December 11, 1971
Page 46282
"TO LEAD AGAIN" – ADDRESS BY SENATOR MUSKIE
Mr. EAGLETON. Mr. President, in San Francisco on November 8, the Senator from Maine (Mr. MUSKIE) gave a speech at a dinner which was billed as a Democratic unity dinner. Senator MUSKIE addressed himself to the problem of unity within the Democratic Party but, more important, to the problem of unity within the Nation; he spoke of the hopes and dreams of all Americans, both Republican and Democratic, and of the problems which our Nation must face in the future.
Senator MUSKIE talked about the politics of exclusion and division, and he called upon the Democratic Party to respond to all Americans, not just to any faction or special interest. Because of the partisan temptations which confront both parties as we approach 1972, I think all Members of the Senate could benefit from reading Senator MUSKIE's remarks, and therefore ask unanimous consent that his speech be printed in its entirety in the RECORD.
There being no objection, the speech was ordered to be printed in the RECORD, as follows:
TO LEAD AGAIN
(Remarks by Senator EDMUND S. MUSKIE)
This event is billed as a Democratic unity dinner.
But everyone in this room realizes that there is more to our meeting than that. Most of you are here to size up three of us as possible presidential contenders. And each of us hopes to impress you ... to stir your enthusiasm and secure your support.
In the last few years, I've been through this competition again and again – and I always enjoy it. I suspect Hubert and Fred do, too.
The rules are very simple: we are supposed to talk – you are supposed to respond – and the reporters are supposed to decide who won.
But I think we should focus here and now on a different kind of victory – not a victory tonight for a specific candidate – but victory next year for our principles and our party.
I believe the Democratic Party may be headed for serious trouble in 1972. And I believe the fault is not in others, but in ourselves.
For too long, we have seemed ready to stand or fall on a single issue. We have talked about a vast range of concerns, but mostly in passing. And we have concentrated on the nation's economic crisis ... as if that were the only thing wrong in America. There was even a time when some of us were betting on the willingness of Richard Nixon to become another Herbert Hoover.
But now the President has acted – and because we are Americans and not just partisans, we hope for his success and the country's recovery. The Administration was late. The Nixon effort will fall short. And none of us are satisfied with the goal the President has set – an unemployment rate 40% higher than when he took office.
We can say that and the words may lead to applause, especially at partisan dinners. But the blunt truth is that the economic appeals which still draw cheers may not win enough votes next November.
In 1972, millions of Americans may hear but refuse to heed a debate about numbers – the claim that Democrats can create even more growth – that we can guarantee even lower unemployment, even higher G.N.P., and even stricter controls on inflation. It is important to fight for a chance to do better – because there are people behind the numbers and they are suffering. But there is other suffering and the economy is not the only issue.
Yet the invitations I receive from party audiences across the country still relentlessly suggest a hard attack on economics and a soft pedal on other problems. That is an easy and tempting course – after all, it worked in 1970. But if the President falters again as he has so often in the past, no stump speeches will be needed to fix the blame. As citizens, we cannot hope for his failure. As politicians, we cannot depend upon it. And as Democrats and Americans, we would wrong our party and our country by overemphasizing economic appeals in the months ahead.
The economy should be an issue next year – and Democrats should question whether we can trust this Administration with our jobs and our dollars for another four years. And we must now start to ask other questions – not just because we need something more than economics to run on – but because our country cannot survive on more excuses and more neglect.
Most of the issues which held our attention a few years ago have disappeared from the center of political debate. It is as though the earth had opened and swallowed up every ghetto where injustice still breeds bitterness and despair . . . every sick patient who goes untreated because he cannot afford a doctor . . . every home where money instead of talent decides whether a son or daughter will have a chance for college. These are real and painful realities – but, in recent years, America's people and America's politicians have been reluctant to face them.
Deep down, I suspect that many of us have been afraid to take another chance on change. We saw hope die near an underpass in Dallas, on a motel balcony in Memphis, and on a kitchen floor in Los Angeles. We saw an obscure civil conflict explode into a disastrous American war half a world away. And we saw our nation divided by doubt and sometimes even despair.
