2008 SelectSmart.com Presidential Candidate Selector Candidate Positions Alan Keyes - America’s Independent Party nominee (Born August 7, 1950) Public speaker, former diplomat, and conservative political activist.

Iraq War Issues: " I think they stay there until they get the job done. I know that John Kerry is preoccupied with an exit strategy, but as I've been telling folks lately, if you get into a battle and the only thing you're thinking about is how to get out, I think we have a word for you--and it's not very complimentary."
"I think that G.W. Bush has done the correct thing. He has moved preemptively in Afghanistan, he moved preemptively in Iraq--acting not on the wisdom of hindsight but on the foresight that is required in order to make sure that the American people will not again suffer even worse damage from this kind of insidious attack. And I think we ought to stay there until our national security purposes are served." Source

Security/liberties: "In a USA Today Gallup poll last week, 80 percent of Americans said they would give up some freedoms to gain security. This alarming sentiment, of course, has been the basis of the tyrant's bargain with the people from the beginning of human society. America was founded in large measure precisely to end such blackmail...It is our job to resist the siren song of exchanging liberty for promises of security. No government – not even our own – can be trusted with the authority to strip us of the protections of citizenship in pursuit of safety. As our founders understood, those who would exchange liberty for security deserve neither." Source

Social Security: "I strongly support a fundamentally new approach for younger workers, placing them in control of the investments made with their savings dollars. The elimination of the income tax will make tax-privileged "retirement" accounts irrelevant — all savings will be tax free. So while I favor the transitional policy of replacing Social Security with individually-controlled tax-free investment accounts, the ultimate solution to the problem of long-term and retirement savings is to return responsibility for this crucial function to the citizens of the country, along with the freedom necessary to accomplish it." Source

Stem cell research: "No — we do not have the right to take human life merely because it is unconscious, or because it is undeveloped or damaged, or for any other reason that tempts us to deny the equal dignity of all human persons". Source

Same sex issues: "In terms of civil rights discrimination, it is wrong to treat sexual orientation like race, for race is a condition beyond the individual's control. Sexual orientation, however, involves behavior, especially in response to passion. If we equate sexual orientation and race, we are saying that sexual behavior is beyond the individual's control and moral will. We cannot embrace such an understanding of civil rights without denying the human moral capacity, and with it the fitness of human beings for life in a free society. The effort to equate homosexual and lesbian relations with legal marriage represents a destructive assault on the heterosexual, marriage-based family." Source

Trade issues: Advocates trade controls. Believes that free government is more important than free trade. Keyes says "Trade socialism must be defeated root and branch, even when it is called 'free trade'." He adds GATT/WTO were big mistakes. In his opinion our representatives in Congress should not give the President "fast track" authority to "strike back room trade deals". (Opinions provided directly to SelectSmart.com by the Mr. Keyes during his 2000 run for the presidency).

Budget issues: "Replacing the income tax with a national sales tax would rejuvenate independence and responsibility in our citizens. True economic liberty and moral revival go hand in hand. A national sales tax would also put the American citizen back in control of fiscal policy. The best way to curtail government spending is to cut taxes, because they can't spend what they don't get. With a sales tax, we could deny funds to a spendthrift government — and give ourselves a tax cut — whenever we make the private choice to alter our spending and saving habits. But we must also take away the government's credit card. With limits on both tax revenue and borrowing, the Federal government would finally be forced to get serious about spending cuts. That's why a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution, with barriers to both borrowing and spending, is the best way to secure budget discipline." Source

Business & labor issues: Generally favors business interests over labor interests. Source

Abortion issues: "In addition to overturning Roe v. Wade, we need a Human Life Amendment that respects life and restores our respect for the will of God." Source

Capital punishment: "I believe that there are certain circumstances in which the death penalty is in fact essential to our respect for life. If we do not, in our law, send the message to everyone that by calculatedly, coldly taking a human life — in a way that, for instance, assaults the structures of law in a society, or shows a cold-blooded and studied disregard for the value of that life — if we are not willing to implement the death penalty in those circumstances, then we are actually sending a message of contempt for human life." " Source

Drugs: Increase penalties for selling drugs. Impose capital punishment for convicted international drug traffickers. (Opinions provided directly to SelectSmart.com by the Mr. Keyes during his 2000 run for the presidency).

Gun control: Argues that "the Second Amendment gives a citizen the right to protect himself from threats like intruders and a tyrannical government". Believes that "people are responsible for violence, not firearms." (Opinions provided directly to SelectSmart.com by the Mr. Keyes during his 2000 run for the presidency).

Minimum wage: Opposed any hikes in the minimum wage. Source

Health care: "I don't believe in government-controlled health care, and I think that what we need to look at is ways in which we can put the consumer in proper charge of their own health care plan, so we can drive the cost down, instead of up." Source

Prescription drugs: "To help lower health care costs, we also need to allow the importation of cheaper prescription drugs from Canada and Europe, and do other sensible things — based on free-market principles — that will give consumers greater choice of health care options." Source

Environmental issues: "Today, disruption of the right of property is threatened additionally by extreme environmental values that place greater importance on the so-called "rights" of animals, trees, and streams than on the legitimate and essential needs of mankind — extreme notions that increasingly strip human beings of normal and reasonable economic opportunity. I support responsible human stewardship of God's creation, but I also whole-heartedly seek to include in that stewardship conscientious and vigilant respect for the fundamental human right of property." Source

Immigration issues: "Our country's immigration policy should encourage legal immigration to be maintained, and illegal immigration to be curtailed. The policy should be enforced through existing laws...Until our political leaders put in place the tools and forces needed to control our borders, responsible and moral Americans should oppose any measures that would signal our acceptance of the de facto colonization of our country. President Bush's guest-worker proposal and the Senate's amnesty bill are such measures. They may serve short-sighted business interests intent on cheapening the cost of labor in our economy, and they may serve the corrupt interests of Mexican and other foreign elites seeking to relieve the pressure created by their own policies of greedy exploitation, but they do not serve the common good." Source

Education issues: "The court-initiated prohibition of school prayer is only the symptom of a deeper problem — the neglect of moral education and character formation. The value-free education offered by the government-run schools has all too often proven to be education without value." Source

Campaign website.