Political Quotes

“I thank the gentlewoman for yielding and for organizing this Special Order hour on the most important problem of our time, which is democracy. Will we have democracy, or will we lapse into some other form of government, like autocracy or theocracy or plutocracy? I thank the gentlewoman for her leadership and for leading us in that beautiful and moving moment of silence for the victims of the terrorist attack on our country on 9/11. A true Republican President, the founder of the Republican Party, spoke of government of the people, by the people, and for the people. That has been the beautiful, tantalizing vision of America, but we can't say that is how America began. We began as a slave republic of White, male property owners over the age of 21 years old. It has been through successive waves of popular, political, social struggle and constitutional amendment that we have opened America up and come much closer to forming a more perfect union and reaching the ideal that President Lincoln proclaimed from the battlefield of Gettysburg in 1863. Still today, Members will come to the floor, Mr. Speaker, and say: We are not a democracy. We are a republic. My colleagues think that they have struck some kind of knockout blow against the overwhelming sentiment of the American people, including President Reagan, who gave a great speech in Europe about American democracy and never once used the word ``republic,'' but constantly invoked democracy.…”