Moral Conscience-Keyes and Douglas

The candidate who will win, Dr. Alan Keyes, our U.S. Senate hopeful in Illinois, called on a crowd to return the country to its moral values and “conscience,” speaking where Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas debated for a Senate seat. Isn’t this picture just a kick?

About 250 people converged on Lincoln-Douglas Square Downtown Alton for the midday, 90-minute rally featuring Republican candidate Alan Keyes, who is facing Democrat Barack Obama in the November election.

Before touting reasons that Illinoisans should vote for him, Keyes pushed for the re-election of President Bush.”There is more at stake than there ever has been,” said Keyes, 54, of the Nov. 2 election as he stood on the platform between brass statues of Lincoln and Douglas. “It is life and death for our country and life and death for moral principles and for the heart and soul for our people. We will make decisions that will influence the fate of our freedom and of our public.”

The difference between Bush and challenger John Kerry, he said, “is one has proved he will defend our lives and someone who doesn’t understand they are at stake.”

Keyes holds a doctorate in government from Harvard University. He repeatedly stressed his “pro-family, pro one-man-one-woman marriage, pro-Second Amendment and pro-life” stances in a quick, booming voice.”We do not have the right to take the life of a human being based on its stage of development,” he said regarding abortion. He accused Obama of “talking out of both sides of his mouth” regarding gay marriage — depending on the audience — and for voting for anti-business bills in the Illinois Senate that kill jobs and the state’s tax base.

He referred to Obama as “left wing” and himself as “mainstream.”"If you elect Barack Obama, Sen. Dick Durbin will be your conservative senator,” he said, referring to the generally liberal Durbin.Keyes localized his speech to rail against the medical malpractice climate in Madison County and said the election of Republicans to the Illinois legislature would send a mandate for tort reform.

His platform also includes caps for medical malpractice awards; elimination of the inheritance tax; school choice, including charter and magnet schools and vouchers; replacing the federal income tax with a sales tax; low taxes for businesses; and reversing trade policies.In response to criticism that he doesn’t live in Illinois but is running for office to represent the state in Washington, D.C., Keyes said he has a national power base that would benefit his constituents.

“They will pay me more attention than someone who has no constituency in their state,” he said of other senators. “There are senators who know they are in the (U.S.) Senate because I worked to get them there. Barack Obama can talk until the cows come home, but he can’t have that influence for 1,000 years that I have today.”

He also said it is to the advantage of Illinoisans to have a senator who is not part of a “small Chicago neighborhood clique.”

“We have the opportunity to end the reign of self-serving politicians,” he said.At the event was a truck bearing Texas license plates pulling a trailer with two, 6-foot-tall gray-painted, foam “tablets” with the Ten Commandments and a large replica of the Liberty Bell.

Someone rang the bell during portions of the rally, including to announce Keyes’ speech.Rebecca Stewart of Brighton said the rally was her first and called it “exciting.”

“I think he was honest and straightforward, and he represents how I feel as a resident of Illinois,” Stewart said.

James McAfee drove from Belleville to hear Keyes. “He was good, pretty much what I expected since I’ve been following him closely.”

He said he shares Keyes’ viewpoints on abortion, “pro-family and one-man-one-woman for marriage.” Gay marriages, he said, “are a threat to our whole culture and society.”

Madison County Republicans also spoke in behalf of, among others, Madison County Board member Eugene Frizzo, who is running for County Board chairman; and for Judge Lloyd Karmeier, running for Illinois Supreme Court.