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The Daily Signal
In 7 Quotes,
Sen. Ben Sasse Gives History Lesson on American Exceptionalism
Melissa Quinn
March 03, 2016
Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., believes that the country is in a time of
“constitutional crisis,” and he served up a history lesson at the
annual Conservative Political Action Conference on the founding fathers
and the roots of American exceptionalism and conservatism.
Sasse, who has emerged as one of the Senate’s most conservative voices
since taking office in 2015, devoted his CPAC speech Thursday to
America’s founding.
He stressed the need for conference attendees to place the American
idea ahead of their policy preferences and political affiliations. Here
are seven quotes from his remarks:
“American exceptionalism is not some sort of ethnic claim that because
of something we received in the bloodstream, Americans are better than
other people. American exceptionalism is a claim about history.
American exceptionalism is a claim about what happened in the American
founding, and if we don’t understand why the American founding was
extraordinary, you can be sure that our kids won’t understand why
America is extraordinary.”
“Our founding moment is truly extraordinary. Our founders were making a
claim about human dignity. Our founders were saying that everybody,
everywhere—not just those who have been blessed to be born in this
place—but everybody, everywhere is ordained with natural rights.
Everyone everywhere is created in the image of God with natural rights,
and government is just our shared project to secure those rights.”
“Government is not the author or the source of any of our rights. …
Government is a tool, and our founders recognized that that tool is
necessary in a fallen world because unfortunately the world is broken
and there are people who want take your property, who want to take your
liberty, who want to take your life.”
“The meaning of America is not in Washington, D.C. The meaning of
America is in all the communities and the little platoons that you come
from.”
“Fundamentally, the American founders understood that throughout human
history almost everyone had been wrong about the nature of government.”
“People have been wrong about the nature of government and the nature
of freedom, and we the people in America believe that our rights come
to us via nature, and government is our project to secure them, so we
the people give the government enumerated powers. We don’t ever wait
for the government to give us an rights. We claim those by nature.”
“The Constitution is the best political document that’s ever been
written. The Constitution is just a list of powers that we decide to
give the government, and when that list ends, the government has no
further powers. The Constitution is not some list of the limited rights
the people have. The government is limited, and the people’s rights are
limitless.”
Running through Saturday, CPAC offers conservatives across the country
an opportunity to gather with fellow activists and leaders for
speeches, panels, exhibits, and other activities at Gaylord National
Resort and Convention Center, just outside Washington, D.C., at
Maryland’s National Harbor.
Read this and other articles at The Daily Signal
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