The government may be shut down, but conservatism is alive and well here in Washington, DC. The Values Voter Summit at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, DC featured many of today’s boldest conservative leaders, who excited a full conference room with memorable arguments and even handled a group of pesky hecklers. Outlined below are a few of their most memorable quotes.
Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT)
Messaging:
“Too often in this town we stop thinking about the things that matter most. We don’t stop thinking big - we stop thinking at all.”
“Throughout our party’s history, the bigger our ideas, the more we’ve succeeded. The ideas propel our party to success.”
“Freedom doesn’t mean you’re on your own, it means were all in this together.”
Comedic turn:
Lee told the crowd how he was listening to a song the other day with his two boys. It was a song he'd heard before, but this time he started listening to the words and discovered the bad message they were spewing.
"I told my sons, but they said, ‘It’s not bad if you don’t think about it.' I thought, they must be advising the president. A $17 trillion debt isn’t bad, but only if you don’t think about it. A massive takeover of our health care system isn’t that bad, but only if you don’t think about it.”
Most memorable moment: Sen. Lee mentioned the “unborn child in the womb” and the room erupts in cheers and standing ovations.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX)
Messaging:
“This is an administration that seems bound and determined to violate every single one of our Bill of Rights.”
“And then there is the 10th Amendment, an amendment I’m pretty sure they’ve gone and cut out of every copy of the Constitution in the Library of Congress.”
“We have a couple of years to turn this country around, or we go off the cliff to oblivion. Throughout the history of the world, we have seen great nations rise and fall. And everyone here today is here today because we are not content to allow the United States of America to do anything but continue to rise and remain the greatest country on the face of this Earth.”
Comedic turn:
“I am invigorated by your passion for this great country. Now, as inspired as I am, I will do my very best to speak for less than 21 hours. But you will know I’m near wrapping up when I begin to read the “Cat in the Hat.”
Cruz merely mentions Vice President Joe Biden and the audience laughed. “You know the nice thing? You don’t need a punch line.”
More on Biden: “He had some great advice. He said, if you hear a burglar, just go out and fire two blasts from a shotgun in the air. This is great advice – if it just so happens you’re being attacked by a flock of geese.”
“We have a hapless, feckless foreign policy. We’re ‘leading from behind,’ said by a president who doesn’t appreciate the concept of an oxy moron.”
“The media tells us we can’t win. I think I read in the New York Times today that Hillary is already in her second term.”
Most memorable moment: Defeating hecklers over and over.
Rand Paul (R-KY)
Messaging:
“Today I want to talk about a war that the mainstream media is ignoring. From Boston to Zanzibar, there’s a worldwide war on Christianity. Christians are being attacked around the world, but you won’t hear much about it on the evening news because the answer’s not convenient. It doesn’t fit the narrative we have been told about radical Islam.”
“As long as I’m in the Senate, I will fight against any money to the Muslim Brotherhood.”
Comedic turn:
"I'm heading to the White House after this, does anyone have a message they'd like me to give the president?"
Most memorable moment:
This line seemed to get the most applause,
“In Egypt, the mob attacked our embassy, climbed on top of our embassy and burned our flag. I don’t know about you, but I’ve had enough. I say not one penny more to any country that would burn the American flag.”
Marco Rubio (R-FL)
Messaging:
“We need to make sure our government programs encourage work, not dependence.”
“And I’ve also been lectured, as many of you have, about how we need to stop talking about social issues if we want to win elections. But if we’re serious about saving the American dream, we can’t stop talking about these issues. We can’t stop talking about the importance of our values and our culture. We can’t stop talking about them because the moral well-being of our people is directly linked to their economic well-being.”
Comedic turn:
“By this point, I had hoped someone would have heckled me, so that I could sip some water, but – (takes a sip) All right. That should get me through.”
Most memorable moment:
“I know that many of you are increasingly scared that maybe we have lost or are losing our country. But you cannot give up on America. You cannot give up on the American dream. We cannot allow our fears and our disappointments to lead us into silence and into inaction. Because this country that God has blessed us with, it is worth fighting for. This special place that we call home, it is worth saving.”
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