Address for the Constitution Party Convention 29 March 2025

Address for the Constitution Party Convention 29 March 2025

Officers of the Constitution Party:

File:250329 Address TH

We are a gathering of conservative voters. It is important that there be a multitude of voices. From those many voices, a few may stand out as clearer and more useful in defining the grounds upon which this group stands. With that in mind, I want to share this outline that I have written. I prepared these remarks to share with the group.

Introduction:

My name is Todd Helm. On my father’s side, I am the grandson of Bernard Helm, an illiterate electrician who worked the signals of the Norfolk and Western railroad in southwest Virginia. On my mother’s side, I am the grandson of Paul Flynn, a delivery route salesman who at the age of eleven was sent riding a donkey to fetch the local doctor who would return only to announce his father’s untimely death. Both of my grandparents married, raised large families, and lived beyond the age of 80. My parents married in 1957 and remain alive, happily married to this day. As you may have experienced with many seven year olds, I am proud of my parents. Through their life and sacrifice and commitment, I have been blessed. Family is one of the social constructs on which my worldview is based.

In the fall of 2024, I was richly blessed to run as a candidate in the 10th Congressional District. Al, Vinny, Kevin, members of the candidate endorsement committee and Darren Warren – Thank you for the opportunity to run and to represent the Constitution Party among the voters of Forsyth, Yadkin, Iredell, Catawba, and Lincoln Counties. Government is authorized by God to commend those who do good and to punish those who do evil. (Romans 13:3-4) Do you remember from the days of Noah, how God said, “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image.” (Genesis 9:6) God created the space for civil government. Without a sphere called “the state” families would be left to institute this mandate and things would quickly return to revenge killing. I am saying that God instituted what would curb mankind’s flesh just enough to bring order and peace; civil government is one of the social constructs on which my worldview is based.

I just returned from a trip to Tunisia. I was visiting my daughter who lives and works there and speaks the language of those people. While in Tunisia, we visited ancient Roman ruins that go back to the time of the Roman Empire. We visited amphitheaters, temple ruins, and one coliseum; all were built in the time period 0 to 400 AD. While in the coliseum we heard the story of and imagined the games that took place there in that coliseum. The emperor desired that his subjects refer to him as Lord. But there were in that day subjects of the Roman Empire who testified that Jesus is Lord. They would not give that title to Caesar. One such citizen of Rome was a young mother who in the year 203 was gored by a wild heifer as a result of her refusal to bow to Caesar. When the cow lost interest in her and she lay there injured but not yet dead, a Roman soldier was given the task to do her in. He being unable to bring himself to that action, the young mother took his sword and directed it toward her throat in essence helping him to do his job. You know that the crowd was energized by these violent acts. The crowd paid money to gain a seat and have access to this sort of show. Human beings are incredibly capable to do evil. In Luke 16 verse 15 b Jesus described this sort of act when he said, “What is highly valued among men is detestable in God’s sight.”

The Bible says that in the pre-flood world “The Lord saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.” (Gen 6:5) Paul writes in Romans 3, “There is no one righteous, not even one.” Man is full of sin. That is my nature, our nature. And we have to talk about it. God sent Jesus into the world to destroy the work of the devil. (1 John 3:8) Jesus came into the world, not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. (Mark 10:45) And so, into this violent Roman world God inserted the church. The evangelization of the Roman Empire was accomplished by the planting of churches. The church is one of the social constructs on which my worldview is based.

I was motivated to run for office because our constitution gives us the civil liberty to participate in government. I saw the gross expansion of government and the spending of tax dollars far beyond the natural limit of annual tax revenue. I saw the failure to meaningfully apply immigration law. I work in Africa. One day my Ethiopian friend asked me, “What African, would not like to immigrate to America?” I knew the answer, ‘Almost every single one.’ For decades and generations the reason that Africans did not migrate to America was that they could not. It was legally and geographically impossible. But that changed when the door was left open to any Latin American who could arrive at the border and say “Asylum.” When the claim of asylum went untested, when the rules for asylum were confused and relaxed then it became no longer illegal for other nationalities to enter. I saw my friends leaving West Africa, flying to Nicaragua, and coming north by bus and on foot. They came seeking employment, but at the border they said, “asylum.” I saw the protection of and the promotion of unhealthy lifestyle choices by my own government. And I said, we can do better.

