Political Quotes

“I rise with my colleague from Alaska, Senator Sullivan. He and I are good colleagues. We work together on the Armed Services Committee. I work closely with him. I learn a lot from him. And, usually, on Thursday afternoons, I am learning about an Alaskan of the week from Senator Sullivan. But here it is on a Thursday afternoon, and we are standing to offer a unanimous consent resolution in support of Taiwanese democracy. I want to drill that just a little bit more of what a good news story Taiwanese democracy is. As many of you know, Taiwan was a single-party nation under martial law through much of its history through the end of the 1980s. In the late 1980s, Taiwan made a decision. It made a fundamental decision to move toward democracy. It had its first legislative elections in the early 1990s and its first Presidential election in 1996. And since that election, as my colleague mentioned, it has had numerous Presidential elections, numerous legislative elections; and, often, those elections have led to transfer in power--transfer of the Presidency from one party to another, transfer of legislative majority from one party to another. But Taiwan has built a democracy that is stable enough to withstand that, and its respect for human rights, freedom of religion, free press, and its successful economy has borne proof to the notion that allowing all Taiwanese to participate in democracy has been wonderful for Taiwanese society. I think Taiwan is a great example.…”