Editor, John Andrews

Principled Ideas from the Centennial Institute

Volume 9, Number 8 August-September 2014
Publisher, William L. Armstrong
This is
America
at its best.
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I am delighted to be here with you
in beautiful Denver. Like so many
things about the mountain west, the
Western Conservative Summit truly
represents America at Its Best.
Were here because we share a
commitment to the fundamental
dignity of all human life. We love
this great country, and we care about
its future.
Were together this weekend to celebrate American
exceptionalism and discuss the most pressing challenges
facing us today. This is what America looks like at its best.
What makes America exceptional isnt the
genius of a few wise men. Its the attitude
of ordinary citizens, stubbornly committed
to defending their God-given right to self-
government. These are our unsung heroes.
They are men and women who may not have
commanded armies, won wars, or inspired
generations, but who embody the distinctly American
mindset that insists every individual has the freedom to live
his own life and the duty to help his neighbor.
Why Levi Preston Fought
Im talking about great Americans like Levi Preston, who,
at the ripe young age of 21, left his home in Danvers,
Massachusetts, to join the minutemen in their fght against
the British redcoats in the Battle of Concord.
Decades later, he was asked by an historian why he went
to fght that day. The historian wanted to know which of
the intolerable oppressions imposed by the British had
compelled Preston to action.
Was it the infamous Stamp Act? I never saw one of those
stamps, Preston replied. Perhaps the much-reviled tea tax?
I never drank a drop of the stuff; the boys threw it all
overboard.
What about the great thinkers of the era, maybe he had
been reading Harrington or Sidney and Locke about the
Mike Lee, Republican Senator from Utah, won ofce in 2010 in a Tea
Party upset. His law degree is from Brigham Young University. His
father was U.S. Solicitor General under President Reagan. Sen. Lee
delivered this address on July 18 at Western Conservative Summit 2014.
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.
eternal principles of liberty? Never heard of em,
Preston shot back.
With this, the historian quit guessing and simply asked,
What was the matter and what did you mean in going
to the fght?
Prestons answer says it all. What we meant in going
for those redcoats was this, he said, we always had
governed ourselves, and we always meant to. They didnt
[think] we should.
Commitment to Self-government
The same dogged commitment to self-government that
compelled Levi Preston to fght that spring morning in
1775 is what brings us here tonight. This is what makes
America exceptional: our habit of joining together to
meet the needs of our neighbors, to solve problems in
our communities, and to serve the common good of our
nation.
We do it not just as elected offcials or political activists,
but also as families and neighbors,
congregations and local associations,
businesses and customers.
And we do it not through a federally
funded government program designed in
Washington, but through the institutions
of our voluntary civil society and free-enterprise
economywhere were able to utilize our God-given
talents and our own exertions in the service of others,
to improve the lives of those around us, and to pursue
happiness together.
This is America at its best: ordinary citizens coming
together voluntarily to help each other get ahead. But
today, too many of our fellow Americans are being left
behind.
The problem is that we have a federal government
that, for too long, has operated as if its purpose were
CONSERVATIVE
REFORMERS TAKE ON
THE OPPORTUNITY DEFICIT
By Mike Lee
to defne and guarantee
our happiness, rather
than expand and protect
the space in which we
can pursue our happiness
together.
We can no longer ignore
the consequences of a
hyperactive and overbearing
federal government: at-risk
communities with too few
jobs, too few fathers, and
too little hope, and working
families stymied from
getting ahead by stagnant
wages and steadily increasing costs of health care, education,
housing, and childcare.
Role of the Republicans
To get America back to her best, we will need a concrete,
comprehensive reform agenda that, as Abraham Lincoln
put it, aims to elevate the condition of mento lift
artifcial weights from all shoulders, to clear the paths of
laudable pursuit for all, to afford all an unfettered start and
a fair chance, in the race of life.
For this kind of government reform to become a reality, it
will need to be advanced by the Republican
party. Creating a reform agenda in the spirit of
Abraham Lincoln but adapted to the unique
challenges of our generation, will require a
level of creativity and innovation that simply
doesnt exist within the Democratic party.
For decades, the Left has had the same political program:
defend the unwieldy institutions of our outdated welfare
state, distract us from the failures of those institutions, and
divide the American people with identity politics and the
make-believe war on women.
