Chuck Baldwin - Constitution Party

by Chuck Baldwin, April 25, 2013

There are five men who are called “great” in the Holy Scriptures.

One of them is a man by the name of Abner. Upon hearing the news of Abner’s death, King David said, “Know ye not that there is a prince and a great man fallen this day in Israel?”

My column today is dedicated to a great man. That man is Howard Phillips. Howard Phillips went to Heaven this past Saturday, April 20, 2013. I am so blessed to have gotten to know this remarkable man, and, more than that, to be able to call him my friend. I first met Howard some thirty years ago in the Bahamas. I attended a national meeting of conservative leaders and Howard was one of the principal speakers. I suppose the first thing that struck me about Howard was his remarkable intellect and deep conviction. It is no hyperbole to say that Howard Phillips was one of the most brilliant men I have ever met. A graduate of Harvard, Howard’s grasp of government, history, and law was unequalled.

Howard Phillips forgot more about those subjects than the vast majority of us will ever learn. He was literally a walking history encyclopedia. He might have been the keenest, sharpest mind that I have ever been exposed to. Howard Phillips was an intellectual giant. But as awesome as his mind was, Howard’s commitment to the principles of liberty was equally awesome. Liberty has never had a more ardent defender than Howard Phillips. And communism never had a more formidable adversary.

Howard Phillips was born and raised in Boston, Massachusetts, and became a dynamic conservative leader from his youth. At Harvard, he was twice elected president of the Student Council. He was a GOP precinct worker, election warden, campaign manager, congressional aide, Boston municipal Republican chairman, and assistant to the Chairman of the National Republican Committee. He later became president of Policy Analysis, Inc., chairman of the Conservative Caucus, and founder of the U.S. Taxpayer’s Party, now named the Constitution Party. This is the third largest political party in the United States.

The Constitution Party nominated Howard three times as its Presidential candidate. Howard (“Howie” as he was known to his friends) served in President Richard Nixon’s cabinet and headed two federal agencies in the Nixon administration. He voluntarily resigned his post in the Nixon White House after Nixon reneged on his promise to defund the giant Welfare State, known as “The Great Society,” which had been created by President Lyndon Johnson. What many people do not realize is that Howard Phillips was the principal founder of what became known as the “Religious Right.” Howard was also the man who most influenced Jerry Falwell to start the Moral Majority.

Howard Phillips is as important to the rise of the modern conservative movement as George Washington and Thomas Jefferson were to the rise of the independence movement in Colonial America. As a conservative and constitutionalist leader, Howard Phillips had no peer. One of the great honors of my life came when Howard asked me to seek the Constitution Party’s nomination for President in 2008. At his behest, and after much prayer and contemplation, I did this and was honored to have received that party’s nomination by an overwhelming vote from the party’s national delegates.

It was during that campaign that I received the endorsement of Congressman Ron Paul. During and after the 2008 campaign, Howard and I became very close. I found him to be among my dearest of friends and closest of confidants. Howard Phillips was raised as a Jew but became a staunch believer in Jesus Christ as an adult.

Howard and his wife Peggy have six children and many grandchildren, all of whom are among the finest people that anyone would ever meet. The entire Phillips family is an outstanding reflection of the character and commitment of both Howard and Peggy. Please pray for this wonderful family.

Now, I have one more honor that has been bestowed upon me: Peggy asked me to conduct Howard’s funeral service and preach the funeral message. To say that I am overwhelmed at being asked to perform such a task is an understatement. Nothing anyone could say is sufficient to honor a man the caliber of Howard Phillips. I covet your prayers. Howard’s viewing will take place at the Money and King Funeral Home in Vienna, Virginia, this Saturday, April 27, from 3:00-5:00pm, and Sunday, April 28, from 3:00-7:00pm local time. The funeral service will take place Monday, April 29, at 11:00am local time at the McLean Bible Church in Vienna.

