation on earth has the government it deserves. that is a pretty sobering truth. particularly given the government that we have right now. and to that point, you know, tony perkins said earlier, it isn't just a situation that we rely on politicians to solve, because there is a spiritual malady that ails our nation and our people as well. i was recently at a function on criminal justice reform where a

judge got up to speak and said that in the 6,000 cases that had come before him of offenders whose violations were being adjudicated before his court, he said, how many of those 6,000 individuals do you think came from a home where the father and mother were both present in the home and where that individual had a high school diploma. he said that the answer was 16. not 16%, 16. if we have particularly young

men and particularly young men in the inner cities and in other places that are hopeless where jobs have left, without both a mother and father present in that home, and without the ability to read and write and without the ability to compete and get a job, if we allow that to continue, then, my friends, we have asked for and we will receive social chaos like we have never seen in american history. no matter who we elect. [ applause ] a year ago, at this same conference, we had 15 candidates for president who addressed the road to majority conference. this year, there will only be one. and it was not the one that most of the pundits expected to be here this weekend. i can assure you. and unlike a lot of our friends on the other side, we're not looking for a political ma sigh a. because we already have a messiah.

we don't need to find one in the political arena. [ applause ] you see, we understand that perfection is not the measure that should be applied, not only to any political leader, but to any man or woman. because in all of recorded history, there has only been one perfect person who walked on this earth. and he wasn't a candidate, and he wasn't a political figure, his name was jesus christ. [ applause ] and wherever he went, if you were blind, you saw. if you were hungry, you ate. if you were thirsty, you drank. if you were lame, you walked. it is his name that is above every name, and it is he, and he alone, who is the ruler of the nations. not any king, not any prince, and not any president.

[ applause ] you're going to hear a lot this weekend about the strength and importance of the evangelical vote. but let me tell you one truth. the most important truth, that you're not likely to hear in the analysis of what we're going to do this fall. and that is, that we are christians first, we are americans second, and we are members of a political party third. and we don't forget the order of those three. [ applause ] we follow a man who by his words, by his life, by his ministry, and ultimately by the passion that he demonstrated, by hanging on a cross for us, the ultimate symbol of shame and

humiliation. jesus taught that humility is the first step on the journey to spiritual redemption. he taught that the first shall be last, and the last shall be first. and that the meek, not the proud, would inherit the earth. one of the first bible verses i ever committed to memory as a teenager was paul's words to the first letter that he wrote to the church at corynth. he said god has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise. and he has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong. that, by the way, if you're looking it up is 1 corinthians, not 2 corinthians.

but neither the world of politics nor the world of media is known for its humility. and in spite of that, there have been an awful lot of people who have had to eat humble pie in the past year. because every week, really every day, the press and the pundits assured us, and then insisted, and then demanded that the leading candidate would implode and go away. to their surprise, and then to their shock, and ultimately their outrage, that candidate's appeal spanned the spectrum and only grew stronger. perhaps that is why chesterton once said, i prefer to predict

the outcome after the event. [ laughter ] and perhaps most surprisingly, the one that left them scratching their heads more than anything, is that he did so with the votes of men and women of faith. because the 2016 republican primaries saw the largest turnout of voters of faith in modern political history. going into tuesday, and the california primary, there were 25 million votes that had been cast in the republican primaries. that was 10 million more than were cast just four years earlier. there were 21 million votes that had been cast in the democratic primaries. that was 4 million votes lower than when hillary clinton and barack obama squared off eight years ago. that is a flip of 14 million votes in turnout. [ applause ]

