State Sen. Jim Carlin received positive reviews inside the Sergeant Bluff Legion Hall on Monday morning when he announced his decision to run for the United States Senate seat. Carlin delivered a speech focused on freedom, family and free speech.
“It was excellent,” said Judy, who lives in Sioux City. “It was just what I believe. He stands for all the things I do – family, faith and freedom.”
Carlin said that generations of America paid a heavy price to protect freedom.
“Ronald Reagan once said that ‘freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction,’” he said. “Truer words have never been spoken.”
Carlin said he will speak for Americans who “cherish” their freedoms and wish for a Senator who will fight to keep them, preserve them, protect them and advance them.
“Those who want to worship God as they please and attend a church of their choice,” Carlin said. “Those who find wisdom in the Bible and are tired of being called bigots because they believe what’s in it. Those who affirm that all have a right to life, the right to protect themselves and their loved ones, to say as they see fit absent fear of being shunned or silenced.
“Those who believe we have a right to raise our children with the values we know will sustain them through life’s journey. Those who want to work hard to scale the economic ladder, having the freedom to be who they are, to flourish as they see fit, to live a life authored by God, and the right to bequeath to their children the fruits of their labor.”
Carlin, a veteran of the U.S. Army, said he is honoring the sacrifice of the American soldiers who have paid the ultimate price to preserve “this most precious gift bequeathed by our founders.”
He told a story about his pro-life conviction. He discussed serving on the board of an organization that helped orphaned children in Kenya. He talked about leading the effort to get the Heartbeat bill through the Iowa legislature.
“I believe that God is the author of life, that He created each one of us for a unique purpose for the good of all. To expel Him from our culture would destroy our humanity towards one another,” he said.
“I am here now because I believe that our country is under assault from abroad, from within, and that much of the freedom we treasure is in peril absent a new direction, a new vision, and some new energy in the United States Senate.”
Carlin talked about the threat of China. He called the American family the “most important institution in the United States.”
“Too many kids in America are growing up in homes without a father,” he said.
Carlin hit on his concerns with the 2020 election results. We’ll cover that in its own article later today.
He also took on Big Tech censorship.
“There are a handful of people in the United States more powerful than the leader of the free world,” Carlin said. “Two of them silenced the President of the United States. Another controls the planet’s largest search engine with the power to decide what we can find in the world’s largest library.
“No man, no woman, no monopoly should have that kind of power in the world’s greatest democracy.”
Carlin closed with a promise to stand up for freedom.
“Our freedom is really what they are after,” he said. “The question we must ask ourselves is, ‘will our children and grandchildren be free?’ That is a question we must answer with a stand. We will stand up for our children, freedoms, our faith and our America. This is our shared responsibility.”
Judy said Carlin will stand up for what he believes.
“He doesn’t cave under someone else’s thoughts or opinions, he’s very strong,” she said. “If he believes it, he’s going to work to get it done.”
Steve, who is from Le Mars, said he supported Carlin when Carlin ran for the Iowa Senate. His biggest issue is abortion.
“If we don’t quit killing our babies, I don’t care, we won’t have an America,” he said. “Everything else can go by the wayside. We have to quit killing Americans who are defenseless.”
Steve gave two thumbs up to Carlin’s announcement.
“I didn’t hear anything today that I didn’t like,” he said. “He hit it with the election, he hit it with protecting the unborn, he hit it with China, he hit it with the family, he hit it with the schools – everything that Jim talked about I am 100 percent in agreement with. And I hope and pray that he’s going to be the man that goes there and doesn’t bend. He’s going to get into the Swamp and do what Trump tried to do. It’s going to be tough, but we’ve got to have a tough son of a gun in there to do that. We absolutely have to do that.”
A coming revolution has Steve concerned about the country.
“Economic, financial, moral – the whole nine yards,” Steve said. “Without a good election, just like Jim said, if we can’t have that trust, we’ve lost America – it’s gone.”
Steve suggested BlockChain for ensuring secure elections.
He added that he is very disappointed in current Republicans from Iowa in Congress – all of them.
“Very disappointed,” he said. “They have to know in their heart that that was a fraudulent election, but yet they certified it. There is in the 12th Amendment a way out. The House of Representatives does not have to certify it. If they don’t, then it goes to the Vice President and let him do what he had to do. The Constitution was set up by our very smart forefathers and they knew that something like this could happen, so they put something in the Constitution that would be a way out.”
And, for those who say they simply did what the Constitution says they must do, Steve disagreed.
“Well, you didn’t. You didn’t let the Constitution work all the way out,” he said. “You just took it and you got rid of Trump, you dumped him and you became part of the Swamp.”
Both Judy and Steve said they appreciated Grassley’s years of service, but fear he has been in Washington D.C. too long.
“Grassley has done a good job over the years,” Judy said. “But I think it’s time for something new and something fresh and someone who is going to fight hard. You know, Grassley’s become part of the system – partly just because of how long he’s been there.”
Steve said Grassley has done and said things that indicate he wants to go with the Swamp.
“The United States of America is headed for a revolution,” he said. “In a lot of different ways, we’ve got to have people in Washington D.C. that will get us through that and come out the other side in the right direction. There is no backing out now.”
