A recent article on the “WorldNetDaily” Web site reported that “Minuteman Project” founder Jim Gilchrist might be interested in running for President as the Constitution Party’s nominee. This article quotes CP Chairman Jim Clymer as being excited about the possibility of such a Gilchrist candidacy. Gilchrist’s views on immigration are well-known. John Lofton interviewed him about some other important issues.
Originally found here:
Q: I’m told you that you are not merely a supporter, but an enthusiastic supporter of the war in Iraq.
A: I’m for democracy. I’m against tyranny - which was the case in Iraq . I am resistant in one area - I don’t want to send more troops in there. I want to train more Iraq-e troops to take over the fighting..
Q: Alright, but do you think that —.
A: Should we cut and run? No, absolutely not.
Q: No, but should we have gone there in the first place? Are you for - were you for Bush’s plan to go in in the first place and bomb Iraq ?
A: Originally, I was not. I did not want to get us into this tangle. I’ve met people who live there - in the Mideast . Two who have been in Iran , in Iraq , friends - one, who I served in Viet Nam - one went there after Viet Nam - they both have the same story - it is not the kind of mess you want to start over there. But an economic boycott was not doing any good.
Q: Why is it our business to economically boycott Iraq ? Why is it any of our business what kind of government there is in Iraq ?
A: That apparently was the business from the White House. That White House apparently determined that because of -.
Q: Yeah, I know.
A: Saddam Hussein —.
Q: Yeah, I know. I was just trying to determine if you were for their rationale for the war. You did say that you were originally against it.
A: I was.
Q: And now that we’re in it, we have to stay - how long?
A: Stay, until the war is turned over, and that I want that war turned over to the Iraqi soldiers yesterday, and let our people be logistical supporters. In other words, they’ll be in the center, we’ll be protectors, it bothers me a great deal to see these young men and women die.
(On the Herb Steck radio talk show on November 30, 2005 , Gilchrist said he was “with the President in lock-step on Iraq . I am not a cut-and-run kind of guy….because some handwringers and whiners are upset.”
On this same program, when the host notes there have been substantial cuts in Medicaid because of budget cuts, Gilchrist says such cuts are “wrong,” that Medicaid should be going only to American citizens and not illegal immigrants. He says a little later, regarding companies that employ illegal aliens, that the Border Patrol should “seize their property” and this property “should go to the law enforcement agency that makes the bust to help fund their program.”)
GILCHRIST says ‘peace-time draft, a draft in general was a good thing for maturing a society’
Q: Me too. What about the draft? Where are you on the draft?
A: Against it. I would be against the draft - I think it would create such upheaval. Now, there is a time for the draft. If we’re attacked - of course, we need a draft. In a major conflict, of course we’re going to need a draft. There is a good point about a draft. It did seem to make young men and women grow up into young men. Men grew up a lot faster and mature a lot faster. A peace-time draft, and a draft in general was a good thing for maturing a society. But if it encourages us into foreign nations, I don’t think it’s such a good idea. I think we end up killing off — what’s left over is people marching in the states under the Mexican flag, for example.
Q: When do you think America should go to war?
A: When there is an outright assault on American territory. The World Trade Center is an example. But I think the war — and I support the war and I would have encouraged going into Afghanistan as opposed to Iraq and if Afghanistan was the source of that attack I think we did the right thing by taking out Al-Qaeda.