Liberalism is a “termite eating away at the foundation” of the United States, state Sen. Elbert Guillory, R-Opelousas, told the Republican Women of Southwest Louisiana on Thursday.

Guillory, who switched from the Democratic to the Republican Party in May, after doing vice versa in 2007, gave a speech titled “Why I am a Republican.”

“There is a battle that’s raging right now between two great forces” — liberalism and conservatism, Guillory said. “Our homeland is in peril.”

Guillory said the values of the Republican Party correlate with those handed down from his parents. He said the policies of liberalism “keep poor people poor” and make the impoverished “even poorer than they already are.”

Guillory said he is anti-abortion, supports prayer in schools, opposes same-sex marriage and is fiscally conservative.

He discussed his recent party change in an online video that has received national exposure. The four-minute video, posted in June, has been viewed nearly 1 million times. Guillory is the first black Republican to serve in the Louisiana Senate since the Reconstruction Era.

“There is not a sense of urgency about getting our nation back on track,” Guillory said. “If you were living in the finest mansion in the finest neighborhood and a horde of termites came and started to attack the foundation of your home, you would be outraged.”

Guillory called President Barack Obama the “head termite” and said his decisions are putting the country in debt and corrupting its values.

“We cannot let the termites attack the fiscal soundness of America, and that’s what they’re doing,” he said. “The termites will not be satisfied until they eat every page out of our Bibles. If we let them remove our Bibles and our guns, we will have what we deserve.”

Louisiana Sen. Elbert Guillory

Richard Alan Hannon