1245 Obama - World Citizen

Newt Gingrich Addresses GOP Fundraiser, June 8, 2009

Let me be clear. I am not a citizen of the world!

I think the entire concept is intellectual nonsense and stunningly dangerous.

There is no world sovereignty. There is no world system of law. There is, in fact, no circumstance under which I would like to be a citizen of North Korea, Zimbabwe, Venezuela, Cuba or Russia. I am a citizen...

I am a citizen of the United States of America, and the rest of this speech is about the United States of America!

America is a unique civilization. Callista and I a couple of years ago did a movie called Re-discovering God in America, which is a walking tour of the city. We did it deliberately. It was our answer to the 9th circuit court, which is, in fact, irrationally out of touch with this country and which actually ruled that One nation under God was unconstitutional, grounds, in my judgment, for abolishing the court and re-recruiting (ph) it.

That is not a radical position. Thomas Jefferson and eliminated 18 out of 35 federal judges, over one half of all federal judges. I am merely proposing one court of appeals. I am a moderate on this issue. But the core of this is a very straightforward historic debate. It's not a theological debate. It's not a religious debate, despite every effort of the elite media and the academic left to distort it. It's a fundamental question of political history.

If you go to the National Archives, you will find the Declaration of Independence, a political document. It says, We are endowed by our creator with certain inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. This is fundamental to the nature of America. We are the only country in history which says your personal rights come from God directly to you, and you loan the government sovereignty, but the center of sovereignty in America is inevitably and inexorably with the citizen because it is inalienable. That's the core document of this country.

That is why quotas and Sotomayor are wrong. That is why rationing in health care is wrong. No government bureaucrat has the right to take from you the rights that God gave you, and rationing under health care is inevitably limiting your life at the whim of a bureaucrat and at the manipulation of a politician!