14 million. and on the republican side, half of all the voters who shadowed, darkened the threshold of a voting booth since the primaries began in early february, self-identified as born-again evangelical christians. that means 5 million of these new voters were evangelical christians. if just these voters alone who voted in the primaries turn back out again in november, they alone represent more than barack obama's entire margin of victory in 2012. [ applause ] now, what that means is that the most dynamic, the most vibrant, and the most important single

constituency today is the evangelical vote. in fact, according to a 2014 survey, by public opinion strategies, not an exit poll per se, but one conducted after people had finished voting, that night and early the next morning, they found that 32% of all the voters who voted four years ago were self-identified conservative christians. about 23% were evangelicals. and about 10% were faithful, frequently mass attending catholics. my friends, that is bigger than the union vote, the african-american vote, the hispanic vote, the feminist vote, and the gay vote put

together. just that one vote. [ applause ] at faith and freedom coalition, our goal in 2016 is to turn that vote out in even larger numbers. we will distribute 35 million nonpartisan voter guides in over 117,000 churches, and houses of worship all over this country. [ applause ] we will make 15 million phone calls from phone banks and other volunteer centers. we will send 20 million e-mails and text messages to 7 million voters of faith in key battleground states, like florida, ohio, pennsylvania, iowa, wisconsin, colorado, and others, and every one of them will get a text message on the day early or absentee ballot voting begins in their state.

and if they haven't turned in their vote by election day, they'll get another text message that includes a map that they can click to that sends them directly to their polling location. [ applause ] and if they haven't voted by 4:00, we're going to go to their house in a car, or on a bike, or in a van, and we're going to get them to the polls. we will knock on over 1 million doors in just the states that i mentioned. now, why are we going to do this? i'll tell you why. we're going to do it because we dare not sit on the sidelines during what i believe is the most important election in our lifetimes.

there are some who counsel timidity and retreat. and they recommend that people of faith retreat to the cold comfort of a stained-glass ghetto, and decline to muddy our boots with the mire and the muck of politics. but that is not an option for followers of christ. you see, we're called to put away our "my way or the highway" pride, to forsake cynicism, to reject negativism, to engage fully, always cheerful, always ready to make a positive case for our faith. and in so doing, address the hard moral choices that providence has presented to us in our time, in our eternal mission of advancing good and resisting evil. there are some, you've heard them on the radio, you've seen them on tv, you've gotten their e-mails, who say that this election is just a choice between two deeply flawed candidates who simply represent the lesser of two evils, and,

therefore, as men and women of conscience, we really have no stake in the outcome. my friends, the exact opposite is true. and if you go back and you look at what ronald reagan said when he addressed the national association of evangelicals in 1983, in one of the darkest days of the cold war, a struggle that many predicted we not only could never win, but they believed we were fated to lose. and he said this, and i quote, beware the temptation of pride, the temptation of blythely declaring yourselves to be above it all. and label both sides equally at fault. he said to simply declare a pox on both houses, and, quote, thereby remove yourself from the struggle between right and wrong, and good and evil was inconsistent with our faith.

now, reagan spoke about the arms race and the struggle between soviet communism and western democracy. but he could have been talking about the great evils that you and i face in our own time. consider the following. the most common surgical procedure in america today is not an appendectomy, it's not heart surgery, it's a procedure called abortion that takes the life of an unborn child in its mother's womb. and today one out of every three pregnancies in america ends in abortion. that is an unspeakable tragedy. and yet one candidate supports abortion on demand for any reason at all, or no reason at all, including for sex selection, and including when the child can survive outside

the womb. she even said, just a few months ago on national television, and i quote, the unborn person doesn't have constitutional rights. she said the right to life, and again, i quote, is not something that exists. today, as donald trump is preparing to address the faith and freedom road to majority conference, hillary clinton is a few blocks away speaking to planned parenthood, paying them back for their endorsement in the primaries, and pledging her support to not only the largest abortion provider in the western world, but also an organization that has been found in violation of multiple state and federal

laws, including trafficking in field tissue, including medicaid fraud, and is currently under investigation by the u.s. congress, and i don't want a president who owes their presidency to an organization like that, not now, not ever. [ applause ] or take the institution of marriage. the most time-honored institution in the history of western civilization that is the foundation of our civilization. it has been redefined by five votes on the u.s. supreme court, an act of judicial fiat as brazen as any that has occurred in our history, and if overturned with the stroke of a pen, not only federal law, but the laws and state constitutions of 37 states, one candidate for

president says they agree with that decision. in fact, after she resigned as secretary of state, her first statement on any matter of public policy was not about terrorism, or national security, it wasn't about genocide or health care or the economy, it was a statement in which she came out in support of redefining the institution of marriage, which she once called in a speech on the senate floor, and i quote, a sacred bond between a man and a woman. now, my friends, our dear departed friend justice antonin scalia's untimely death has created one of the few vacancies on the supreme court that has ever occurred in an election year. one candidate released a list of the kinds of jurists that he would choose from to fill that vacancy. including many conservatives and originalists and constitutionalists.