Finally, there came a moment when we simply refused to summon the strength to make another start. In November of 1968, our people voted for the safety of standing still – for what a national news magazine called "the cooling of America." We reached back to Richard Nixon – to the image of what happened even before we tried to move our country forward. And since then, we have spent so much of our energy in recriminations about the past. Only a week ago, the Senate voted down a foreign aid bill – not because most Senators thought it was wrong to help human beings in need – but in reaction to accumulated anger and mounting frustration about the events of the last decade.
Some commentators think that this is what Americans want – a careful consolidation of the present and a prolonged post mortem of the past. I wish those commentators had traveled with me in recent months. For I have seen the mood of this country changing. I have sensed the stirrings of a renewed faith that the work of our own hands can shape a more decent future.
I have found Americans everywhere ready to reach out and touch the promise of things to come.
They are demanding not only a prosperous economy, but a just prosperity.
They are demanding not only an end to what is wrong, but so much more that is right . . medical care open to everyone, higher education closed to no one, and the use of our wealth and our power to help the many who are in need instead of the few who are already well-off.
Most of all, Americans want the kind of leadership which will make America as great and as good as it can be. They want to learn from the past, but not to live in the past. And they want to be as proud now as they were in 1945 or 1961.
So this is the Democratic challenge and the Democratic opportunity – to lead again as we have led before – to convert the stirrings of hope into a new start toward a better country.
That is the historic mission of the Democratic Party. That is the call our party has heard and answered almost from the day this nation was born. And we cannot respond now by skimming across the suface of an economic issue which only begins to touch America's deepest concerns.
As Democrats, we must speak to those concerns – and we must speak and work together. For the other great danger we face is that the politics of exclusion will fragment our party and destroy our ability to lead.
The politics of exclusion claims that a fourth party would strengthen the Democratic party – or that only a new party could mount a campaign worthy of winning. But a fourth party would be a stunning defeat – for those who join it, for the Democrats who have invited them to leave, and for the beliefs all of us share. What we need is not a fourth or a fifth party – but the will and the strength to carry the first political party ever founded in this country to victory in 1972.
And on the vital issues which will determine the future and the fate of America, we have so much in common – with each other – and with Americans everywhere. So our task – yours and mine – is to build a coalition for change. Our task is to lead the nation – hard hats and students ... blacks and whites ... housewives and clerks ... and all of those who believe this society can be truly great again.
We can lead them in the struggle for fundamental tax reform. It is not fair to tell primarily workers and the poor to ask what they can do for their country. And most of our citizens would join together and say "no" to a tax system which lets some millionaires pay less than their secretaries – lets great fortunes pass through loopholes, virtually intact – and lets giant corporations lobby for tax preferences and save billions for them.
We can also lead in the struggle for social justice. Most Americans have a stake in the outcome. Most of them would support national health insurance so the nation that is first in the world in wealth can become first in the world in health. Most of them would support guaranteed jobs – so 300,000 veterans home from Vietnam and millions of breadwinners with families can move off of welfare rolls and onto payrolls. And most Americans would support equal rights for all Americans – in life as well as in law – for the minority who are not white and the majority who are women.
And the Democratic Party can lead in the struggle for a foreign policy which puts the lives of people ahead of cold war myths – for a domestic policy which stands against the concentration of private power – and for a law enforcement policy which really can make our streets safer and our homes more secure. And here again the tie of common interest can encourage a common effort.
Law and order, for example, is not a black versus white issue. Black women are five times more likely than white women to become the victims of a violent crime. And blacks are at least as likely as whites to join in a campaign to make law and order a reality for people instead of a code word for prejudice.
So we can lead without excluding. As Democrats, the things that unite us are so much stronger than the things that divide us. Surely, then, we can make our party safe for diversity. Surely, from our heritage and our ideals, we can draw the strength to stay together – and then together, we can change America.
Our nation and our party have endured some difficult and painful years. But in 1971, our people are anxious to turn once more to the work of the common enterprise we call America. And in 1972, the Democratic Party must listen and respond.
We cannot win on the economy alone. But we have the issues to win the election. And more importantly, we have the chance to lead again.
So let us match our party's vision to our people's hopes.
Let us join again with Martin Luther King in the affirmation that we have a dream. Let us say again with John Kennedy that we can move America forward.
And let us believe again with Robert Kennedy that we can seek a newer world. The right issues are all around us.
Now let us build the right real majority.