[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 81 (Thursday, June 23, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: June 23, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
          THE REPUBLICAN PARTY: WHAT IT IS AND WHAT IT IS NOT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Tennessee [Mr. Duncan] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. DUNCAN. Mr. Speaker, for many years, the national media has 
pushed the line that the Republican Party was or is the party of the 
rich, the fat cats, the wealthy.
  However, so many extremely wealthy people are so liberal that this 
propaganda is just not effective anymore.
  Too many people know that it is false.
  So, the new line is that the Republican Party has been taken over by 
extremists and hatemongers.
  The new propaganda of the liberal media is that the Republican party 
has been taken over by the religious right.
  This, too, is false--totally, completely, absolutely false.
  The Republican Party has been taken over by people who are fed up by 
the fact that government, at all levels, takes half of the average 
person's income.
  Our party has been taken over by people who are sickened by the fact 
that the Federal Government wastes such unbelievable amounts of money.
  The Republican Party has been taken over by people who understand 
that big government helps extremely big business with all of its rules, 
regulations, and red tape, while it drives small businesses out of 
existence or forces them to merge.
  Our party has been taken over by people who believe in the things 
that made this Nation great--free enterprise, the private ownership of 
property, and individual freedom.
  The Republican Party is a party today that does not believe that the 
Federal Government should control, dictate, or dominate everything.
  And yes, our party is filled with people who are very concerned about 
the breakdown of our families, the unsafe, even violent conditions in 
our inner cities, and the declining quality of our educational system.
  The vast majority of Republican, like the vast majority of Americans, 
believe in prayer in schools. They believe that prayer helps many 
people and really hurts no one, and that if the House and Senate can 
open each day with prayer, why not our schools.
  Does this make the Republican Party religious right? Well, listen to 
what a very prominent woman says about prayer in schools:

       . . .School prayer advocacy, especially in inner cities, is 
     a symptom of people trying to figure every way they can to 
     reinforce people's ability to work together, to live together 
     in families, to have a sense of purpose, a sense of self 
     respect, a sense of regard for others, and how we get along 
     with each other.

  These are the words of that well-known member of the religious 
right--Attorney General Janet Reno.
  And as another prominent member of the religious right, says: ``It is 
not just possible that anti-religious bias, masquerading as religious 
neutrality, is costing us far more than we have been willing to 
admit.''
  Those are the words of William Raspberry, the very fine and very 
liberal columnist for the Washington Post.
  The Republican Party has been taken over by people who believe that 
``our government would be better if policies were more directed by 
moral values.'' Those exact words were taken from a recent poll for 
U.S. News and World Report, which found that 84 percent of the American 
people hold that exact same belief, while only 9 percent disagree.
  Yet at the same time that an overwhelming majority believe that, 
another liberal Yale professor, Stephen Carter, says in his book, ``The 
Culture of Disbelief,'' We have pressed the religiously faithful * * * 
to act as though their faith does not matter.''

  The Republican Party is filled with people who believe in freedom 
rather than government and who know that government cannot solve all 
our problems.
  It is filled with people who know that if our Nation is to survive, 
people will have to realize that they have responsibilities and not 
just rights.
  Our party is filled with people who believe in freedom of speech, 
rather than political correctness, and who are being criticized simply 
because they have the courage of their convictions and do not need the 
national media to tell them how to think.
  And yes, our party believes--as do an overwhelming majority--that 
homosexuality is not a healthy alternative lifestyle and should not be 
promoted as such to children in elementary school.
  Those on the other side, the liberal side of the political spectrum, 
seem to know they are losing the arguments on the merits, so they are 
resorting to name calling.
  They seem to think that if they say the words ``hatemonger'' or 
``religious right,'' that settles it--they don't need to discuss the 
merits, or lack thereof, of their positions.
  Many people, though, are beginning to see that the real intolerance 
is coming, not from conservatives, but from the left.
  In today's Roll Call newspaper, the very nonpartisan political 
commentator, Charles Cook, writes this:

       * * * Many of the Democratic attacks do come awfully close 
     to religious intolerance, however. I was on a panel 
     discussion earlier this week at a national College Democrats 
     meeting (the next day I did one for the Republican National 
     Committee, and both were for free), and someone on the panel 
     made a passing reference to former Education Secretary 
     William Bennett's recently published ``Book of Virtues.'' I 
     was stunned to hear at least one person in the audience hiss 
     at the mention of the book * * *
       * * * I wonder what offended this person about Bennett's 
     anthology. Was it Longfellow's ``The Children's Hour'' or 
     ``The Village Blacksmith''? Was it Martin Luther King, Jr.'s 
     letter from the Birmingham city jail or his famous ``I Have a 
     Dream'' speech? Maybe it was Lincoln's Gettysburg Address? * 
     * *
       * * * I'd bet a dollar to a donut that the hisser hadn't 
     the foggiest idea what was in the book. This is the kind of 
     intolerance that causes many Democrats to be called cultural 
     elitists, and it has put them out of touch with many working- 
     and middle-class voters * * *

  To sum up, Mr. Speaker, the Republican Party is filled with people 
who know that most Government programs, no matter how wonderful their 
title, really help primarily the people who work for the Government and 
do very little for the intended beneficiaries.
  Our party has been taken over by people who believe that they can 
spend their own money better than the bureaucrats can spend it for 
them, and who believe Government should have to live within its means 
just as individuals and families do.
  Ours is a party that believes in freedom, hope, and opportunity for 
all people, and that Government should be of, by, and for the people, 
not just of, by, and for the bureaucrats.
  This is a positive, optimistic message, and one that will appeal to 
everyone if it is presented to them without the extreme bias of the 
national media.
  As a national advertising campaign used to say, Americans want to 
succeed, not merely survive. Most Americans, and certainly almost all 
Republicans, do not want the enforced mediocrity that comes with 
Government control or domination of peoples' lives.

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