make no mistake about it, this fall, not only is the presidency on the ballot, but the supreme court and the federal judiciary are on the ballot, and the supreme court ultimately decides, sadly, just about every issue we care about, whether it's life or marriage or religious freedom or obamacare. you choose it. partial birth abortion ban, the first ban on an abortion procedure since roe v. wade upheld by the supreme court in a 5-4 decision. the hobby lobby case which protected the right of closely-held businesses and corporations to not be compelled to violate the conscience and trample on the faith of christians and other people of faith, that decision, a 5-4 decision.

today we have a 4-4 evenly divided court. we need a president who will ensure that the current vacancy caused by the untimely death of antonin scalia will be filled by someone who respects the rule of law, and will not legislate from the bench, and will view themselves as operating under rather than over the constitution of the united states. [ applause ] secretary clinton was the leading architect and the leading foreign policy figure in an administration that drew a red line in syria, and then refused to enforce it, an action or more accurately an inaction that has led to the death and slaughter of 300,000 innocent

civilians. an administration that has presided over the rise of isis in iraq, an isis affiliated of a terrorist government controlling some of the most important parts of libya, the worst refugee crisis since world war ii, a russian reset that has led to the seizure of crimea, and the strangling of ukraine, and the most sus systematic struggling of the jewish state since 1947. other than that, it's been a pretty good record. in addition to that, secretary clinton, we now know, began the secret negotiations that has led to a nuclear deal with iran that will allow the mullahs and the madmen in tehran to gain access not only to the most advanced

ballistic missile technology in the world, but also, the nuclear weapons to be delivered by those missiles, threatening israel, intimidating moderate arab states in the middle east, and ultimately threatening our homeland. now, that in brief is the choice that faces us. that's what's on the ballot come november. on the sanctity of life, on religious freedom, on support for israel, on marriage, on the confirmation of a new justice to the supreme court, and on whether or not we're going to actually enforce the iran nuclear deal, this is what's on the ballot.

and we can't escape that choice that is before us. william wilbur force, who led the battle to abolish the slave trade and ultimately to abolish slavery in great britain, died a month before parliament passed legislation that banned and eliminated slavery in all the territories of the british empire. he died just a month before the greatest political triumph of his entire career. he knew something about hard choices in a fallen world. in talking about the different personalities and leaders that led that great struggle, wilbur force said this. he said, we all have different forms assigned to us in the school of life.

different gifts that are imparted by god to each of us. all is not attractive that is good. iron is useful, but it does not sparkle like a diamond. gold is valuable, but it does not have the fragrance of a flower. so different persons have different modes of excellence. and we must have an eye to all. how many of you know that we serve a mighty god who uses imperfect people, including every one of us to achieve his perfect will. [ applause ] amen? [ applause ] so when the final 150 days, let's pray like we've never prayed before, and work like we've never worked before, to achieve not our will, but his will for the greatest country the world has ever seen. the country we love, the united states of america. thank you all very much. god bless you, and god bless all you're doing. [ applause ] >> ladies and gentlemen, please

welcome the president of concerned women for america, penny nance. [ applause ] >> so great to be here with you. and i ask for the honor to introduce one of my heroes, carly fiorina. [ applause ] yeah. now, we know a lot about her already. we learned so much early on about her rising from being a secretary from a little real estate company, to becoming the first ceo of a fortune 20 company. we learned that she is a survivor of breast cancer, and

of deep suffering, the loss of a child. and we learned, and many of us who know her, know she has a deep personal faith in jesus. but the other thing that we didn't know, and we've learned in watching her in this political cycle, was what great dignity she brought to this election process. [ applause ] it was so encouraging to see her deep command of the issues, particularly foreign policy. and how deeply she understood the complexities of energy and the economy. and so much that she brought to the debate system. we were so proud of her as we -- as mothers, we got to watch her example for young women, and our young women for america leaders, as they're coming up and watching their mentors.

