W. Todd Akin: “I think that's what the American public is seeing and sensing. I might put it in slightly different words, and maybe…”

“I think that's what the American public is seeing and sensing. I might put it in slightly different words, and maybe just because I'm a little older than you are, but my sense is we had a tradition that the government was to be the servant of the people. It seems to many of us as though that has started to tilt, and the government is now a fearful master. I think the public is saying we have had way too much government, we're taking a look. The problem isn't the outside, the problem is the government, and the government has to be reduced back to its servant status, back to the basic principles of economics, back to honoring the traditions of our Founders and the dream of allowing people to use their imagination and their ingenuity, and to succeed or to fail. If we didn't let Thomas Edison fail hundreds and hundreds of times, we wouldn't have any lightbulbs. You have to allow freedom to work. I think that's where we have to go as a country; we have to go back to the traditional paths that have always worked for us. We are a very unique Nation in so many different ways. People around the world, when there's an earthquake or when there's a problem, the Americans are there. After World War II, we defeated our enemies and we taxed ourselves to rebuild our enemies. We established no empires. We built no kingdoms.”