Gregory Poulos
Palm Bay, FL
February 15, 2008

Alan Keyes was on the ballot for the Florida Republican Presidential Primary election, and even people who have voted did not know it.

Three days after he announced his candidacy in September, he participated in the Values Voter Debate in Ft. Lauderdale and came in third place in a straw poll of people present, when the field included about ten candidates (not all of whom showed up for the debate). Since then, he has not been invited to any of the debates in Florida.

In the Iowa Caucuses, there were procedural aberrations, and no votes for Alan Keyes were reported — even though he had more than twice the votes of Duncan Hunter. When votes for Alan Keyes have been cast in the primary elections, they have not been reported over national television. On the rare occasion that he has had an interview on a national program, many go to his web site as a result and sign his Pledge for America's Revival. Many have indicated they were glad to find a candidate they could support, one who says what they believe. Many were giving up on voting, before they knew they had such a choice as Alan Keyes.

Many Republicans, especially the conservatives, have been frustrated with the lack of choice they think they have. So why has Alan Keyes remained the invisible candidate? The media will say he has not achieved enough percentage in polls (usually of a few hundred people, often without his name given as a choice). Yet we have seen how inaccurate these polls can be. And is it the responsibility of the press to withhold information from the public that a legitimate candidate is running? And by their withholding the information and excluding him from the debates, how is he to achieve any numbers in the polls when people do not know he is running?

Alan Keyes has written articles on "The Crisis of the Republic." He has argued that this election is critical for the survival of the American Republic, and in an interview with WorldNetDaily stated "that our system of self-government is under assault." When you consider that people's actual choice is being limited by the withholding of information about the existence of a candidate — and you hear of several difficulties in actual voting (note that besides Iowa, McCain was suing to keep some polling places open late because people were turned away and told to come back later because the machines weren't working, Kucinich called for a recount in New Hampshire, and I have heard from a Florida voter who voted absentee of thousands of absentee ballots being mailed to the wrong address) — it is hard to argue with Alan. But what he is really saying is that none of the other candidates is addressing the real heart of the problem. Some get a piece of the puzzle, say the issues of life and marriage, others border security and immigration, but Alan Keyes presents himself as the complete conservative.

But if people have voted for someone they felt they had to compromise themselves to support, have they really exercised fully their freedom of choice — when they did not realize that they could have voted for a conservative with whom they were in complete or nearly complete agreement.

In a republic, people have to be responsible. People who voted ignorantly could have gotten on the internet, found who was on the ballot, researched the candidates through their web sites and articles about them (on the Internet, for as we have seen, much of the media, even those which claim to be conservative, have ignored the most conservative candidate, Alan Keyes).

Ronald Reagan spoke of morning in America. I say it is time to "Wake up, America!" You can't expect the media to tell you the whole truth. Get out and get it yourselves, and then don't keep it to yourselves, but help others to know and act on the truth that is out there. As an earlier Republican president said, "[W]e here highly resolve. . . that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom. . . and that government of the people. . .by the people. . .for the people. . . shall not perish from the earth." Do not let such freedom and government (of, by, and for the people) be taken from you. Take it back.