Political Quotes

“Mr. President, reserving the right to object, I want to thank my friend and colleague, the Senator from New Jersey, for bringing this issue to the floor today. Cultural programs may represent and do, in fact, represent a tiny fraction of all Federal spending, but they are magnified many times over by virtue of their symbolic and their substantive impact. Culture is, of course, upstream from politics. It is more important, and it is more deserving of more of our attention. For that reason, the Smithsonian Institution is more than just another line item in our Federal budget. It is one of the great cultural triumphs of our Republic. From the moment of our founding, the United States has faced an almost unique problem in history. How do we turn our huge Nation's cultural, religious, ethnic, and regional differences from a potential weakness into a real strength? The way our Nation has always achieved this is by creating institutions that unite Americans around shared interests and the mystic chords of collective memory. The Constitution, the Senate itself, our free enterprise economy, our Armed Forces and public schools, Federalism, localism, the First Amendment, and even March Madness all fit this bill. They have the power to harness our individual and community differences to the common good of the whole Nation. Now, the Smithsonian Institution does the exact same thing. It winds all the myriad strands of America's triumphant history into one imperfect but heroic story.…”