As King David said of Abner, I say of Howard Phillips, “Know ye not that there is a prince and a great man fallen this day?” The Phillips’ family has lost their patriarch, their loving and devoted husband, father, and grandfather. The Conservative Caucus has lost their beloved chairman. The Constitution Party has lost their courageous founder. Modern conservatives and constitutionalists nationwide have lost a Founding Father. Freedom fighters around the world have lost one of their truest allies. America has lost one of its greatest patriots. Liberty has lost one of its most ardent defenders. And I have lost one of my dearest friends.

(c) Chuck Baldwin www.ChuckBaldwinLive.com

by Chuck Baldwin – Constitution Party 2008 Presidential Candidate

Last Saturday, Texas Governor Rick Perry unofficially launched his 2012 Presidential candidacy in Houston (in my opinion). Speculation is he will officially announce his intentions this weekend in South Carolina. If he does declare his candidacy, many election-watchers say Perry will become the GOP frontrunner, due to an extremely weak field of declared candidates. If Perry does declare his candidacy, everyone will know that the Houston event was staged for the purpose of launching his Presidential bid, rhetoric to the contrary notwithstanding.

If Perry declares his candidacy (and I’m confident he will), people should also realize that the Houston event was a precursor to the type of campaign that Perry will use throughout the Republican primary season. As a fellow Texan, it was not lost on Rick Perry how George W. Bush obtained the Republican nomination–and eventually the White House. In short, Rick Perry is going to use the G.W. Bush model to win a Presidential election.

Think about it: G.W. Bush won the White House after an extremely unpopular liberal Democrat had been President. Barack Obama’s popularity is even lower than Bill Clinton’s was–and Clinton was only the second President in US history to ever be impeached! Bush’s campaign boss, Karl Rove, brilliantly painted G.W. Bush as being a wholesome “born again Christian,” which played very well with a Christian electorate that was tired of being embarrassed by a lying, philandering reprobate living in the White House.

In 2012, the American electorate, especially the Christian electorate, is totally fed up with an incumbent President whom everyone knows to be extremely sympathetic to Muslim and Marxist ideologies. Plus, a sizeable percentage of the American people truly suspect that Obama was NOT born in the United States and is, therefore, not even qualified to be President. This is the stage upon which Rick Perry appears. It is a stage very similar to the one George W. Bush stepped onto in 2000. And just as Bush played the “born again Christian” card to the max in the 2000 Presidential campaign, so Rick Perry appears to be ready to do in 2012. That is what the Houston event was all about last Saturday.

Billed as “A Day of Prayer and Fasting,” the event solidified Perry’s preferred status among evangelical Christians. With the help of the American Family Association (which reportedly contributed up to a million dollars to the event), James Dobson’s Focus on the Family, and Cornerstone Church’s (San Antonio) Pastor John Hagee, Perry is all but assured of cornering the “born again” vote, just as G.W. Bush did in 2000.

One would like to think that America’s Christians learned something from the two GWB administrations, but it doesn’t appear that they have. I think it is safe to say that Dobson, Hagee, et al, would endorse ANYONE nominated by the Republican Party. They have already proven that, have they not? James Dobson went so far as to humiliate himself by endorsing big government John McCain in the 2008 general elections, even after vowing publicly that he would “NEVER” support McCain. During the primaries, however, the Republican candidate who can “talk the Bible” the best can expect the support of these clueless evangelical leaders. And this time around, it appears that Rick Perry is that man. You can rest assured if Perry doesn’t win the nomination, Dobson and Hagee will be right there for whoever does.

For the record, I invite anyone out there who still labors under the delusion that George W. Bush presided over some kind of “born again” Christian administration to check out the vast amounts of information I have compiled on my web site that exposes Bush as being just another big government elitist, who did as much (or more) to strip America of its God-given liberties as any other President in history. See the record here.

Furthermore, even cursory research will uncover the fact that the Bush and Clinton families have long collaborated together in criminal activity on a massive scale–activity that, in all likelihood, continues to this very day. (I still say, don’t be surprised if Obama dumps Joe Biden as his Vice President and puts Hillary Clinton on the ticket before next year’s elections.)

