Text of Jesse Ventura's Speech at Ron Paul's Rally For the Republic, September 2, 2008

Jesse Ventura

I thought they were going to play some music, but I guess we kind of preempted it, but anyway.

hello everybody, great to be here. I uh .. I haven't given a political speech for quite some time now, and but I felt that this was the occasion to come out of retirement.

Now, first let me say this...booing does not bother me, so if I say something and you all start booing, remember, I take that as a sign of affection, having been a villain in wrestling. But uh its terrific to be here and a few of the things that i want to quickly talk about is yeah, take your seats, sit down and relax, you've got a long day, people...a lot of speakers and keep your enthusiasm up. But I'm here because lets remember something...I am not a democrat...and i am not a republican...and I say that very proudly today because I think these two parties are destroying our country. and let me for a moment say at what stage they're destroying our country. It is called the National Debt. we are now over 9 trillion dollars in debt. And who is responsible for this 9 trillion dollar debt? the democrats and Republicans are responsible. and what solution are they offering? None. Nothing. you don't hear one word in debates about the debt. Why? Because they're equally responsible and its indefensible. It is indefensible.

Imagine if you would for a moment, a baby born today, a baby born today, September 2, 2008, before it takes its first breath of air, is already $30,000 in debt. Now, now, imagine that baby can't even get a job for 15 years, to start working that debt off, can they? so what will that thirty, at the rate we're going, what will that $30000 dollar debt be to that child be to that child by the time that child reaches, say age 15? Who knows? at the rate we're going. and we, we have to start fighting back, its that simple. and the way we fight back is coming to conventions like this, and voting your heart and your conscience.

Remember something, if you will, about voting: voting is not a horse race. You're not going there, gee i gotta pick the winner, so I can brag to my friends, I picked so and so and he or she won. Voting is voting your heart and voting your conscience. And when you do that, don't ever, ever let a democrat or Republican tell you you've wasted your vote. In fact, the fact is, if you don't vote your heart and conscience, then you have wasted your vote. (unintelligible) the key to all of this, and I know, I have a little bit of experience, the key to all of this is we must open up the debates.

Let's go back in history for a moment if we may; the year was 1992, and there was a little Texan, another little Texan, we've got a Texan here today, but we had another Texan by the name of Ross Perot. Now, Ross Perot got 1 out of 5 votes, he got 19.7 percent that year. Well in 1992, all presidential debates were under the National League of Women Voters, which is essentially a fairly neutral group. You have conservative, you have liberal, you have independents. What happened after 1992? Here's what happened: Perot scared the establishment so badly, that our illustrious congress took the presidential debates away from the National League of Women Voters, and they, they created another federal bureaucracy called the National Debate Commission. Which I might add happened to be run by the former heads of the democratic and republican parties. So what happened when 96 came around? ross Perot had qualified for nearly $30 million of your tax dollars in the 92 race. Yet, Bill Clinton and Bob Dole got together, Bob Dole did not want Perot in the 96 debates cause he felt it would erode from his conservative base. So him and Clinton got together and cut a deal: Clinton agreed because he didn't want debates at all, he was so far ahead, all a debate could do is bring him down. So what happened was the 2 people cut a deal to eliminate Perot from the 96 debates, they took it to the Federal Debate Commission, then of course it was rubber stamped. So we did not hear Ross Perot in 1996, a person that got 1 out of 5 votes. we were not allowed to hear him, a person who qualified for millions of our tax dollars, we were not allowed to hear him, why? because 2 people made that decision. I ask you, is that what democracy is supposed to be? Well, there's a group called rock the debate out there now, and I encourage you all to support this group rock the debate, because they're working to open up these debates so that a candidate like Jesse ventura can win. Or, Lets bring it into modern times, in 2008, a candidate like Dr. Ron Paul can win. I, I proved, I, we proved, I'm gonna tell ya man, we only had 1 paid person in my entire campaign. And that was the campaign manager, because he left his private sector job to do it full time after the primary. My campaign was completely volunteer, and you know how much money I actually raised to become Governor of Minnesota? $300,000. Now, the Democrats and Republicans, they spent nearly 10 Million. Now do you realize why I'm not popular with them? Number 1 because I can beat them. So It can be done. Don't ever allow anyone to tell you it can't be done, it can be done. All, all we need, (crowd chants run jesse run) not this year. all we need is a fair and level playing field. That's what we're here to achieve, is to try and get a fair and level playing field so the rest of us America, and believe me, here in Minnesota, independents on polls, we're the majority 40 percent . And yet, what are we made to do? We're made to pick the lesser of 2 evils. well, in the words of the late, great Jerry Garcia of The Grateful Dead, jerry always said; 'if you're made to pick the lesser of 2 evils, It means you are still picking evil". Now, we need to demand more, we need to demand more of our elected officials, and we need to demand honesty. i'm tired of being sold a bill of goods. I'm tired of the dishonesty that's in government today. But you know who's responsible for it? We are. personal responsibility, we are responsible.

