Political Quotes

“today we celebrate the 100th birthday of a true hero of the U.S. Senate, former Senator James Buckley. Born in 1923, James L. Buckley was raised in rural Connecticut. He went to college at Yale and graduated from Yale with a degree in English. After enlisting in the Navy, he served in World War II, where he fought in battles of Leyte, Lingayen Gulf, and Okinawa. Senator Buckley was discharged in 1946 with the rank of lieutenant and received his law degree from Yale in 1949. After working for a number of years in the private sector, James was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1970 as the candidate of New York's Conservative Party, becoming the only candidate in the history of that State to win a major party election, running against both a Republican and a Democrat. In fact, Senator Buckley was the first and only third- party candidate to be elected to the U.S. Senate in the 20th century. During his tenure, he championed many conservative causes, but in particular, he was a pioneer in the early pro-life movement following the Supreme Court's decision in Roe v. Wade in 1973. Senator Buckley proposed and fought for a human life amendment, which would have recognized embryos as persons for purposes of that term's use in the 14th Amendment. Along with the late Senator Jesse Helms, Buckley was also a key player in passing the Hyde amendment, named after the late Henry Hyde, which prevents taxpayer dollars from funding elective abortions.…”