Conservative Principles Now

What author wouldn’t cherish a plug of his book by an attractive, poised public speaker who really knows how to excite and inspire a crowd?

And we don’t mean President Barack Obama citing “The Defining Moment,” Jonathan Alter’s book on FDR. This was Rep. Michele Bachmann, revving up CPAC with a speech that wound up quoting, um, liberally from “We Still Hold These Truths,” Heritage scholar Matthew Spalding’s book on America’s founding principles.

The Minnesota Republican, as this clip shows,  apparently likes how Spalding describes a very different defining moment: the choice Americans face between continuing down the road to centralized government and decline or  the road back to limited government and greatness.

Bachmann, speaking Friday, not only gave props to Spalding by noting both his book’s title and his affiliation with Heritage. She then quoted two key anecdotes pulled from the book to illustrate what truths motivated men and women in 1776 to risk all in seeking independence from Great Britain.

When she was done, FrumForum.com’s live-blogger Tim Mak gave an A to the history lesson from “Professor Bachmann,” gushing:

Surprising amount of genuine feeling, passionate story-telling by Michele Bachmann, and on interesting topics. Given my low expectations going into the speech, I was actually impressed!”

Citing Spalding’s book, Bachmann also quoted a speech by Dr. Joseph Warren in Boston on March 6, 1775, in the aftermath of the Boston Massacre. The congresswoman found her four-word closing exhortation in Spalding’s excerpt from Warren:

Our country is in danger, but not to be despaired of. Our enemies are numerous and powerful; but we have many friends, determining to be free, and heaven and earth will aid the resolution. On you depend the fortunes of America. You are to decide the important question, on which rest the happiness and liberty of millions yet unborn. Act worthy of yourselves.”

The plug from Bachmann followed two other good notices  for “We Still Hold These Truths” this month in major reviews in The Weekly Standard and National Review.  Not to mention Spalding’s own piece in NR on the opening for conservatives created by the Left’s overreach.

Spalding, director of Heritage’s B. Kenneth Simon Center for American Studies, also spoke at CPAC on a panel that tackled the topic “Saving Freedom: Defending the Constitution.” His upcoming travel to talk about the resilience of founding principles includes a stop March 3 in Chapel Hill, N.C. He’ll help Heritage President Ed Feulner launch this organization’s 13th regional arm—the North Carolina Committee for Heritage.

Go here to see Bachmann’s entire speech, or the rest of her reading from the Spalding book (final seven minutes).

This season’s snow falls and Snowpocalypse presents a great opportunity to remember our president who also suffered through the cold to save the Republic.

Happy William Henry Harrison Day! No wait. That is not right. Failing to wear a coat in cold weather is not the same as defeating the British during a blizzard.

The third Monday in February has come to be known—wrongly—as President’s Day. But, this is not a day to celebrate every president in our Nation’s history: like one who served only a month in office. This is the day that we celebrate the man who led America to victory in the War for Independence, who was instrumental in the creation of our Constitution, and whose character forever shaped the executive branch. We celebrate George Washington. That’s why it’s Washington’s Birthday; not President’s day.

What makes George Washington a great president, worthy of such celebration, and example to all other presidents? In short, he was committed to the principles of the American Founding. Liberty, Natural Rights, Equality, Religious Liberty, Economic Opportunity, the Rule of Law, Constitutionalism, Self-government, National Independence: these are the truths that George Washington held.

Matthew Spalding, in his latest book We Still Hold These Truths, explains each of these first principles in depth and often points to Washington as an exemplar practitioner. For instance, Spalding points to an important series of letters to different religious congregations as an example Washington’s commitment to the principle of religious liberty. In a letter to a congregation of Jewish people, one of the most persecuted religious minorities in all history, Washington explains:

The citizens of the United States of America have a right to applaud themselves for having given to mankind examples of an enlarged and liberal policy—a policy worthy of imitation. All possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship. It is now no more that toleration is spoken of as if it were the indulgence of one class of people that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights, for, happily, the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens in giving it on all occasions their effectual support.

Washington understood that citizenship did not require professing particular religious doctrines. Nor does the possession of rights depend upon one’s membership in a certain race or social class.

Not all presidents are George Washington. But all presidents—and all Americans—can and should dedicate themselves to preserving American’s First Principles.

Quick Hits:

• American, Afghan and British troops seized crucial positions across the Taliban stronghold of Marja this weekend.
• The scientist at the center of the Climategate emails, admitted to the BBC yesterday that there has been no ‘statistically significant’ warming in the past 15 years.
• The IPCC admitted this weekend that their 2007 report overstated how much of the Netherlands is below sea level.
• According to the latets CBS News-New York Times poll, just 8 percent of Americans want the members of Congress re-elected.
• Thanks to President Barack Obama’s ambitious health care, financial, and energy policy agenda, a record $3.47 billion was spent on federal lobbyists this year.