I voted for Alan Keyes when he ran in 1996 and 2000. I found him to be articulate (the word that always comes to my mind FIRST when I think of him), straightforward (a rarity in politics), and a man who spoke my truth. He is unabashed in his view of the issues of our time (click on this link to read his stance on the issues from his website) and his enthusiasm and passion have reminded me many times of Martin Luther King, Jr., even if his stance on the issues have been different in some respects.
Keyes' bid for the White House in 2008 has been passed over by the media, including Fox News, even though he accumulated more votes than many other candidates who received adequate media attention. I was very glad to find his name on the Republican ballot here in California, and voted for him a third time.
Keyes left the Republican Party once McCain's nomination was in the bag. Claiming that the Republican Party was hardly different from the Democratic Party (a parallel I've definitely noticed over the years), he has now joined the Constitution Party as one of their candidates. Keith called me from work this afternoon and asked me to watch his speech to the Constitution Party's delegates as he vies for their nomination for the Presidential Race. His speech was both powerful and empowering.
The argument against voting for Keyes in the General Election is the fear that the conservatives will vote for him over McCain and split the Reublican Party and thereby insure a Democratic victory. Of course, with Hillary and Obama still at bat in the seventeen inning, the Democratic Party is hardly united either. But the fear of having another Perot incident and thereby putting a Democrat in the White House(either of them would be bad news in my book simply because I disagree with nearly every item on the Democratic platform) may quench whatever chance Keyes has of breaking through and getting some solid support from conservatives disenchanted with the Republican Party.
From the Alan Keyes website:
Seasoned statesman. Former Assistant Secretary of State Alan Keyes spent 11 years with the U.S. State Department. He served in the U.S. Foreign Service and on the staff of the National Security Council before becoming Ronald Reagan's Assistant Secretary of State for International Organizations (1985-88). In the interim, from 1983 to 1985, he served as ambassador to the United Nations Economic and Social Council, where he represented America's sovereign interests in the U.N. General Assembly.
Genuine conservative. Keyes was President of Citizens Against Government Waste (1989-91) and founder of National Taxpayers' Action Day. As the two-time Republican nominee for U.S. Senate in Maryland, he challenged liberal Democrats Paul Sarbanes (1988) and Barbara Mikulski (1992). In the 1996 and 2000 Republican presidential campaigns, Alan Keyes eloquently elevated the national political debate as a candidate for president. With his unequivocal pro-life, pro-family message, he forced the GOP leadership to address America's moral crisis. His political views are consistently based on America's founding ideals, those in the Declaration of Independence and U.S. Constitution.
Alan hosted his own syndicated radio show throughout the 1990s, America's Wake-Up Call, and a television commentary show, Alan Keyes is Making Sense, during 2002 on MSNBC. He is currently writing books and speaking publicly on America's moral crisis.
Well-educated leader. Keyes has a Ph.D. in government from Harvard and wrote his dissertation on constitutional theory. He served as Interim President of Alabama A&M University in 1991. He speaks French and has studied Spanish, Russian, and ancient Greek, and is the author of Masters of the Dream: The Strength and Betrayal of Black America (1995); and Our Character, Our Future: Reclaiming America's Moral Destiny (1996).
Pro-life champion. Keyes has unashamedly and consistently raised the standard of unalienable rights — and Biblical truth — in defense of the unborn. He confronts the culture of death with compelling and inspiring reasons why abortion must be banned from our land.
Dedicated family man. Keyes and his wife Jocelyn have three children: Francis, Maya, and Andrew. Alan's stated purpose in life, like that of America's Founders, is to provide a secure future for our posterity.
So we'll see whether his campaign will take off ... or not. Much depends on whether he receives media coverage in any way. I doubt that he'll be permitted at the forthcoming debates between McCain and the Democratic nominee, but if he does, it definitely could catapult him into a position that may sink McCain and allow a Democrat into the White House.
Obviously, my feelings are mixed. I love Keyes and think he would make an extraordinary president. He has much more extensive foreign policy experience than the other three candidates and has worked a great deal with the United Nations and therefore has relationships with major allies (and non-allies) that could be helpful in global politicking. He is plain-speaking yet articulate, passionate yet self-controlled, a Christian who recalls old-time preachers yet sounds a great deal like MLK Jr. in his views of justice and poverty. If elected, he would be the second Catholic president after JFK as well as the first African-American president.
So we'll watch and see how things develop over the coming weeks. I'm especially interested in seeing how mnay conservatives may bol with Republican Party and vote with the Constitution Party and the only conservative in the 2008 Presidential Election.
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