Campaign Statements — American Exceptionalism
Wednesday February 22, 2012
“But because now we have accepted now for 10 years that we’re allowed to start war, we call pre-emptive war, preventive war. Well, that’s an aggressive war. I believe in the Christian just war theory that you have to morally justify the wars in defense. Now, if we’re defending our country—and we need to defend, believe me—with men and women will be in combat and defending our country, and that’s the way it should be. But when it’s an offensive war, going where we shouldn’t be, that’s quite a bit different. So it’s the foreign policy that needs to be examined.”
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CATEGORIES: American Exceptionalism | Ron Paul | War on Terror |
Monday January 23, 2012
“Look, English is the language of this nation. People need to learn English to be able to be successful, to get great jobs. We don’t want to have people limited in their capacity to achieve the American dream because they don’t speak English. And so encouraging people through every means possible to learn the language of America is a good idea.
Recognize at the same time we want people coming here from other cultures that speak other languages. That strengthens America. It’s a great thing. But having them learn English is also a great thing for them and for their kids.”
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CATEGORIES: American Exceptionalism | Immigration | Mitt Romney |
Monday January 23, 2012
MODERATOR: “Why is it OK for you to court voters in Spanish, but not OK for the government to serve them in Spanish?”
NEWT GINGRICH: “Well, first of all, you immediately jump down to a very important language, but not the only language. The challenge of the United States is simple. There are 86 languages in Miami Dade College, 86. There are over 200 languages spoken in Chicago.
Now, how do you unify the country? What — what is the common bond that enables people to be both citizens and to rise commercially and have a better life and a greater opportunity?
I think campaigning, historically, you’ve always been willing to go to people on their terms in their culture, whether it’s Greek Independence Day or something you did for the Irish on St. Patrick’s Day. And I’m perfectly happy to be on Radio Mambi, and I’m perfectly happy to have a lot of support in the Hispanic community.
But as a country to unify ourselves in a future in which there may well be 300 or 400 languages spoken in the United States, I think it is essential to have a central language that we expect people to learn and to be able to communicate with each other in.”
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CATEGORIES: American Exceptionalism | Immigration | Newt Gingrich |
Monday January 16, 2012
“The right course for America is to recognize we’re under attack. We’re under attack by people, whether they’re Al Qaeda or other radical violent jihadists around the world, and we’re going to have to take action around the world to protect ourselves. And hopefully we can do it as we did with Osama bin Laden, as opposed to going to war as we had to do in—in the case of—of Iraq. The right way, Congressman Paul, in my view, is—to keep us from having to go to those wars is to have a military so strong that no one would ever think of testing it. That’s the kind of military we have to have, and we have to pursue our interests around the world.”
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CATEGORIES: American Exceptionalism | Iraq | Islamophobia | Mitt Romney | War on Terror |
Monday January 16, 2012
“Nobody believes that bin Laden was sitting in a compound in a military city one mile from the national defense university and the Pakistanis didn’t know it. Now…We’re in South Carolina. South Carolina in the Revolutionary War had a young 13-year-old named Andrew Jackson. He was sabred by a British officer and wore a scar his whole life. Andrew Jackson had a pretty clear-cut idea about America’s enemies: Kill them.”
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CATEGORIES: American Exceptionalism | Newt Gingrich | War on Terror |
Monday January 16, 2012
“Here we have a nation that we are becoming constantly trying to kill people who we consider our enemies. At the same time we are giving the government of Pakistan billions of dollars. Now there’s a civil war going on, the people are mad at us but yet the government is getting money from us and I think it’s a deeply flawed policy. But to not go after [Osama bin Laden]—and if I voted for the authority, obviously I think it was proper. But once they waited ten years, I don’t see any reason why they couldn’t have done it like they did after Khalid Sheikh Aman (ph). And that would have been a more proper way.
If somebody in this country, say a Chinese dissident come over here, we wouldn’t endorse the idea, well, they can come over here and bomb us and do whatever. I’m just trying to suggest that respect for other nation’s sovereignty—and look at the chaos in Pakistan now. We are at war in Pakistan, but to say that I didn’t want him killed…”
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CATEGORIES: American Exceptionalism | Ron Paul | War on Terror |
Saturday January 07, 2012
“You cannot cut $1 trillion from the Department of Defense budget and expect that America’s freedoms are not going to be jeopardized. That, to me, is the biggest problem that America faces, is a president that doesn’t understand the military and a president who is allowing the reduction of the DOD budget so that he can spend money in other places, and it will put America’s freedom in jeopardy.”
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CATEGORIES: American Exceptionalism | Rick Perry | War on Terror |
Saturday January 07, 2012
“We’re facing a very dangerous world. And we have a president now who unbelievably has decided to shrink the size of the military. Who unbelievably has said, for the first time since FDR, we’re going to no longer have the capacity to fight two wars at a time.”
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CATEGORIES: American Exceptionalism | Mitt Romney | War on Terror |
Saturday January 07, 2012
“The Iranian people love America because we stand up for the truth and say—and call evil, which is what Ahmadinejad and the mullahs are, we call evil what it is. That’s why they admire us, because we tell the truth.”
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CATEGORIES: American Exceptionalism | Iran | Mitt Romney | War on Terror |
Tuesday November 22, 2011
“We need to bring Pakistan into the 21st century—or the 20th century, for that matter, so that they—they can engage throughout the world with trade and with modernity…We can do a lot better directing that to encourage people to take advantage of the extraordinary opportunities the West and freedom represent for their people.”
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CATEGORIES: American Exceptionalism | Mitt Romney | War on Terror |
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Looking at Iran by James Zogby
Kahlil Gibran Awards Gala - April 16, 2013