now, unlike hillary clinton, she refused to play the gender card. she stood on what she knew to be true and her principles. and she took on the issue of planned parenthood head-on. [ applause ] and they worked so hard against her. she took them head-on in the debate, talking about their selling of little baby parts, and their butchering of one in every four abortions in this country. but i'm so grateful for her. and i'm so grateful for the great dignity she brought to this election process. and carly, many of us weren't able to vote for you when it came time for us to vote, but let me just tell you, every single one of us are proud of you. and grateful for your principles. thank you so much. and join me in welcoming carly fiorina. [ cheers and applause ] >> hello! how are you! so great to be with you.

thank you so much. thank you. it is wonderful to be back here at faith and freedom. you know, wow, we've had quite a week this week, huh? so, first we had mrs. clinton claim inevitably the nomination. and, you know, i was interested to see that she rolled a movie with many suffragettes, and women who had struggled before her. what was interesting to me is so many of those suffragettes would have disagreed strenuously with hillary clinton, but they also would have defended her right to disagree with them. i bring this up, because unfortunately, feminism is no longer a term that's used to enable or empower women. it turns out to be in so many people's eyes, and hillary clinton's eyes, kind of a way to bludgeon people into a left-wing litany of causes. let me say to every woman and girl out there, don't let anyone tell you what to think. don't let anyone tell you who to vote for. don't let anyone tell you what you should believe.

[ applause ] i've had a lot of women from the left tell me that i'm an enemy of women. because i'm pro-life. well, you know what? here's what i think feminism is. i think feminism is when every woman has the opportunity, just like every man should have the opportunity, to use every single one of their god-given gifts and live the life they choose. whether that is home schooling their children, or becoming a ceo. and mrs. clinton, news flash, i'm a feminist and i'm not voting for you. [ cheers and applause ] now, the week also brought something else. we now know we have, you know, proud progressives locking arm in arm, elizabeth warren, bernie sanders, barack obama, hillary

clinton, they're all going to go lock arms and go talk to america about their progressive vision. and while they like to talk about progressivism in terms of people that they're trying to help, free education, whatever it is, you know and i know what progressivism really is. progressivism really is the collection, the concentration of power in too few hands, so that too few people tell the rest of us how we're going to live our lives, what opportunities we're going to have in front of us, what we should think and what we should do. progressivism, pure and simple is the tyranny of the few over the many. [ applause ] it is what our founders feared

most, actually. it is one of the reasons they wrote the constitution, to prevent the concentration of power. i will return to that in a moment. but when we think about those proud progressives locked arm in arm, speaking to americans all across this great nation, we know this fight matters. this is a fight that we must win. but you know, ladies and gentlemen, how we win matters. our faith tells us that a victory at all costs is no victory at all. our faith tells us that the ends do not justify every means. and so it's important for us to remember as we wage this battle, for the future of our nation, who are we. what do we stand for. you know, george washington in his farewell address to the nation warned us about the rise of political parties. he warned us that political parties, he didn't quite use

this analogy, but what he was saying to us was that, you know, political parties can become like sports teams. and root for the guys with your jersey on them. and he said to us in his farewell address, that parties could become so concerned with winning, that they would forget about governing. that they would forget about the ideas and the values and the principles that matter. we must not forget our values, our principles, our policies, and our ideas, because they matter. we need to win the right way. [ applause ] as i want to talk to you today about who we are, and what we believe, because i think in times of consequence and danger. and these are most definitely times of consequence and danger.

it's important to remember who we are. and to do that, i actually have to start somewhere way far away. i need to tell you a story of an experience that i had in january of last year, january of 2015, in the slums of new delhi, india. i was in india, because prior to running for the presidency, i was chairman of a couple major charities in this country, one of which is called opportunity international. opportunity international is a christian-based organization. it is the largest microlender in the world. we have lent $8 billion, $100 at a time, and lifted millions of people out of abject poverty. i was in new delhi, india, to run a global board meeting. at the conclusion of that board meeting, i wanted to go visit with some of our clients. and so i traveled to the slums. now, i don't know if you've ever been in the slums of new delhi, but let me tell you, they are grim places. mountains of trash, marauding animals, sewage in the streets, people piled on top of each

