An Interview with Michele Bachmann: The 2012 Presidential Race and Her “Core of Conviction”.
I had an opportunity to review Michele Bachmann’s new book, “Core of Conviction” (being released Monday, November 21st) and speak with her about it this past Sunday. Admittedly, I found that the core values that Michele talks about in her book really resonated with a single-mom Tea Partier like me. We discussed a variety of subjects: her motivation for running, the attacks she and her family have suffered, President Obama’s performance in office so far, and the new Occupy Wall Street movement.
TRM(TheRightMixx): Let’s talk about your book, I often say that people [in politics] leave behind their core values for their own political promotion and you name your book “Core Conviction” which seems to go against that common theme. Why do you think this is going to work for you?
MB (Michele Bachmann): Because I’m motivated by my core conviction, that’s the reason I’m in politics… My convictions are based upon the values I learned growing up. They are the animating [ind.] principles that the founders laid out for us for the country. That’s what made us the most successful nation in the history of the world, and now that we’ve ignored those core convictions those principles, we’re seeing the negative consequences to the nation.
TRM: In your book I was pretty impressed by your relationship between your husband and yourself and you devoted a whole chapter to him. You’ve been attacked tremendously by the gay lobby that has gone specifically after your husband with some accusations; however they haven’t gone after any of the other candidate’s spouses, not Mitt Romney’s wife, not Rick Perry’s wife. Why do you think your husband is fair game to these accusations and how do you answer?
MB: It’s hard for me to speculate other than we know that early on in the summer that there were reports from the gay community that our campaign was going to be the one they targeted in order to advance their agenda. That’s all I can say is that they wanted to use me and our campaign to advance their agenda and I’m not interested in giving them a platform to advance their agenda.
TRM: You also devote an entire chapter to [President] Carter and you talked about how your husband and you became disillusioned by him. In that chapter you mention the White House Conference on Families and told your husband that the President can’t define what the family is. What is your opinion of cultural reconstruction of society through legislation and have you seen some of these similarities through the Obama Presidency?
MB: No man should have their conscience dictated to by government. Each man and each woman needs to be able to have the freedom of their own conscience. That’s where Jefferson was coming from and that is a good sense of values that our nation has upheld.
TRM: Do you believe that Barack Obama agrees with you in having freedom of our own conscience and has he reflected this in his presidency?
MB: I think that he and I hold different values; I don’t think that our values are the same. I wouldn’t presume to identify the thoughts and intents of his heart but based upon what his comments are and the legislation he gets behind we certainly have very different values. He is the most pro-abortion president in the United States and I’m very pro-life and that is just one example of a value that is very different.
TRM: Going back to the Carter presidency you basically said the result of his presidency was enlarging government, weakening our standing in the world and decreasing responsibility in the home. When Reagan came in he came in swinging against those three problems. How do we get that Reaganesque result after 2012?
MB: Big government is the basis of the destruction of the family because big government requires ever and ever shares of the family income and that puts tremendous stress on the family. And when the government lays increasing share on the family income, government takes away our choices by taking away our income. When it comes to foreign policy, Jimmy Carter was as naïve as Barack Obama, but I think president Obama is more so. He allowed the United States to enter into discussions with Iran without any preconditions. What President Obama did is give the Iranians the luxury of time to develop a nuclear weapon. This has been profoundly dangerous and may have in fact changed the course of history. Whether Barack Obama is naïve or intentional the result is the same, and that is he has put the United States in a weaker far more vulnerable position today by an order of magnitude than we were the day he took office. It could be that President Obama has given Iran that opportunity to become not only the dominant party in the Middle East but also the dominant party that can bring about the eventual annihilation of millions of people in the world.
TRM: You dedicate an entire chapter to the Tea Party and at the time the Tea Party was being born, how did you feel?
MB: To see the American people rise up and reclaim the liberty that has been so hard fought and won for them was thrilling to see. I believe that we are going to see an even greater force turnout in 2012 as reaction to President Obama’s hand in handling of the economy and also as a reaction against Occupy Wall Street. And the absolute stark contrast they bear to the Tea Party. Occupy Wall Street stands for people saying they want other people to pay for their stuff, they want an all powerful {} to take care of them so that they bear no responsibility. Again the antithesis of what the nation stands for which is no one owes you a living, everyone has an equal chance and opportunity at liberty. I think this election of all elections will be the defining election of our time between Barack Obama who self identifies with Occupy Wall Street and someone like me who identifies and was an early creator of the Tea Party movement.
TRM: What is your game plan to ensure Obama doesn’t win, whether you get the nomination or you don’t get the nomination? And what advice would you give to the Tea party to assist with making sure Obama doesn’t win in 2012?
MB: First of all I would say that it really does count who the nominee is because it doesn’t help to have a frugal socialist as our nominee. We have to have someone who truly believes and has lived these values of the Tea Party movement. Not a chameleon, not someone who comes along as a Johnny-come-lately but someone who truly has lived it and is someone that we can trust to stand for our values as president. The Tea Party right now needs to come together and realize that the candidate matters. That’s why my book Core Conviction is so important. It talks about who I am, what I stand for, and what I will do as President of the US, we can’t settle.
TRM(TheRightMixx): Let’s talk about your book, I often say that people [in politics] leave behind their core values for their own political promotion and you name your book “Core Conviction” which seems to go against that common theme. Why do you think this is going to work for you?