Now, I've been living in Mexico for half the year. You know, i live with those brown skinned people that we're so scared of that we're gonna build walls and barbed wire fences and all of this stuff, and we're going to turn my country into East Berlin, because we fear these brown skinned people who manage to come up here looking for economic advantage, looking to help their families the same way you want to help yours, and to me, when I look at the United States being turned into East Berlin, it is not the country that I served when I was in the Navy. And let me say this for a moment, for those who doubt whether I have the right to say what I say, my father was a World War 2 veteran, my mother was a world war 2 veteran, how many people can say their mom served as a nurse in North Africa? My brother's a Vietnam veteran, as am I. So I think my family has earned the right to speak in whats supposed to be a free country.

It is time for us to take our country back, and to make these elected people start looking at that document called the Constitution. What can our country possibly be without the very document that holds all of it together. Today, the Democrats and Republicans could give a damn less about the Constitution. they violate it all the time. i mean look what just happened, the democrats gutted the fourth amendment, they gave the President the right to wiretap you, read your e-mails, and all of that stuff. it's called illegal search and seizure, just as the first amendment gives us the right to free speech. Well, let's remember this: it isn't popular speech that must be protected, popular speech doesn't need protection, its unpopular speech that needs protection.

and now if we may, let's move to that second amendment. Now, I'm not a gun-totin fool, but I get so pissed off when I hear them say, well, we're not going to take away your ability to hunt. Well, ladies and gentlemen, I got news for ya. When our forefathers wrote the Constitution with the right to bear arms, it was not about hunting and fishing. Because Back then, if you didn't hunt and fish, you didn't eat. The second amendment, the right to bear arms is there so that we the public, if our government gets out of control, we have the ability to rise up and change it. Just because we believe in that amendment does not make us fools, it does not make us gun crazy people. There's a reason they put that in there and as I said the reason is so we have the ability, now many people have said to me well wait a minute. how could we the citizens ever stand up to the US government and their entire military might? Well wait a minute, i got the answer. We threw everything we had at Vietnam, and they were nothin but a bunch of farmers with a few AK-47s. and they withstood it all. So ladies and gentlemen, don't ever let them take our rights, the hell with this Patriot Act. If you want to be patriotic, then stand up for the Bill of Rights. Because once they strip the rights from you, you will pay hell to get them back. You will, and we're in the process of it right now.

Now, I'm going to go on to another subject that a lot of people don't want to discuss today, I know I discuss it, its amazing, I get attacked. that's called something called 9/11. why is it that when you ask questions about 9/11, its all out of bounds? well I got news for you, when I was going through underwater demolition SEAL training, when I got to the demolition phase, I had a Chief warrant Officer who taught me that there is no dumb question, that if you don't understand something, you are not out of line for asking a question. And when you ask that question, you have every right and deserve to get an honest answer. Well, here's my question that I want you all, 2 questions that I want you to think about today. Number 1: Why has the United States Department of Justice not charged Usama Bin Laden for 9/11? now, they charged him when he blew up our embassy in Africa in 98. Why the biggest terrorism act in history have they failed to officially charge him for? Why have they not convened a grand jury, presented their evidence, and got an indictment? Second: second, go to the Internet, go to the FBI website and go to the international list of top 10 terrorists. You will see Bin Laden there. bring his name up, and his picture. Amazingly, all the charges, the embassy of 98 and all this other stuff is all listed. But ironically nothing on 9/11. Nothing. Now, when the FBI was pressed as to why 9/11 wasn't included? Their response was we don't have enough evidence. Now people, if you're like me, that is extremely disturbing. We fought 2 wars, we changed our entire foreign policy, and we've had the Patriot Act put on us all supposedly because Usama Bin laden. Well, I think we should have to charge, aren't you innocent in this country until proven guilty? Well, as distasteful as that is, he deserves the same thing. He needs to be charged, why is he not charged if he did it? I'm down to 4 minutes they got this clock timer here so we'll start winding it up. But again, I leave you with those two thoughts to think about, to think about a moment, why has that not happened? Why did we have a president who stonewalled any investigation of 9/11 for over 2 years? Well, all I'm saying is that the truth lies with us ladies and gentlemen, we are the people of the United States of America. If we have a terrible media, its our fault. because we should hold them to the higher standard and demand more from them .

You know, while I was living in Mexico a couple of years ago, you know what disturbed me the most? Watching satellite TV and for 1 entire month our entire news media was focused on the death of Anna Nicole Smith. Wait a minute, don't boo Anna, she can't help it, she's dead. She can't control the media, she's dead. But I ask you, that's the dumbing down of America. That's what our news media spoon feeds us today, the dumbing down of America.

I'll finish off, because I'm down to two minutes, by saying this: We, we can take our country back. It can be done. But it doesn't, its not going to happen with talk. its going to happen with action. I wrote the book, "Don't start the Revolution without Me", well I'm here. I'm here, and believe me, with people like myself, doctor Paul, and all the rest of us, let's get the revolution going. I will say this, If I see it over the next two to three years, If I see it start to rise up, and if this country shows me that's its worth it for me to do it, well then maybe in 2012. Wait, chanting and yelling isn't going to do it. i have to see it by action, and I will be watching. And if I see it, in 2012, we'll give them a race they'll never forget. Thank you.

Text transcribed from the following VIDEO: Jesse Ventura's Full Speech by Samuel Rubenfeld

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Jesse Ventura: The Second Amendment gives us the right to take our government back

Ben Josephs

Wed Sep 3

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