Photo credit: Dave Davidson – Prezography.com
(Lynchburg, VA) U.S. Senator Ted Cruz formally announced his campaign for President of the United States during an address at Liberty University, a Christian university started by the late Rev. Jerry Falwell.
Cruz stated the American dream is becoming more distant.
And yet, for so many Americans, the promise of America seems more and more distant. What is the promise of America? The idea that — the revolutionary idea that this country was founded upon, which is that our rights don’t come from man. They come from God Almighty.
And that the purpose of the Constitution, as Thomas Jefferson put it, is to serve as chains to bind the mischief of government.
The incredible opportunity of the American dream, what has enabled millions of people from all over the world to come to America with nothing and to achieve anything. And then the American exceptionalism that has made this nation a clarion voice for freedom in the world, a shining city on a hill.
That’s the promise of America. That is what makes this nation an indispensable nation, a unique nation in the history of the world.
And yet, so many fear that promise is today unattainable. So many fear it is slipping away from our hands.
Cruz also pointed out how evangelicals have stayed away from the polls. “Today, roughly half of born again Christians aren’t voting. They’re staying home. Imagine instead millions of people of faith all across America coming out to the polls and voting our values,” he noted.
Today is the fifth anniversary of Obamacare being signed into law which Cruz addressed.
“Five years ago today, the president signed Obamacare into law. Within hours, Liberty University went to court filing a lawsuit to stop that failed law. Instead of the joblessness, instead of the millions forced into part-time work, instead of the millions who’ve lost their health insurance, lost their doctors, have faced skyrocketing health insurance premiums, imagine in 2017 a new president signing legislation repealing every word of Obamacare,” Cruz shared.
He asked the audience to imagine a president and federal government who passed true health care reform, implements a simple flat tax, abolishing the IRS, secured the borders, respected religious liberty, defends the sanctity of life, upholds marriage, protects the right to keep and bear arms, protects privacy rights, promotes school choice and respects local and state control of education, and stood unapologetically for Israel, against a nuclear Iran and against radical Islamic terrorism.
Announcing his campaign for President after encouraging those listening to sign-up for text alerts Cruz stated:
God’s blessing has been on America from the very beginning of this nation, and I believe God isn’t done with America yet.
I believe in you. I believe in the power of millions of courageous conservatives rising up to reignite the promise of America, and that is why today I am announcing that I’m running for President of the United States.
It is a time for truth. It is a time for liberty. It is a time to reclaim the Constitution of the United States.
I am honored to stand with each and every one of you courageous conservatives as we come together to reclaim the promise of America, to reclaim the mandate, the hope and opportunity for our children and our children’s children. We stand together for liberty.
This is our fight. The answer will not come from Washington. It will come only from the men and women across this country, from men and women, from people of faith, from lovers of liberty, from people who respect the Constitution.
It will only come as it has come at every other time of challenge in this country, when the American people stand together and say we will get back to the principles that have made this country great. We will get back and restore that shining city on a hill that is the United States of America.
His speech in its entirety is found here.