The following are remarks as prepared by Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., on Sept. 2 at the National Conservatism Conference in Washington, D.C.

There’s a special significance to this conference this year. Donald Trump’s victory was not just a victory for his movement, but for the ideas of the people in this room. National conservatism is an idea whose time has arrived[…]
We see that in many of the countries of Europe today, where the immigration crisis threatens to transform the ancient fabric of those nations—and all who object are menaced by an increasingly totalitarian censorship state[…]
While our First Amendment has traditionally insulated us from the most extreme forms of censorship, America, too, is threatened by the same elites[…]They are the elites who rule everywhere but are not truly from anywhere

National conservatism is a revolt against this fundamentally post-American ruling class[…]
Now, let me just say: I believe that our Founding Fathers were the most brilliant group of men to ever assemble in one room[…]
These principles are not abstractions. They are living, breathing things—rooted in a people and embodied in a way of life[…]
Take a trip out to rural Missouri and spend a little time with the folks out there, and you’ll quickly realize that the Second Amendment isn’t a classroom theory, for them[…]
What makes America exceptional isn’t just that we committed ourselves to the principles of self-government. It’s that we, as a people, were actually capable of living them

But the Left took these principles and drained them of all underlying substance, turning the American tradition into a deracinated ideological creed[…]
The Department of Homeland Security’s Twitter account posted an image of the famous painting “American Progress”—one of the most iconic illustrations of Manifest Destiny, depicting settlers striding outward to the frontier, with Lady Columbia watching over them[…]
The reaction from the Left was swift and hysterical