[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 58 (Wednesday, March 29, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H3972-H3973]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    AN IMPORTANT FACTOR IN TERM LIMITS: CHANGING PEOPLE'S ATTITUDES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Minnesota [Mr. Gutknecht] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. GUTKNECHT. Madam Speaker, this has been a very historic day. For 
many years the Congress has wrestled with whether or not they would 
have an open vote under rules in which amendments could be offered to 
the whole issue of term limits.
  I come to the Congress from the State of Minnesota, and having served 
12 years in the Minnesota legislature, I became a late adapter to the 
whole notion of term limits. On the front of the House Chamber in the 
Minnesota House of Representatives, there is a sign in gold leaf. It 
says ``Vox Populorum est vox Dei.'' In Latin I guess that translates to 
the voice of the people is the voice of God.
  Before I was in the legislature, I was in sales, and went to a number 
of sales training programs. One of the most important words in terms of 
changing human behavior is the word ``attitude.'' Before you can change 
people's behavior, you have to change their attitude. I think one of 
the most important arguments in favor of term limits is changing the 
word attitude or changing people's attitudes.
  I think if people go to the Congress or if they go to the State 
legislature, if they go to the presidency, whatever the public office 
may be, if they know they are only going to serve for a limited amount 
of time, I think they go into that office with a much different 
attitude than if they see that as a lifelong career.
  I think the American people are way out in front of us on this. I 
think in the final analysis they will prevail. In fact, the late 
Senator Everett Dirksen perhaps said it best when he said ``The more I 
feel the heat, the more I see the light.'' I think more and more 
Members of Congress now are beginning to feel the heat from the 
American people, and they are beginning to see the light.
   [[Page H3973]] Am I disappointed, I would ask the gentleman from 
South Carolina [Mr. Graham], in the outcome tonight? To be sure, I am. 
I thought we were going to do much better. As a matter of fact I am an 
incurable optimist, and I thought if we could ever get this item up for 
a vote, the pressure of the American people alone would cause us to 
vote for it.
  This is only round one in what will probably be a 15-round fight. I 
am reminded again when I think of the people of the immortal poem of 
Carl Sandburg. He wrote the poem ``The People, Yes.'' He said ``The 
people will live on. The learning and blundering people will live on. 
They will be tricked and sold, and again sold, and return to the 
nourishing earth for root holds. The people, so amazing in their 
resiliency, you can't laugh off their capacity to take it.''
  Well, the people have been tricked and the people have been sold, and 
the people will be tricked and sold again, but sooner or later, the 
people will prevail. The people of this country will stand loudly and 
strongly on the next election and they will say ``We want people to go 
to Washington who will vote for term limits.''
  I believe and I predict that if we don't pass term limits yet in this 
session of the Congress, they will be passed in the 105th Congress, 
because I believe the Speaker was correct. It was not a hollow threat. 
I think he was only stating fact, that sooner or later the will of the 
people will prevail. As Sandburg said, ``The People, Yes.''

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