April 2, 1970
Page 10106
"TRUTH IN POLITICS" – REMARKS BY SENATOR EDMUND S, MUSKIE AT THE JACKSON DAY BANQUET IN SPRINGFIELD, MO.
Mr. EAGLETON. Mr. President, Jackson Day in Springfield, Mo., is the occasion for one of the outstanding gatherings of Democrats in the Nation. Each year, Democrats from throughout the State congregate for a weekend of fellowship and discussion of the party's past achievements and future goals.
A national party leader addresses the Jackson Day Banquet each year. On March 21, over 1,700 Missouri Democrats heard a thoughtful and incisive address by the Senator from Maine (Mr. MUSKIE). I ask unanimous consent that his remarks be printed in the RECORD.
There being no objection, the remarks were ordered to be printed in the RECORD, as follows:
TRUTH IN POLITICS
(Excerpts from the remarks of Senator EDMUND S. MUSKIE)
As a Senator from Down East, I am glad to be in Missouri, the gateway to the West. It was once said of Missouri that you raise "corn and cotton and cockleburs and Democrats." From the enthusiasm here tonight, I think you are on your way to a bumper crop of Democrats in 1970.
You have two distinguished Senators, my good friends and colleagues, Stuart Symington and Tom Eagleton, and a great Democratic Governor, Warren Hearnes. You are making a fine contribution to the House of Representatives with your vigorous and able Democratic Congressmen, Clay, Symington, Sullivan, Randall, Bolting, Hull, Ichord, Hungate and Burlison.
Here in Springfield, in the beauty of the Ozarks, spring is bursting upon us and we have the makings of a great Democratic revival meeting – a revival founded on the belief of Missourians in candor and action. Missouri gave the nation that courageous President from Independence, Harry S. Truman. He is one man who has always told it like it is, before the Republicans learned to use that phrase as a slogan.
Last year the Attorney General of the United States, John Mitchell, picked up Missouri's "show me" motto. He urged that the people watch what the Republican Administration did instead of listening to what it said. I have watched and listened, and the only thing worse than what I have heard is what I have seen.
The public relations men working in the White House reflect a belief that the package and the label are more important than the product. They are lucky the Truth in Packagaing Act doesn't apply to the Republican Party. Of course, no one has ever accused the Republican Administration of being consumer oriented.
The problem goes beyond misleading labels. The air is being fouled by attacks on our liberty and assaults on some of our most cherished institutions. The country is in danger of being smothered by a blanket of fear and confusion. Our economic environment is being undermined by a unique combination of continuing inflation and rising unemployment, which only Republican economists seem to know how to achieve.
In America our greatest political tradition is not only that our elected officials are men of the people, but also that they will both lead the people and trust the people.
If the President would face up to the realities of America and the world we live in, he would know that the way to fight inflation is not by vetoing funds for health and education, but by ending the waste of war and of weapons that do not secure our future but jeopardize it. The spiraling costs which rob the pocketbook of every housewife are the direct product of our expenditures on war and weapons.
Millions of Americans are denied the opportunity to buy a home or to obtain even decent housing as rising interest rates and tight money strangle the housing industry. Marginal workers are pushed out of jobs, and new jobs are not available as one million Americans have been added to the rolls of the unemployed.
It may be the new Nixon in the White House, but it is the same old Republican economic policies.
The President's failure to control inflation and the threat of recession are paralyzing the Government in other areas where action is required. We are going through a period of great crises in the United States, crises of our schools and of our souls, crises affecting the streets we walk and the air we breathe.
If we do not reorder our priorities, redirect our efforts, and commit our resources today, we may not have the opportunity tomorrow.
Our children are a primary victim of our misordered priorities. The nation's educational systems are being torn apart, caught up in the adjustments of integration, trapped in traditional teaching methods, packed in overcrowded classrooms, and wracked by student dissent.
Our school systems desperately need help. Can they get that help when the Federal education budget is cut? Can another generation wait while the President appoints a study group?
If we are to avoid tragic incidents like that in Lamar, South Carolina, where little children were the victims of the fears and hates of adults, the President must seek to lead the American people away from their fears and hates.
Last week a distinguished Republican colleague of mine, Senator Brooke of Massachusetts, commented on the tragedy of the Nixon-Agnew leadership on civil rights. They were following, he said, "a cold, calculated political decision" and while the President had promised to "bring us together," to date "everything he has done so far appears to be designed to push us apart."
Thoughtful Americans are deeply troubled by the tendency of the Administration – through the Vice President and the Attorney General – to link together those who protest peacefully with those who protest violently. It appears to be a deliberate endeavor to incite suspicion and contempt for those who simply disagree with the White House, however lawful their point of view, however peaceful their actions. As they stifle difference and dissent today, they set the stage for upheaval tomorrow.
The President and Vice President are hiding their heads in the sand when they seek to isolate their Administration from the young, and the young from middle America. They may succeed momentarily in avoiding direct confrontation, but what is needed is direct dialogue leading to mutual respect. There is no room for either student violence or police violence, and the way to avoid violence is to establish communication.
The young are telling us some very important things. Our colleges and universities have become too impersonal and unrelated to their students and their communities. In our affluence, we as a nation have become too self-satisfied and self-righteous and unwilling to see our own failures and inadequacies. In the race to bigger and better homes in suburbia, we have lost sight of our poor and underprivileged. In our haste to improve our technology, we have been destroying our environment.
And our political policies and practices have become unresponsive and inflexible. We Democrats were due for a shake-up, and we got one. One of the areas where I believe we can perform the greatest service is to help our young people make their way into the political process. The politics of protest can never be as effective or enduring as the politics of free election.
For those young people involved in the issues of our times, we must offer participation in our party. As adults, however, we are entitled to do a little shaking too. There has been a tendency among the young to scorn the established political parties, to fail to differentiate between them, and to demand total conformity to a single point of view. Thus, as we open our party to young people and their ideas, we must help them to see that great national political parties require accommodation as well as idealism, that great goals can be achieved far more readily by constant political support than by sporadic protest.
While we know why we are Democrats, we must justify to the young our belief in the vast difference there is between the institutions that comprise the Democratic and the Republican Parties. They can see how bad the Republican Administration is, but we must show them just how constructive we can be. They have a right to the "show me" attitude. A beginning step in that direction is for us to recognize that the greatest danger to America is not from those young people who are concerned and involved and who participate, but from those – young or old – who are apathetic and unconcerned.
We have an opportunity this year to go to the people all over this land. When we go, we must cut through the political smog and arouse this nation. The Republican Administration in Washington is an Administration of apathy.
The Administration has succeeded in part in its endeavor to intimidate the television media and the press. I believe that there is even some popularity today in the Vice President's speaking loudly while the Attorney General carries a big stick and the President attends athletic events. But let us not as a party be intimidated, nor shirk our responsibilities.
The armaments race will not be ended until our people demand it. Our schools and cities cannot be saved unless the people are willing to pay for it. Pollution cannot be conquered unless all cooperate and share the cost. Hatreds cannot be overcome unless understanding is offered. We, the Democrats, must lead a new crusade to awaken and revitalize America. We Democrats have never been the silent Americans before, and it is not the time now.