Invoking heroes from the Revolutionary War to World War II, Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-MN, told her audience at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) that they are the incarnation of these patriots, charged with “choosing greatness, not decline.”
President Barack Obama, she said, has set into place policies “intending to fail,” in essence, “choosing decline.”
Looking back into history more than once, Bachmann recalled one Democrat, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who she described as “taking a manageable recession and turning it into a Great Depression.” Obama is setting the nation on the same course, she claimed, supporting policies like national healthcare and energy reforms, and growing the budget deficit by trillions.
Obama’s policies also fly in the face of those rights envisioned by the Founding Fathers — who have been invoked by nearly every speaker at CPAC so far — particularly liberty and freedom.
“These are rights that government can never take away from us,” she said.
“What does that say about Obama’s thought police and Obama’s speech police,” she asked, without explanation.
The Minnesota Republican, who is known for her controversial statements as much as she is for her popularity among the tea party movement, generally stayed with the patriot theme Friday, giving her audience the major task of saving the nation — like the founders built the nation.
“The founders .. did not choose decline. They chose us, they chose greatness for us. And they were wise.”