During a speech at a fundraiser for the Iowa Family Leader over the weekend, Senator Ben Sasse (R-NE) warned against relying on government to solve the nation’s problems because politicians, he believes, are not up to the task. Instead, the first term senator encouraged the some 500 Christian conservative donors and activists in attendance to practice being “good citizens” who do not prioritize politics over family or faith.
“Friends, there is no politician who’s going to save America. Friends, there is no election that’s going to transform your life to become so much better than it is right now,” Sasse said. “The only way to be a good citizen, the only way … to be a good Republican, is to be a great American first, and a great American doesn’t put politics anywhere near the center of our identity.”
As the Des Moines Register reported, Sasse, a vocal critic of President Donald Trump who was president of Midland University in Nebraska prior to running for Senate in 2014, wove references to Aristotle, William Wilberforce, and Alexis de Tocqueville into his speech, while arguing that Americans must focusing on strengthening their families, churches, and communities, instead of obsessing over politics.
In an interview with the Des Moines Register after his remarks, Sasse called the Democratic and Republican parties “disastrously sick” and said the GOP lacks a cohesive message and plan for the future, which may prove problematic down the road.
“I think that the Republican Party doesn’t have clarity of any long-term vision that it communicates to the American people,” he said. “Those two sides of the Republican Party—you can call it a Wall Street-K Street continuum and a Bannonite populism—both of them are unpersuasive to moms and dads in Iowa and Nebraska who are thinking about what kind of country they want to give their kids in 10 and 20 years.”
Watch Sasse’s speech below:
(H/T: Des Moines Register)