This has left liberals intellectually exhausted. And doesnt
help that theyre ideologically committed to, and electorally
dependent upon, an ever-expanding welfare state that is
the source of so many of these artifcial weights holding
back hard-working Americans. For conservatives to meet
this challenge, we need the Republican party at its best
that is, we need it to be the party of ideas. This is especially
important to remember in election years like this one.
Centennial Review August-September 2014 2
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CENTENNIAL REVIEW is published monthly by the Centennial Institute at Colorado Christian University. The authors views are not necessarily
those of CCU. Designer, Tim Roesch. 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 Americas moral core and prepare
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- John Andrews, Director
Clear
the path
for all.
Dr. Ben Carson warned America is in
critical condition in his Friday speech,
and won the 2016 straw poll on Sunday
Means to an End
As we seek to transform the conservative movement into
a national majority, we must remember that a majority is a
means to an end.
Our ultimate goal is to enact conservative policies that
restore the proper role of government, reenergize our
economy, and create the conditions in which all Americans
have a fair chance to pursue happinessand fnd it.
Our task, to paraphrase James Madison, requires two
things: frst, fdelity to the object of government, which
is the happiness of the people; secondly, a knowledge of
the means by which that object can be best attained.
To enact conservative policies, we will need conservative
majorities in the House and Senate, and a conservative in
the White House.
We must earn a mandate from the American people. We
must win their support for our vision: a conservative
reform agenda that doesnt just cut big government, but
fxes broken government.
Government Failure
Given the size and dysfunction of our government today,
conservatism should be synonymous with fundamental
government reform. We are conservative not in spite of
our desire to fx broken government, but because of it.
Every day were confronted with the real-life
consequences of a government that tries to
do things that it cannot and should not do.
Our federal government is so overextended
that it is failing to fulfll even its most basic
responsibilitieslike caring for our veterans,
securing our borders, enforcing our laws, and conducting
a coherent foreign policy that, at the very least, does no
harm to our national security.
And the liberal ideology driving this expansion of the state
seeks to subordinate the dignity of the individual to the
political agenda of a progressive government. This is an
agenda that denies the sanctity of life, rejects the inviolable
human right to live according to ones religious convictions,
and is blind to the moral and economic consequences of
our nations marriage crisis.
Many federal programs end up hurting the people they are
meant to help. Unlike the scandals that make headlines,
this government failure isnt discussed on the nightly
Centennial Review August-September 2014 3
Its time to fx
whats broken.
Guy Benson and Katie Pavlich, young stars from Fox News, joined Mary Katharine
Ham and James Golden for a panel on Whos Winning the Fight on the Right?
news, but around kitchen tables all across the country by
Americans who are trying to fgure out how to make ends
meet or struggling to get ahead.
Opportunity Defcit
I call this Americas opportunity defcit. Its big, its
growing, and it exists at every level of our society.
At the bottom of the economic ladder, there is a crisis of
immobility among the poor. Families and communities
are trapped in poverty, sometimes for generations, and are
disconnected from the networks of opportunity that more
affuent Americans take for granted.
But our nations shortage of opportunities also affects the
middle class. There too, the hallmarks of the American
Dreamfrom family stability and work-life balance to
affordable education and health carehave grown too
elusive for too many.
The opportunity defcit even exists at the top of the
economic ladder. There it takes the form of crony capitalism
and special-interest privilege. Political and economic
elites collude to make it easier for preferred
Washington insiders to succeed, and harder for
others to get a fair shot.
Government policies add to these problems
by making life harder for the frst two groups,
protecting the last group, and raising taxes
on everyone.
A conservative reform agenda must tackle this opportunity
defcit head on. Its not enough simply to roll back ineffective
policies that concentrate power in Washington. We must
also roll out bold conservative reforms that empower the
people closest to the problems to test and refne solutions
that work best for their communities.
Legislative Agenda
Though conservatives can be confdent that these reforms
would reduce the size and cost of government, thats only
incidental. The primary goal should be to build a functioning
government that works for all Americansespecially the
poor and middle classand protects the space for them to
meet the challenges of life in the 21
st
century.
