ASHINGTON - Here is Alan Keyes's vision for America: Guns are plentiful. Abortions are banned, always and everywhere. God is revered as the moral leader of the nation. Gun ownership is an inalienable right. And no one has to pay the income tax.
''We're in a moral crisis,'' Keyes said in a telephone interview. ''It's a question being put to us. What kind of people can we be? What self-discipline do we have? ... Are we showing proper respect for our family life?''
Keyes is espousing some of the most audacious ideas of the presidential campaign, and he does so with an articulate passion that has his audiences bobbing heads in enthusiasm. But how many, outside of Keyes's corps of loyalists, are paying attention?
According to recent polls, not many. But Keyes is undeterred.
''Alan is constantly running against the odds,'' said Marlo Lewis, a Republican Capitol Hill staff member who is a close friend of Keyes. It is Keyes's belief in the Bible, in a strict reading of the Declaration of Independence, and an unwavering commitment to conservative principles that keeps him going, Lewis said.
''He always tells the audience what he thinks they need to hear, instead of what they want to hear. He is greatly prepared to be unliked by the people he speaks to,'' Lewis said. ''He is campaigning for votes, but he is not pandering for votes.''
So far, Keyes, 49, a second-time presidential candidate, does not appear to be winning many voters.
Of the eight Republican presidential candidates, he generally runs last or next to last in national polls. A recent CNN-USA Today poll had Keyes's support at 3 percent.
He is the only African-American running for a major party nomination, but that distinction has earned him neither heavy press coverage nor the endorsement of major black leaders.
And so far, he lacks the campaign funds to build an organization or take his message to the airwaves.
But Keyes, undiscouraged, forges on, spelling out his philosophy and damning what he considers immoral behavior.
In public, Keyes speaks thunderously and persuasively, without notes, making compelling arguments for provocative ideas even his Republican colleagues consider somewhat extreme.
''He's a cross between a politician and a preacher. He's a wonderful public speaker, and I think he's sincere,'' said University of Virginia political scientist Larry Sabato. ''But I don't think many Republicans agree with him.''
Lack of attention is a source of major frustration for Keyes. With a Harvard doctorate in government affairs, Keyes held numerous State Department posts, including ambassador to the United Nations' Economic and Social Council during the Reagan administration.
A prolific essayist and speaker, Keyes has written two books and is radio host of ''the Alan Keyes Show: America's Wake-Up Call.'' Keyes has temporarily given up the show while he is campaigning.
Keyes centers his campaign on abortion, which he said is inherently banned under the ''life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness'' clause of the Declaration of Independence.
That stance would normally draw loyal support from antiabortion groups, while alarming advocates of bortion rights. But Keyes, who is perhaps the most eloquent and unwavering candidate on the issue, cannot stir up either side.
''We don't have any plans to run any ads against him. We're focused on George Bush,'' said William Lutz, spokesman for the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League.
His economic plan for the nation includes a dramatic change in the tax code, to eliminate the income tax and replace it with a national sales tax.
The idea is fraught with political and economic complications: How would the poor pay for basic goods? How can the government plan a budget, given the unpredictability of consumer spending patterns? Would Congress pass such a plan?
''He hasn't thought it through,'' said Martin Regalia, an economist with the US Chamber of Commerce.
Where Keyes misses with economists, he hits with his audiences, turning a disputed budgeting issue into a philosophical question of what it means to be free in America.
''If we remove the socialist shackles from our economic and social lives, the 21st century will see a real blossoming of freedom,'' Keyes said when asked about eliminating the income tax. Getting rid of the income tax ''puts control of money back into people's hands,'' Keyes said.
Keyes also adamantly favors the right to own guns, not ''merely to allow us to intimidate burglars, or hunt rabbits to our hearts' content,'' but to ensure, he said, the right to overthrow the government.
''Few things could make the need for vigorous defense of Second Amendment rights clearer than the ongoing spectacle of Clinton contempt for the citizens he is supposed to serve,'' Keyes wrote in an essay on guns, referring to the president. ''For the Second Amendment is really in the Constitution to give men like Bill Clinton something to think about when their ambition gets particularly over-inflated.''
On foreign policy, Keyes is, by his own definition, ''not a globalist.'' Despite his tenure at the United Nations, Keyes has suggested that the United States withdraw from the organization. He opposed the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty and denounced what he calls the ''facile interventionism'' of bombing Yugoslavia this year.
Keyes is against affirmative action, gay rights, sex education in schools, welfare, and the separation of church and state, which he insists is unconstitutional. Instead, Keyes says, children should pray in school or be tutored at home.
It is the sort of agenda that would normally gain the support of the right wing of the Republican Party, as well as Christian conservatives. But with several other conservatives running for president - opponents with better name recognition and more money - Keyes isn't attracting that much attention.
He has raised about $2.5 million, a tiny fraction of the amount raised by GOP front-runner George W. Bush, the governor of Texas, and his campaign chest is $38,000 in the red. His campaign is scattered; Keyes lives in Maryland, but his campaign headquarters - where calls are often picked up by an answering machine - is in Phoenix.
''We've sort of invented the virtual office everyone claims to want to have,'' said Dan Godzich, Keyes's national campaign manager. Keyes has no pollster and cannot yet afford TV advertising.
His irritation at the conventional-wisdom tautology - that he's unelectable because he's unelectable - came through recently, when he called people ''very stupid'' for refusing to vote for him based on his performance in the polls.
''People who give in to that logic are either very stupid or they're insincere,'' Keyes told Iowa Public Television.
''I hope we have not reached the stage in America where elections are decided by money,'' he said. ''Do I think I have a chance to win? Of course.''
