God bless CPAC.

What an amazing sight. Thousands of patriots and not a damn mask in sight. Obviously, everyone here is just following Stacey Abrams example.

We find ourselves at an existential moment for our nation. The threats in our country have never been greater.

So I want to do something a little bit unusual for CPAC. I want to step back and go a little more philosophical. And ask, what is this battle all about? What are we fighting about in this nation?

And I want to suggest that the fundamental conflict that is playing out across this great nation is a battle between power and liberty.

The two are in fundamental conflict. We are seeing it every day.

Vaccine mandates versus doctors and nurses.

Mask mandates versus kids in school.

Spotify versus Joe Rogan.

GoFundMe versus Canadian truckers.

Justin Trudeau...

Let's pause for a second and observe that is the first time in recorded history that any Canadian has ever elicited that much of a response from any crowd on planet Earth.

Justin Trudeau and the God-fearing Canadian truckers.

The New York Times versus Barry Weiss.

Levi's versus Jennifer Sey.

AOC versus d*** near anyone who ever dared to criticize her. Although actually, as she told us, if you criticize her, it means you really want to date her.

If you look at this battle, this is not a battle between the weak and the strong. Joe Rogan has many things but he ain't weak.  Major League Baseball which went after the voters of Georgia—the Georgia voters are many things, but they ain't weak. The Biden Department of Justice when they went after parents. Parents are many things, but they ain't weak.

Just ask Loudoun County. Just ask Terry McAuliffe. Just ask all the left-wing Democrats in Virginia who are scared out of their minds right now.

You got to understand what is playing out here. What is playing out is the powerful are afraid. They are terrified of you. They look out at the men and women in this room and you scare the living crap out of them. They are afraid of truth. They are afraid of liberty. That fear is driving them.

Let me suggest a principle, a very simple principle for conservatives to understand. Big is bad.

Across the board.

Big Government sucks.

Big business sucks.

Big tech, big Hollywood, big universities.

Any accumulation of power that is centralized is fundamentally dangerous for individual liberty.

What is it that the communists want? The communists want control of everything; they want centralized power.

How do we ensure freedom? You know, the principles I'm talking about were said far more eloquently, far more elegantly two centuries ago by James Madison in Federalist 10.

James Madison talked about factions. That was an old word for special interests. And he said factions if they're able to seize control of government will strip away our liberty. And the genius of our Constitution is the checks and balances that divides government, that makes one branch fight with another branch, makes the executive and Congress fight, makes Congress and the judiciary fight, makes the federal government the states fight. And what the framers, their genius was, the Supreme Court has called splitting the atom of sovereignty. And that if the factions, if one faction can't seize control of everything, then they can't use that power against the people. That principle was true two centuries ago. It's true today.

Why is our liberty so under assault? Because giant corporations, giant tech, giant government, they work together hand in hand.

You look at what happened with Joe Rogan. Joe Rogan-Jen Psaki. Oh come on, Jen Psaki doesn't get the Justin Trudeau treatment? Alright. Peppermint Patty deserves the love.

Jen Psaki from the White House podium said uh billionaires, oh billionaires in Silicon Valley, please silence that pesky Rogan guy.

There's a pattern of government asking big tech to silence dissent. In Canada, the Canadian truckers. Canadian government says, oh GoFundMe, billionaires please silence these pesky truckers.

By the way the workers of the world had a revolt and left is pissed.

So what's the answer? The answer is threefold.

Number one, fight power. Fight big government, fight big business, fight big tech, fight big Hollywood, fight big universities. Fight the centralization of power. Break it up. Break big tech up into a million little pieces.

Decentralize. You know we just had Wayne LaPierre talking about guns. Why is it the left when they seize control, they immediately want to take away everyone's guns. Because then the state has a monopoly on force. If the only people with guns are the jackbooted thugs, then liberty is gone.

So we need to decentralize; we need to break it apart.

It's one of the reasons why I am so bullish on crypto, on Bitcoin because it is decentralized and not controllable.

And let me give a fantastic example. So Justin Trudeau said I don't like me some truckers. So we're going to seize your assets. So then the court went to try to seize the crypto that was being given to the truckers. And I don't know how many of y'all saw a letter that I actually want to read from.
 
It's a letter from a company Bitcoin company called Nunchuk. Here's part of the letter:

Dear Ontario Supreme Court Superior Court of Justice.

Our software is free.

We do not collect any user identification information beyond email addresses. We also do not hold any keys. Therefore we cannot freeze our users' accounts. We cannot prevent them from being moved. We do not have the knowledge of quote the existence, nature, value and location of our users assets. This is by design.

Please look up how self custody and private keys work.

When the Canadian dollar becomes worthless, we will be here to serve you too.

That is spectacular.

By the way contrast that to the craven, sniveling response of corporate America when others, when some whiny snowflake tweets at them. Like oh my God, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, sorry. Like God bless you saying the government go jump in a lake. That's how our country was founded.

That is powerful. By the way, that is also why China recently banned Bitcoin, because they can't control it, which is the exact same reason Elizabeth Warren hates Bitcoin.

The Chinese communists and Elizabeth Warren they both want to control you. Your assets, your savings, your speech, your life, your children, every decision—they want to control. And so we need to break up the means of controlling the citizenry. I want an unruly, uncontrollable American We the People.

Number two, don't ever apologize to the woke mob. It doesn't work. They are not engaged in rational discourse. They are not actually offended at whatever idiocy it is they're whining about about that moment. They want to destroy you. They want to silence you. They want to subjugate you.

Respond with joy. Laugh at them. It drives them bananas. Okay, are leftists the least funny people on planet Earth? You can't say that you can't do that, you know? No, no, I don't like that. I don't... Like shut the hell up.

It's none of your damn business. If I want to get a vaccine, I'll get the vaccine. If I don't want to get the vaccine, I won't get the vaccine. And it's none of your business, how I decide for me and my family.

That scares them because it's not controllable.

And the third thing I'm going to say is speak out. Use your voice. Every one of you has a powerful megaphone to the world. Speak out and use your voice. Two years ago, I launched a podcast "Verdict with Ted Cruz."

Alright, I want to say to everyone here under 40, please go and subscribe to my podcast. You can get it wherever you get your podcasts. Two years ago, we were the number one ranked podcast in the world.

To everyone over 40. Call your kids, call your grandkids and ask them to subscribe you to the podcast

Number two. Text the word Cruz to the number two four. double O five.

Let me give you that again. Cruz to two four double O five.

Why is that? Because we're using text, we're using the podcast, we're using email, we're using social media, we're using every tool to mobilize and energize a grass roots army because we are taking this country back from the lunatic socialist left that is trying to destroy our freedom.

Let me say one final thing. In January of 2023 I'm looking forward to walking down the hallway in the United States Capitol and to bumping into a little man wearing overalls carrying a screwdriver and coming to change the sign on Nancy Pelosi's door.

And Nancy is gonna get on her broom. Okay, no, no, that's not fair. That's not fair. She's going to get on her private jet called the USS Broom and fly back to California. And we're going to send Chuck Schumer back to New York City. And then we're going to tell Joe Biden it's 2025 and he'll just wander back to Delaware.

Change is coming. It is powerful. You want to know how powerful? Find me one person on planet Earth who doesn't know what "let's go Brandon" means.

And not just in red states. How many of you saw at the New England Patriots game in Boston? The entire crowd chanting "let's go Brandon."

That is powerful.

A wave is coming. We are taking our country back. We are standing up to power. We are defending liberty. We are defending the Constitution. We are defending the Bill of Rights, and together we will save this great nation.

God bless you.