other. and as i climbed a rickety ladder to get to a rooftop to meet with ten of our clients, i steeled myself to see desperation in their eyes. the desperation of the circumstances that i saw all around me. and yet, when i looked in these women's eyes, they were all women. i did not see desperation. i saw focus. i saw determination. i saw pride. i saw hope. i saw women who now, because of the tools, the training, the support, and yes, the loan that we had given them, they realized, i can make something better of my life. i can build a life of dignity and purpose and meaning for myself. every single one of us needs someone to take a chance on us. i sure did. i needed somebody to take a chance on me many times in my life, starting a long time ago

when i was a secretary. typing and filing and answering the phones for a nine-person real estate firm. every single one of us needs someone to give us a helping hand. maybe more than several times in our life. i sure have. most especially when we buried our daughter to the demons of addiction. every one of us needs someone to take a chance on us. every one of us needs someone to give us a helping hand. yet every single one of us is gifted by god. has potential, usually far more than we realize. and what we had done for those women is say, you have potential. you are gifted by god. you can build a life of dignity and purpose and meaning. now, why do i start in india to remind us of who we are? because a long time ago, my mother said to me, in sunday school one morning, what you are is god's gift to you, what you make of yourself is your gift to god.

i have learned in the course of my life that each of us are truly gifted by god. every one of us has more potential than we realize, and even people in desperate circumstances have gifts upon which they can rely, and from which they can build lives of dignity of purpose and meaning. i also know this, having traveled and lived and worked all over the world for decades, it is only in this nation that a young woman can start out the way i did, typing and filing, in the middle of a deep recession, go on one day to become the chief executive of what we turned into the largest technology company in the world, and run for the presidency of the united states. that is only possible in this great nation. [ applause ] and the question, ladies and gentlemen, the question for us is why. because it is the why that is at

stake now. if everyone is gifted by god, why is it that in this nation, more things have been more possible for more people from more places than na where else on earth, and it continues to be true. no, we are not a perfect nation. but we are an exceptional nation. because this is a nation of possibility. it has always been so. why? you know, i studied history in college. maybe that's why i had to start as a secretary. [ laughter ] our founders were students of history, too. and they knew what anyone who studies history comes to learn. human nature doesn't change. times may change, places may change, culture may change, but human nature doesn't change. our founders knew two fundamental things about human

nature. number one, they also knew that everyone has potential, that everyone is gifted by god. and so they built a nation on an incredible idea. it was actually radical at the time. the idea they built this nation on in our constitution is here, everyone has a right to life, to liberty and the pursuit of happiness. those were their words for saying each of us have the right to find and use our god-given gifts and fulfill our potential. and the radical part of that idea was they said that right comes from god. and cannot be taken away by man or government. the constitution protects our rights. and our liberties. but they wrote the constitution for another purpose as well. you see, they knew what you learn over and over again when you study people and you study history, power concentrated is power abused. [ applause ]

power concentrated is power abused. and so while the constitution protects our individual rights and liberties, it is also true and liberties, it is also true that the constitution is a recipe for avoiding the concentration and abuse of power. it is why the federal government's powers are enumerated. it's why the constitution is very explicit. if this isn't a federal government job than that power rests in the citizens' hands of this great nation and communities and states, not with the federal government. [ applause ] 80% of the american people, 80% have figured out the federal government is in their words, incompetent, corrupt, and way too powerful. what ails us in this nation is too much money and too much power concentrated in the hands

of too few. you know, when i ran for president, i met some incredible people. and the thing that breaks my heart, the thing we have to remember as we fight this fight, is i saw too many people who had a look of powerlessness in their eyes. they did not look to me like those women in india. i have looked into the eyes of coal miners as they have seen their jobs, families livelihoods, their communities destroyed by an overreaching government and they wonder why is my government doing this to me? i have had veterans proud, strong, fighting men who come up to me with their tears in their eyes and tell me they feel powerless to navigate through the byzantine bureaucracy of the veteran's administration and to get the care they have already so richly earned. i have looked in single moms'

