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Keyes: Abortion more than ‘just one
issue’
Senate candidate visits UIS on campaign trail
By Tom Cronin
National security, taxation and
the “collapse” of the family structure are all examples of
issues that Republican U.S. Senate Candidate Alan Keyes speaks
about regularly while on the campaign trail, but the issue that
separates him from his opponent, Democratic state Sen. Barack
Obama, most of all is abortion.
 In
a speech held following his Oct. 12 debate with Obama, Keyes
said that the abortion issue separates him from his opponent by
a “deep abyss.” The College Republicans and the Society of
Conservative Students co-sponsored the speech, which was held in
the Lincoln Residence Hall Great Room.
According to Keyes, a two-time
presidential candidate and former U.S. ambassador to the United
Nations Social and Economic Council, Illinois voters will face a
choice on Nov. 2 that is both fundamental and critical largely
because of the abortion issue.
“Everybody says, ‘That’s just one
issue,’” Keyes said. “That’s nonsense. It’s just like saying …
slavery was just one issue, or civil rights was just one issue,
or something like that. … If we do not respect the truth that
all men are created equal and endowed by their creator – not by
human choice – with their inalienable rights, then every other
aspect of our way of life will fall to pieces.”
 Abortion,
according to Keyes, is justified by supporters of abortion
rights in much the same way that slavery was justified – through
the use of a developmental argument. Proponents of slavery in 19th
century America sought to prove that the black slaves belonged
to an inferior race that had not achieved full humanity, he
said.
“Well, the same argument is now
being made about the offspring in the womb: it’s not human,”
Keyes said. “It’s a developmental argument: you’re not developed
enough. Now, tell me, where do you draw the line?”
The question of humanity, he
said, is not in the hands of humans themselves, but in the hands
of God. According to Keyes, human life begins in the womb and is
created by God, and human beings have no choice but to respect
this.
 “When
we go down the path of life senselessly, acting as if we can
choose whatever we please, including choices that destroy the
very principle on the basis of which we claim the right to
choose, then we are destroying our way of life, destroying our
self-government, destroying the idea of justice that makes it
possible for us to be free,” Keyes said.
Americans today face a number of
“costly crises,” ranging from education to housing to poverty,
Keyes said. More than anything else, these crises are being
caused by the “collapse” of the family structure, which has been
brought about primarily by the decline of moral law, he said.
“Unless we are willing to turn
around and get back on the solid ground of our true moral
identity, we’re going to continue to take the tail of the
expensive problems that our own loss of self-control is
generating until we bankrupt the nation,” Keyes said.
The fundamental difference
between Republicans and Democrats, according to Keyes, is that
Republicans do not share the Democratic view that government
programs can “meet the challenge of America’s future.” Instead,
the American people can meet this challenge and create a future
“beyond all our imagining” if they are given control over their
families, schools, businesses and incomes, he said.
The problem that poses the
greatest challenge for the future of the United States, he said,
is Social Security. The federal government has an obligation to
keep the promises it has made to citizens who have put money
into the Social Security system by providing them with the
return that they had initially anticipated, Keyes said.
However, workers who are new to
the Social Security system should be encouraged to invest in the
private-sector economy, which is likely to produce larger
returns than the system from 1935 that is in place now, he said.
Keyes said that he does not think
it is possible for Democrats to present themselves as a viable
alternative to Republicans on national security matters. During
the debate that preceded Keyes’ appearance on campus, Obama took
an approach to national security that Keyes said was soft.
“The last time I looked, when
you’re dealing with blood-thirsty terrorists, a soft approach
doesn’t quite cut it,” Keyes said. “…We are, I think, now
discovering that we’re faced with people who are determined to
kill you. That’s not the time to talk. That’s the time to make
sure that you get them before they get to your people.”
Andrew Hollingsead, executive
director of the College Republicans, said that he thought Keyes
spoke with a lot of conviction and was one of the more eloquent
speakers he had seen in a while.
“I think he speaks to people more
about cultural issues, very broad, but they’re not so much the
type of things that are flashy on Capital Hill that will fit
onto a bumper sticker or onto the cable 24-hour news cycle,”
Hollingsead said. “… He’s very clear about what he stands for.
He’s certainly not wishy-washy, like some politicians are
currently.”
Kyle Simpson, a member of the
College Democrats, was one of several members of his
organization who gathered in the LRH lobby near the end of
Keyes’ speech to inform students about Obama. Simpson said that
he was not able to hear Keyes’ speech that night because he was
at an Obama rally when the speech was taking place, but he had
heard Keyes speak on previous occasions.
As polls about the senate race
indicate, Keyes is out of touch with Illinois voters, in part
because he had never lived in Illinois prior to launching his
campaign, Simpson said. State Republican leaders selected Keyes,
a Maryland resident, as their candidate for the senate seat
currently held by Peter Fitzgerald after primary winner Jack
Ryan withdrew from the race because of sex-club allegations. |
