Conservatism doesn't need an adjective. It needs a leader -- it needs a leader. (Cheers, applause.)
It needs a leader that is opposed to abortions, not because Iowa caucus-goers are opposed to abortions but because the Lord said, I knew you before you were in the womb. (Cheers, applause.)
... We need a leader that belongs in a -- believes in a strong national defense, because our enemies are psychopaths and our allies are the French. (Laughter.)
... We should not be surprised, however, that this turn to the right during a presidential primary. It's just that conversions are supposed to be made on the road to Damascus, not on the road to Des Moines. (Applause.) There are ways -- there are ways to determine true conservatives, however. If some candidate says he's against illegal immigration and opposed to amnesty, let's test them. Ask them if they're willing to deport the millions who are here illegally. Ask them if they'll agree that massive immigration combined with a cult of multiculturalism in this country is creating a linguistic and a cultural tower of Babel. (Applause.)
Ask them if they agree -- or maybe you could just ask them if they agree with Tom Tancredo when he said Miami's becoming a third- world country. That ought to test it. (Laughs.) Ask if they will join me in condemning the Bank of America -- or as I like to say, Banco de Latin America -- for aiding and abetting illegal immigrants. Ask if they will agree with me that we should bring criminal charges against mayors and/or city council people who declare their cities to be sanctuary cities for illegal aliens. (Cheers, applause.)
And ask them -- ask them if they will pardon -- ask them if they will pardon the two border agents, Ramos and Compean, on the first day they take the Oval Office. (Cheers, applause.) I guarantee you -- I guarantee you that not a single one of these so-called top-tier presidential candidates will do it, or will they acknowledge that what millions of us see happening in our own communities every day is the truth.
We see our communities turning into what Theodore Roosevelt called polyglot boarding houses --
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Yes.
REP. TANCREDO: -- made up of immigrants who refuse to assimilate and refuse to speak English. These candidates will start using answers with phrases like "comprehensive solution" when they're talking about immigration and mean "amnesty," just like when they say, "I'm personally pro-life" when they mean, "Hey, it's a woman's body, after all. She should be able to do what she wants with the one that's inside her."
If these if these phrases sound like they are written by political handlers, it's because they are. They are designed to shield politicians from their principles, not to reveal the truth but to obscure it, not to leave conservatives wondering about what political -- what politicians really believe and intend to do. It's from such phrases, from the hacks who write them to the politicians who utter them, that our political process, our party and our movement must be rescued.