eyes who are trying to raise a couple kids and say i want to move forward in my life but every program of dependence tells me to fall back. or parents' eyes who wonder why they can't give their children the education they know they deserve. no one in america should feel powerless and too many americans do feel powerless because power has gone to the wrong place. too much power is concentrated in the hands of too few people and the progressives want to concentrate even more. ours, ladies and gentlemen, ours was intended to be a citizen government of the people, by the people for the people. that is what our founders intended and we must stand for that citizen government. we must not be the party that concentrates power further, instead we must be the party. we must be the warriors who say no, power must be released out

of the hands of the people in this city and returned to citize citizens, to families, to small business owners, to communities and states where it belongs. [ applause ] to do that, to restore citizen government, we have to be empowering people up and down the bounty, which is why i'll spend so much time between now and november making sure we have good conservatives up and down the ballot. each of us as citizens, this is our fight. this is our fight. we can't hand it off to politicians, it's our fight for our nation. and how we win and what we stand for matters. i have to tell you another story. this one took place in new york city. maybe about a year ago now. i went to interview with the view, the ladies of the view. we have to talk to people who

don't yet know they agree with us, right? that's how you win. now, my second interview with the view turned out to be a public brawl with whoopi goldberg about whether or not planned parenthood was harvesting body parts for profit. she called mead a liar as so ma others. my first interview was a little more friendly. i was having a chat with rosie perez and we were talking with vladmir putin and a meeting i had with him. we're having this chitchat and she said you know, carly i really like you. she sounded surprised, honestly. and then she said to me, you know, i'm not a republican. i said wow, rosie i'm shocked. and then she said why are you?

why are you? and ladies and gentlemen, this is the question we have to answer to win. and so i said, rosie, i'm a conservative. because i know that every single one of us is gifted by god, all of us have the capacity and the desire to live lives of dignity and purpose and meaning. and all throughout time, work if done well brings us dignity family brings us purpose and faith brings meaning to our lives. i know our policies principles look better fto lift everyone u regardless of their circumstances. progressives believe some are smarter than others. some are better than others. so some are going to decide for others and choose for others this is not what this nation can stand for. that's why i'm a conservative. [ applause ]

ladies and gentlemen, we are the party of lincoln. lincoln stood on a bloody battlefield not so far from here. and challenged his fellow citizens to fight so that a government of the people by the people and for the people will not perish from this earth. that is our fight. as citizens and conservatives. we know that each of us are gifted by god, that all of us can live lives of dignity and purpose and meaning and we know that it is only when the power, the opportunity, the right to fulfill your own potential and use your god given gifts to build the life you choose, only when we do that, will we have made this the nation that lincoln challenged us to fight

for. when we say the pledge of allegiance, i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation undergod, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. think for a moment about liberty and justice and what they tell us about who we are. i think every day, actually, about lady liberty. think about her. she stands tall and strong, which is the way america must always be. she is clear eyed and resolute. she doesn't shield her eyes from the realities or the evils of the world. she faces proud and strong into the world. because she knows she is not simply one nation among many. she is an exceptional nation above all. and that is why she holds her torch high. because she knows she is a

beacon of home in a troubled and tragic world. and a reminder that everything is possible. think about lady justice. she holds a sword in her hand. because she's a fighter. she's a warrior. for the values and the principles that have made this nation great. she reminds us that each of us must be fighters and warriors as well. this is our nation. this is our future. this is our fight. she holds a scale in her other hand. and with that scale, i think she is reminding us all of us are equal in the eyes of god. all of us must be equal in the eyes of law and government powerful and powerless alike. and she wears a blindfold. with that blindfold she reminds us it can be true. it should be true it must be

true in this country. in this century. that it doesn't matter what you look like. it doesn't matter how you start and it doesn't matter your circumstances. it doesn't matter who you are. here in this nation, every american's life must be filled with the possibilities that come from their god given gifts. and we can only achieve that when we restore a citizen government of the by and for the people. that is what we must fight for. god bless you, ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much. [ applause ] with the political primary season over, cspan's road to the white house takes you to this summer's political conventions. watch the republican national convention starting july 18th with live coverage from cleveland. >> we'll be going into the convention no matter what happens and i think we're going