The result is a new line of legislative proposals put forward
by principled conservatives of Congress who are committed
to meeting our countrys most pressing challenges with
positive reforms.
Its a concrete, comprehensive, conservative reform agenda,
aimed at reducing the cost of, and increasing access to, the
staples of working and middle-class economic security.
This is the most exciting time for conservative policy
innovation since the late 1970s, when Ronald Reagan and
his generation of conservatives developed an agenda to
revive Americas economy and win the Cold War.
Now we need a 21st-century agenda to meet the unique
challenges of our generation, and conservatives are
again answering the call. Were offering new policy ideas,
grounded in constitutional principles, that speak directly
to the kitchen-table problems working families face today.
Momentum of Change
To help improve upward mobilityto make poverty
temporary rather than tolerableconservatives have
introduced plans to reform our welfare system, the
Head Start program, and our criminal justice and
prison systems.
To help working families in the middle class, and those
aspiring to the middle class, we have proposals to repeal
and replace Obamacare with patient-driven, market-
based reforms. We have plans to break up the higher
education cartels, increasing access to, and lowering the
costs of, college.
Ive also introduced a tax reform plan to eliminate the
parent-tax penalty and a bill to give working families in
the private sector the same access to comp-
time now enjoyed only by government
employees. And for the frst time in a
long while, conservatives are beginning to
turn the tide in the fght against corporate
welfare and crony capitalism.
These reform ideas represent a starting point, not a
fnish line. But we have already begun to see the kind of
momentum that these reforms can generate this election
season. Many conservative candidates around the country
have embraced these ideasand theyre winning. And
this is a model we can replicate at the national level
in 2016.
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Centennial Review August-September 2014 4
Make them
earn your vote.
Summit Turns Five
Western Conservative Summit
2014, July 18-20 in Denver,
drew 3300 delegates and made
32 million Twitter impressions.
It was our ffth annual rally
on the right. Tis month
we present Sen. Mike Lees
opening night address, Conservative Reformers Take On
the Opportunity Defcit, along with photo highlights of the
weekend. Mark your calendar for WCS15, next June 26-28 at
the Colorado Convention Center.
From Protest to Reform
The key to expanding the conservative movement into a
majority is to get more people to sign onand run on
these reforms. Thats where you come in. When candidates
ask for your vote, make them earn it. Dont settle for spin.
Ask for specifcs. The kind of leaders we need wont just
tell you what theyre against. Theyll tell you what theyre
for, and why.
My challenge to you is not simply to fnd and
support true conservative reformers. My
challenge to you is to become one. Become
the kind of thoughtful, positive, principled
conservative our movement wants, the
Establishment fears, and our country needs.
Before conservatives can celebrate victory, we must frst
deserve it. Just as our founding generation made their
way from the Tea Party in Boston to the constitutional
convention in Philadelphia; just as Reagans generation
made its way from defeat in 1976 to victory in 1980; so
too our generation must now turn from protest to reform,
from criticism to leadership, from division to unity.
Together, this new generation of reform conservatives
can revive our movement, rebuild our party, and restore
opportunity to our neighbors and prosperity to our nation.
In order to live in an America at its best, we must expect
the best and do our best. As conservatives, lets stop just
talking about Ronald Reagan and start acting like him.
Expect Freedom
Reagan refused to settle for the status quo. And so must we.
Washington wants you to settle for a mediocre America. I
am here to tell you it is time to expect more.
Dont settle for high unemployment and
stagnant economy. Expect opportunity and
upward mobility.
Dont settle for liberal domination of the
news and media. Expect honest debate and
deeper dialogue.
Dont settle for trillion-dollar defcits. Expect balanced
budgets. Dont settle for Washington-centered solutions.
Expect communities, neighborhoods, and families to
solve problems.
Dont settle for a president who legislates with a phone
and a pen. Expect Congress to do its job. Dont settle for
mediocrity and an America in decline. Expect America at
its best. Expect more. Expect freedom!
Sarah Palin, 2008 VP candidate and former
Alaska governor, had the crowd roaring
Hugh Hewitt, Salem radio host, chaired the ve-day
Young Conservatives Leadership Conference
Performance painter David Garibaldi, seen here portraying
Mother Teresa, held a benet art auction