Back to the April 2004 Newsletter Index

Pro-Lifer Peroutka Declares For Presidency

Maryland attorney and pro-life supporter Michael Peroutka formally declared his candidacy for president of the United States on the Conservative Party ticket on February 21.

Mr. Peroutka, who with his brother, Stephen Peroutka, has given extensive financial and other support to the pro-life movement, told a crowd of hundreds of supporters at Michael’s Eighth Avenue in Glen Burnie that he wants to restore the country to its original foundations.

“Are the foundations of America being destroyed?  You bet they are!” he said.

“The evidence of this is everywhere:  abortion, gay ‘marriage,’ loss of American sovereignty, judicial tyranny, unconstitutional spending, exporting American jobs, illegal immigration, and fiscal irresponsibility.”

He declared the three-fold theme of his candidacy to be to honor the sovereignty of God, to defend the family and to restore the Republic.

“We live in such a secular age that it seems strange to talk about God and government in the same breath; but our founders did.  They easily understood the connection between the two,” Peroutka noted.

“If I am elected president, I will acknowledge God as the source of all rights, and I will not appoint any judge who fails to do so,” Mr. Peroutka promised.

He said he would also support the effort to limit the powers of the federal courts under Article III of the Constitution.

Asserting that strong families are the backbone of a just, peaceful society, and that marriage is designed by God to be only between a man and a woman, Mr. Peroutka said that he opposes both homosexual “marriage” and civil unions.

He called abortion “a national disgrace,” and said that as president, he would do everything in his power to end it, starting with the formal acknowledgement of the personhood of the unborn from the moment of conception.

Regarding his theme of restoring the republic, Mr. Peroutka said that most people think that the purpose of our government is to “redistribute wealth--your wealth, because the government doesn’t have any wealth.

“Our leaders have forsaken the true source and purpose of government,” which is, as Jefferson said, to secure the God-given rights of the people, he said.

The co-founder of the Institute on the Constitution, which seeks to educate Americans about their history, heritage and form of government, expounded on the fact that the federal government has greatly overreached the limits on the powers delegated to it in the Constitution.

“President Bush has recklessly committed hundreds of billions of dollars to unconstitutional programs,” he charged.

Peroutka received a standing ovation when he promised to “favor trade policies that favor America” and to withdraw the U.S. from the World Trade Organization, NAFTA and the United Nations.

He also pledged to support the right to keep and bear arms, and to oppose amnesty for illegal aliens.

“I will withdraw our troops from Iraq and will not use our troops except to defend the United States and her interests,” he said.

In addition, he said he would work to replace the federal income tax with a tariff-based revenue system.

“People say to me, Michael, you don’t have a chance!  But I don’t believe in chance; I believe in Divine Providence.  With God, all things are possible.

“George Washington said that it is up to us to ‘raise a standard to which the wise and honest may repair, recognizing that the event is in the hands of God.’”

He urged his listeners to “stop wasting your vote” on politicians who have no intention of obeying the Constitution.

Mr. Peroutka, 50, a graduate of Loyola College and the University of Baltimore School of Law, is married and the father of three children.

The Constitution Party, originally named the U.S. Taxpayers Party, was formed in 1992 with the goal of limiting the federal government to its constitutional boundaries and restoring civil government to the principles that the United States was founded upon.

As the Constitution Party presidential candidate, Mr. Peroutka will be on the ballot in at least 40 states, including Maryland, in the November 2004 elections. You can visit his website at www.peroutka2004.com