Judge Roy Moore |
A former state Supreme Court chief justice who is bidding for the office of governor in Alabama says Americans from shore to shore are going to need to rise up to halt the advance of a government that wants to tell them what to say, think and believe.
"I think we (in Alabama) can be a leader on these issues by joining with 33 other states and saying, 'We'll take no more from Washington. We'll take no more of this interference with our education system, with our economic system,'" said Judge Roy Moore, the jurist removed from office after he erected a monument of the Ten Commandments in the state's highest court building and refused to remove it.
Moore leads all likely Republican candidates for governor in Alabama, as well as Democrat Congressman Artur Davis, in what is seen as a testy race for the open seat in 2010. The campaign is being billed as a national contest between two strikingly different candidates – one a defender of Obama policies and the other an ardent critic.
In an interview with WND, Moore left no doubt on which side he stands.
"I cannot believe this stuff that Obama's doing now. It's past irrational," he said. "He just said the U.S. is one of the largest Muslim countries!"
Moore's astonishment at such a claim was understandable, given the inaccuracy of the statement.
Obama's comment was, "Now, the flip side is I think that the United States and the West generally, we have to educate ourselves more effectively on Islam. And one of the points I want to make is, is that if you actually took the number of Muslims Americans, we'd be one of the largest Muslim countries in the world."
As the Weekly Standard pointed out, Obama's claim American Muslims could make the U.S. one of the largest Islamic countries is not demographically true. The most generous estimates put America's Muslim population at about 8 million, which would barely place the U.S. in the top 42 Muslim countries worldwide.
"It's amazing. This man's trying to destroy our country," Moore, who formally launched his campaign this week, told WND.
It sounds like his concerns are more national in scope than on a state level, and he confirms that's probably true. But he said those are the issues confronting states and Americans right now: federal plans for a national health care, federal takeover of private companies, federal stimulus dollars demanding states perform certain programs, federal promotions of homosexuality, federal imposition of "hate crimes" legislation, federal tax increases to pay for a huge federal spending spree since Obama has taken office.
Davis, the likely Democratic candidate, is a friend of Obama from Harvard Law School who stands behind all of the president's controversial policies.
Moore, on the other hand, stood up for the traditional foundations of the United States – including an acknowledgement of God – as revealed in a video, which shows the statement Moore was making when he was being grilled by then-state Attorney General Bill Pryor about Moor's refusal to stop acknowledging God .
Moore's refusal came about because he determined that a federal court order to remove the monument violated his rights and the state constitution, which recognizes divine intervention in America's history.
Moore had been picked as a likely winner in the 2010 governor's race by a poll in February, and just last month a poll by Davis revealed he was ahead of all other likely candidates – except Moore.
Moore, who has outlined his own trek in his autobiographical manifesto, "So Help Me God," told WND states have to reaffirm the 10th Amendment, which reserves to states those powers not specifically granted to the federal government.
But he also noted that amendment cites the authority of the people.
"That means sometimes the government just doesn't have rights," he said, citing freedom of conscience.
"Here we have the government passing hate crimes, announcing gay pride month, supporting indoctrination of our children in our schools. They're just completely saying, 'We're going to tell you what you believe and how to think.' We've got to take a stand," Moore said.
His solution for many of the problems facing Alabama, and the nation?
"The government has to get out of the way," he told WND. "Personal responsibility is something we've got to instill in people. For many years it's been the government taking care of you. 'Whatever problem you have the government should solve it.' That's not true," he said.
"Supply and demand works. Free enterprise works. We should reward productivity instead of taxing it," he said.
He said he'll focus first on primary opponents.
In an editorial, WND founder and editor Joseph Farah wrote that Moore is the type of leader who is needed.
"Judge Roy Moore refused to back down in his acknowledgement of God. He could have kept his comfortable position by laying down before the federal inquisitors exceeding their scope of constitutional authority. But he chose principle over pragmatism. He chose God over government," he wrote.
"And that's why he needs to be elected governor of Alabama. As governor, he will stand up to Barack Obama's Washington, just as he stood up to George Bush's Washington. But as governor he will have far more authority than he did as chief justice. As governor, he will be able to exert his state's sovereignty, to claim those constitutional powers reserved to the states rather than placed in the hands of Congress, to make Alabama a bastion of true liberty and a shining city on a hill for all Americans.
Moore's book is being published by WND Books and he serves as a WND columnist.
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