Of course, G.W. Bush was never held accountable by evangelical Christian voters for his unconstitutional conduct. All they cared about was Bush’s Christian rhetoric. And it does appear that is all they care about today. As a result, Rick Perry will prove to be a formidable candidate in the GOP primaries.

I have said over and over again that I would rather vote for an unbeliever who would preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States, than vote for a believer who would NOT preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States! The pious rhetoric of political candidates means nothing!

If I hire a plumber to fix a drainage problem at my house, I am not interested so much in where he goes to church, or whether he teaches Sunday School, or what denomination he claims. I am hiring him to fix my plumbing! We sign a contract, he and I. I promise to pay him “X” amount of dollars, and he promises that when he’s finished, my toilets will flush. Christian or not, I expect him to honor the terms of his contract.

Ladies and gentlemen, when we elect a civil magistrate (at any level), we are entering into a contract with the one we elected. We gave them our support, which allowed them to obtain public office, and they promise (before Almighty God) to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States. They do not promise to be “good Christians.” They do not promise to be “good Republicans.” They do not promise to be “good conservatives.” They take an oath before God (they sign a contract with the American people) to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States. And it is our job as citizens to hold our civil magistrates to their oath! In fact, if any elected office holder were a TRUE Christian, he or she would take their oath even more seriously, would they not?

Instead of being excited about a candidate claiming to be a Christian, or claiming to pray and read his or her Bible, we need to get excited about a candidate who is serious about preserving the liberties of the American people, and who makes a commitment to protect and preserve the principles enshrined in our Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights, and US Constitution!

Before we talk about Rick Perry’s commitment to prayer and fasting, let’s find out if Rick Perry believes that there must be a Declaration of War before America begins invading, bombing, and occupying foreign countries. Let’s find out if he believes he has the authority as President to use US military forces against American citizens. Let’s find out if he believes he has the authority to give billions and trillions of dollars away to foreign countries. Let’s find out if he plans to commit US military forces to the whims of the United Nations Security Council. Let’s find out if he supports the Military Commissions Act. Let’s find out if he supports the Patriot Act. Let’s find out if he believes the US government has the authority to use super-computers and advanced technology to continue to turn the United States into a giant surveillance-society. Let’s find out how serious he is about closing that southern border: speaking of which, what did Rick Perry do as governor of the border State of Texas to stop illegal immigration? And while we are on the subject of Border States, what did Rick Perry do to stop the NAFTA superhighway? Before we get excited about Rick Perry being a “good Christian,” let’s find out if he supports the Council of Governors, or the North American Union, or the Continuity of Government, or Agenda 21. Let’s find out if Perry will launch a Justice Department investigation into the ATF’s (under Barack Obama and Eric Holder) clandestine operation of providing firearms to Mexican drug gangs. We could go on and on with these kinds of questions.

The sad truth is, our illustrious evangelical leaders on the right are just as culpable in the dismantling and deterioration of the American republic as are those on the political or religious left! Both sides are willing to give their favored politicos a pass on constitutional governance. And ladies and gentlemen, that is why it hasn’t mattered to a tinker’s dam whether a Democrat or Republican, “liberal” or “conservative” is in the White House! And that’s why it won’t matter in 2012.

Besides, if James Dobson and John Hagee were truly interested in protecting and preserving the principles enshrined in our Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights, and US Constitution, they would be promoting the candidacy of Ron Paul. But, unfortunately, they wouldn’t do it in 2008, and they won’t do it in 2012. They lack both the courage and the sagacity.

We don’t need another George W. Bush in the White House. For that matter, we don’t need another Jimmy Carter in the White House. What we need is a President (governor, mayor, sheriff, etc.) who will preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States!

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Chuck Baldwin is a syndicated columnist, radio broadcaster, author, and pastor dedicated to preserving the historic principles upon which America was founded. He was the 2008 Presidential candidate for the Constitution Party. He and his wife, Connie, have 3 children and 8 grandchildren. Chuck and his family reside in the Flathead Valley of Montana.

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