[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 138 (Monday, September 30, 1996)]
[House]
[Page H12181]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    PROUD OF LIBERAL ACCOMPLISHMENTS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Colorado [Mrs. Schroeder] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mrs. SCHROEDER. Mr. Speaker, I am not quite sure what to call this, 
whether I call it a ``Fem-fomercial,'' or ``I am liberal, hear me 
roar,'' or ``I am a progressive, hear me roar,'' or what. I wanted to 
take this floor one last time and say, for those who want to demean 
progressives or demean liberals in this body, and for those who want to 
hurl labels at them, I want to say I am proud to be in that category, 
and I wanted to say why.

                              {time}  1430

  If you look back on this last century, think of what it would have 
been like if there had not been progressives or there had not been 
liberals. There clearly would not have been any civil rights enacted. 
The voting rights would not have transpired. Women would not be voting. 
We would not be dealing with the environment the way we are now, and 
much more knowledgeable about it. We would not have Social Security. 
That, clearly, was a very stark difference. We would not have had 
Medicare. There was a stark difference.
  We would not have had the Marshall Plan, which President Truman 
introduced when he was at about a 17 percent approval rating. We would 
not have had the nuclear test ban. We would not have had the food 
safety laws or the drug safety laws. We would not have had things like 
air bags.
  I remember those fights and how people laughed at those of us who 
were advocating air bags and the threatening stuff we were hearing from 
people, and now everybody is delighted that we have them and lives have 
been saved.
  We would not have had the educational opportunities that the Federal 
Government is putting out there, whether it is for Head Start to going 
on to college. And I could go on with a lot of things that were 
introduced in this century that I think made this place a better place 
to live.
  One of my frustrations has been, in my 24 years in politics, watching 
the people who fought us tooth and nail on these issues, then, after 
they passed they start trying to get in front of the train and pretend 
like its theirs and say trust me, I will take care of this if you just 
put me in power. Well, I do not think so. And at the same time trying 
to hurl labels at the people who advocated these issues like there was 
something really terrible about it although now of course they agree 
with the issues.
  So as we go into this election year, I hope Americans are a lot more 
sophisticated and start thinking about how far this country has moved 
in 100 years. That is hard for us as Americans because one of our 
strong suits is we do not really deal in the past and we really do not 
deal too far in the future. We deal in the here and now and reality. 
That is good news, but that can be bad news, because we have to at some 
time think about how deep is our rudder, where is our compass set, and 
what do we see out there on the horizon.
  So I guess what I am saying is the challenge of every one of us as we 
start to enter this new century is to think about where is our compass 
set and where do we want to go, and do we want to wipe out all these 
people we now call liberals, liberals or progressives, that have any of 
these kind of ideas? Do we want to just stay right where we are, 
marching in place, or do we want to march backwards and start undoing 
things?
  As you know, they are already in the Presidential campaign talking of 
let us undo family medical leave, we do not like that. Let us undo all 
sorts of things that we have made gains on. I always feel after we gain 
that ground, it is almost like a military campaign, we have to sit 
there and sleep with one eye open like the lioness at the den because 
we never know what could be undone.
  But I hope all Americans engage in this and think about it because I 
do not think liberal is a bad word. I think the great progress that 
this country has made has been because of people who have been 
courageous enough to come to this floor and say this is a Nation where 
hope is the bottomline and the Federal Government must find a way that 
hope becomes reality to every American.
  I have said over and over again that I was raised in a family that 
said we all came from countries where we were what our parents are, but 
in this country we are what our children become. So we desperately need 
to think about what our children are going to become in the 21st 
century and what our Nation is going to become in the 21st century and 
what kind of opportunities are going to be out there for everyone.
  And that, I hope, is the level of debate we have this fall. I hope 
that that starts to be a little more of a vision thing for every voter. 
It is not just the vision thing for the candidates. What are the vision 
things of the voters? This is where the people come in, and this is 
where I hope they speak.

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