MB (Michele Bachmann): Because I’m motivated by my core conviction, that’s the reason I’m in politics… My convictions are based upon the values I learned growing up. They are the animating [ind.] principles that the founders laid out for us for the country. That’s what made us the most successful nation in the history of the world, and now that we’ve ignored those core convictions those principles, we’re seeing the negative consequences to the nation.
TRM: In your book I was pretty impressed by your relationship between your husband and yourself and you devoted a whole chapter to him. You’ve been attacked tremendously by the gay lobby that has gone specifically after your husband with some accusations; however they haven’t gone after any of the other candidate’s spouses, not Mitt Romney’s wife, not Rick Perry’s wife. Why do you think your husband is fair game to these accusations and how do you answer?
MB: It’s hard for me to speculate other than we know that early on in the summer that there were reports from the gay community that our campaign was going to be the one they targeted in order to advance their agenda. That’s all I can say is that they wanted to use me and our campaign to advance their agenda and I’m not interested in giving them a platform to advance their agenda.
TRM: You also devote an entire chapter to [President] Carter and you talked about how your husband and you became disillusioned by him. In that chapter you mention the White House Conference on Families and told your husband that the President can’t define what the family is. What is your opinion of cultural reconstruction of society through legislation and have you seen some of these similarities through the Obama Presidency?
MB: No man should have their conscience dictated to by government. Each man and each woman needs to be able to have the freedom of their own conscience. That’s where Jefferson was coming from and that is a good sense of values that our nation has upheld.
TRM: Do you believe that Barack Obama agrees with you in having freedom of our own conscience and has he reflected this in his presidency?
MB: I think that he and I hold different values; I don’t think that our values are the same. I wouldn’t presume to identify the thoughts and intents of his heart but based upon what his comments are and the legislation he gets behind we certainly have very different values. He is the most pro-abortion president in the United States and I’m very pro-life and that is just one example of a value that is very different.
TRM: Going back to the Carter presidency you basically said the result of his presidency was enlarging government, weakening our standing in the world and decreasing responsibility in the home. When Reagan came in he came in swinging against those three problems. How do we get that Reaganesque result after 2012?
MB: Big government is the basis of the destruction of the family because big government requires ever and ever shares of the family income and that puts tremendous stress on the family. And when the government lays increasing share on the family income, government takes away our choices by taking away our income. When it comes to foreign policy, Jimmy Carter was as naïve as Barack Obama, but I think president Obama is more so. He allowed the United States to enter into discussions with Iran without any preconditions. What President Obama did is give the Iranians the luxury of time to develop a nuclear weapon. This has been profoundly dangerous and may have in fact changed the course of history. Whether Barack Obama is naïve or intentional the result is the same, and that is he has put the United States in a weaker far more vulnerable position today by an order of magnitude than we were the day he took office. It could be that President Obama has given Iran that opportunity to become not only the dominant party in the Middle East but also the dominant party that can bring about the eventual annihilation of millions of people in the world.
TRM: You dedicate an entire chapter to the Tea Party and at the time the Tea Party was being born, how did you feel?
MB: To see the American people rise up and reclaim the liberty that has been so hard fought and won for them was thrilling to see. I believe that we are going to see an even greater force turnout in 2012 as reaction to President Obama’s hand in handling of the economy and also as a reaction against Occupy Wall Street. And the absolute stark contrast they bear to the Tea Party. Occupy Wall Street stands for people saying they want other people to pay for their stuff, they want an all powerful {} to take care of them so that they bear no responsibility. Again the antithesis of what the nation stands for which is no one owes you a living, everyone has an equal chance and opportunity at liberty. I think this election of all elections will be the defining election of our time between Barack Obama who self identifies with Occupy Wall Street and someone like me who identifies and was an early creator of the Tea Party movement.
TRM: What is your game plan to ensure Obama doesn’t win, whether you get the nomination or you don’t get the nomination? And what advice would you give to the Tea party to assist with making sure Obama doesn’t win in 2012?
MB: First of all I would say that it really does count who the nominee is because it doesn’t help to have a frugal socialist as our nominee. We have to have someone who truly believes and has lived these values of the Tea Party movement. Not a chameleon, not someone who comes along as a Johnny-come-lately but someone who truly has lived it and is someone that we can trust to stand for our values as president. The Tea Party right now needs to come together and realize that the candidate matters. That’s why my book Core Conviction is so important. It talks about who I am, what I stand for, and what I will do as President of the US, we can’t settle.
By Tiffiny Ruegner and The Right Mixx
Obamacare law provides for a 3.5% tax on all home sales starting in 2014. Why is there no mention of this? This could get homeowners, home builders, and real estate brokers ready to instantly demand repeal of Obamacare.
Reply to this
I love all you patriots and agree with every last word of your policies and discussions, but did you ever consider changing the name of the Party to, say, reflect your current and overall ideology and deflect criticism as being silly or analogous to the "Occupy" movement?! The Tea Party symbology IS powerful (a new revolution) but maybe it could be "Constitutional Tea Party" to emphasize that it's a revolution to bring in the same thing the first one did and remind Americans, especially foreign-born and Supreme Court justices, that the CONSTITUTION is what defines America!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Reply to this