I was blessed in the months that I had to run for office and to enter into the public square and talk about the values of the Constitution Party and my values. I failed to get enough votes to win the 2024 election. I respect the man who did win in the 10th Congressional District. And I wanted to take just a moment of your time to reflect on a few aspects of what we see taking place in our nation in the spring of 2025.

We see the dismantling of the government. The federal government has grown to be much larger than it should be. Limited government gives us self-reliant people. Bloated government gives us inefficient programs and dependent citizens. The size of government has to be reduced. I was in West Africa when the programs of USAID were stopped. My friend explained that her job as the country rep for USAID had been stopped. We prayed for her next job. That is what friends do when one abruptly loses a job. I was thankful that my children’s future tax payments were no longer being spent. No one is happy that refugees are no longer given corn soya blend paid for by USAID. The government is not entitled to fund its programs on the creation of new government debt. For 40 years, Congress has been overspending and underfunding government. That has to stop. We can not get there with haphazard, unplanned reductions. Those steps may help us. Certainly in March of 2025, it feels like we are making progress in the reduction of the size of government. But court ordered reparations for federal employees who were let go by something other than the letter of the law will not help us.

Our current fiscal pathway is unsustainable. We have over promised services to baby boomers. For 40 years, we failed to tax working age people to the extent that would be necessary to provide Medicare and social security insurance payments. The time when the workforce was stuffed full of working age people who could share the tax burden is past. We must change what we are doing legislatively. Government must function by making new laws that lead us to a balanced budget. We are not there yet. But thank goodness that I can see Republicans and Democrats who are ready to do the heavy lifting and make the needed changes. A balanced budget makes every American stronger. Tax cuts do not get us there. Extending the Tax Cuts and Jobs act is not the solution. Tariffs are not the solution. Yes, tariffs raise government revenue, but they do so at great cost to the efficiency of the market. We need laws that put us on a pathway, over two years, or five years, or ten years, to a balanced budget. Money going in equals money going out every year, year after year. Anything else, anything besides a balanced budget is immoral. Anything else is a gimmick. Annual government deficits will always fuel inflation. Do your work Congress: Balance the budget.

We need sphere sovereignty. We need to follow a principle that has been well explained by a theologian named Kyper. The sphere of our culture that is closest to the problem needs to solve the problem. Is it right to dismantle the Department of Education? Yes it is right, because parents are in charge of education. Our constitution gives no role for the federal government in feeding, educating, medicating or insuring the people of the United States. Mr. Trump’s administration can take steps that help us begin to correct problems. But congress must also act. We need new laws to end government bloat. We need new laws that make U.S. immigration law as clear and as ease to follow as traffic laws have made the STOP sign. We all know what a STOP sign means and the citizen that ignores or claims “sanctuary” from the enforcement of that law must expect to be swiftly and expensively encouraged to comply. The same can be true of immigration. We can write laws that are crystal clear and we can work together to uniformly apply and enforce those laws. The American people are ready, but Congress must act.

Woke is out. Halleluiah. DEI is dead. Amen. And now this deception of secular government that would silence the American taxpayer from clearly explaining that some ways of behaving are morally bankrupt must end. I will end with this example.

The pear tree in my front yard is suffering. It has a bad case of Cedar Apple Rust. I am thankful for Craig Mauney, the NC State Extension Agent who received my photo of an infected fruit and diagnosed my problem. As I looked at the website that explained what I must do to treat the problem, the chemical that I need, and where I might buy it, I could not help but read the Nondiscrimination statement of the NC Cooperative Extension Department. In that statement, the secular government extends its reach far into the realm of the church by defining for employees the limits of what is moral and immoral. The state need not raise children for the family nor define what is good and bad for the church. When a civilization abandons God, it becomes foolish. When the state says, “There are more than two genders, and our laws should reflect this reality.” Well, the Bible says no. The secular worldview is attempting to silence the Biblical worldview. What God says is unlawful – even if it is made legal – remains unlawful. God, not the state, decides what is moral. The solution, I believe, is that we should circulate the signature petitions, keep meeting, continue organizing, go on encouraging one another, and in our closets, pray for our nation and leaders. I am thankful for the chance to be among you and with you to point to the Constitution and say, “Let’s do American civil government that way!”