GOP Senate hopefuls attack UN, Federal Reserve, immigration at Mt. Pleasant debate

TheMorningSun.com
By MARK RANZENBERGER
Published: Saturday, January 14, 2012

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From left, Republican U.S. Senate hopefuls Scott Boman, Clark Durant, Gary Glenn, Randy Hekman and Chuck Marino debate at Park Library Auditorium at Central Michigan University in Mt. Pleasant, Mich., Saturday, Jan. 14, 2012. The empty podium at the right was set up for former Rep. Pete Hoekstra, who did not attend. The Republicans are seeking the endorsement of a coalition of Tea Party groups. Sun photo by MARK RANZENBERGER

Five of the candidates who hope to be the Republican Party’s nominee for the U.S. Senate sought the endorsement of a coalition of Michigan Tea Party groups Saturday by attacking the Federal Reserve, the United Nations, taxes and children of illegal immigrants.

“As a Christian, I say this: Thank God for the Tea Party movement,” said Gary Glenn, president of the American Family Association of Michigan and one of the eight men seeking the GOP nomination to challenge incumbent Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow. “Our founding Judeo-Christian principles are at risk of being lost.”

Glenn and the other four - one-time Libertarian Scotty Boman, former Hillsdale College Vice President Clark Durant, former Judge Randy Hekman and businessman Chuck Marino – debated at Central Michigan University Saturday. The event was sponsored by a group called Michigan 4 Conservative Senate and hosted by the Campus Conservatives student group.

Three other men – former U.S. Rep. Pete Hoekstra, businessman Peter Konetchy,and former automotive engineer Rick Wilson – have announced their candidacies but did not attend.

All five men painted a picture of the United States as teetering on the edge of disaster.

“We are not tiptoeing to the cliff,” Hekman said. “We are running toward the cliff.”

All five called for at least an audit – and probably the abolition – of the Federal Reserve.

“We need money backed by gold and silver,” Durant said.

“The Federal Reserve is a rogue agency,” Hekman said. He said it should be audited and eliminated. The others echoed his point.

“The Federal Reserve Bank is not federal, has no reserves and is not a bank,” Glenn said.

“We need to have an honest conversation about honest money,” Durant said.

The United Nations came in for direct attacks from the Republicans. Accusing the international body of attempting to erode U.S. sovereignty, all five called for an end to U.S. participation.

Durant said it should be replaced with a privately funded organization to promote U.S. values to the rest of the world.

“If we pull back from this very dangerous world,” Durant said, “then this very dangerous world will overrun us.”

Hekman said he saw value in a forum for international cooperation.

“Keep it there in some form, but not lose our sovereignty,” he said.

“Replace it with something that reflects our ideas, not European ideals,” Marino said. “Let them by the building and let them pay taxes in New York. They’ll be gone.”

All five called for major changes in taxes, either a flat tax or the so-called Fair Tax plan. That proposal would replace income taxes with a national consumption tax.

Glenn called for construction of a fence on the U.S. – Mexico border.

“We need to man it with troops and border patrols,” he said. He said the 14th Amendment’s guarantee that people born in the United States are U.S. citizens should apply “only if your parents are legal residents or citizens.”

Boman said children of undocumented immigrants should be citizens – once they’re adults.

“If their parents are here illegally, they must go home,” he said, “and return when they are adults.”

Neither Stabenow nor Hoekstra, the presumptive front-runner for the nomination, were mentioned very often. Clare County Tea Party activist Roger Bogenschutz said he was disappointed that the former congressman from Holland declined to attend the Mt. Pleasant event.

“I wanted to see him. I wanted to see what he looked like. I wanted to see how he sounded,” Bogenschutz said. “He is the one who has the name in the state of Michigan because he has been involved in the federal government for so long,”

Fellow Tea Party activist David Isaac of Clare said he was disappointed, but not surprised that Hoekstra wasn’t there. Isaac said, however, he supported what the candidates who attended had to say..

“I was surprised at how good all the candidates were, and how close they are to what I believe,” said Tea Party activist David Isaac of Clare, “It’s going to be very difficult to choose one.”

Representatives of the coalition are to meet in late February to decide which of the men to endorse.

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