[Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 114 (Tuesday, July 14, 2026)]
[House]
[Pages H4411-H4412]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        OUR GENERATION'S LEGACY

  (Mr. McClintock of California was recognized to address the House for 
5 minutes.)
  Mr. McCLINTOCK. Mr. Speaker, on the eve of our Nation's 250th 
birthday, Zohran Mamdani sat at George Washington's desk and painted a 
dystopian picture of America: an oligarchy based on exploitation, 
discrimination, nativism, and bondage.
  Stripping away the anti-American rhetoric, he seemed to make three 
general points: First, that America is so racist and xenophobic that 
many insist it ``belongs only to those with the right accent or the 
right shade of skin.'' Yet, even as he spoke these words, foreign 
soccer fans with every accent and skin shade flooded social media to 
tell of their delight at the openness, hospitality, prosperity, 
happiness, abundance, and big-heartedness of middle America.
  Indeed, America welcomes more foreign immigrants than any other 
country in the world, but we insist that those who come to America do 
so with a sincere desire to become loyal Americans, to adopt a common 
language, a common culture, and a common appreciation of American 
constitutional principles and traditions, and to raise their children 
to revere and appreciate this country. It is called assimilation. It is 
why we have immigration laws. That is the only way to build one great 
Nation and one great people from all the nations and people of the 
world.
  Illegal immigration destroys that process. Mamdani, like so many on 
the left, obstruct our immigration laws and vilify those who enforce 
them. Yet, if we don't enforce our immigration laws, then we have no 
immigration laws. Without immigration laws, we have no border. Without 
a border, we have no country. Is it possible Mamdani does not 
understand this or is this his ultimate aim?
  His second point is that American exceptionalism derives not from the 
principles of liberty proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence, 
but, rather, that these principles can be exchanged for others, and Mr. 
Mamdani has one in mind--socialism.
  However, freedom and socialism are two antithetical and incompatible 
things. Our fundamental natural rights as human beings come to us 
either from God or from government. If from God--the right to chart our 
own course through life, develop our own talents, supply our own 
industry, and enjoy the fruit of our own labors--they are a birthright 
and are inalienable.
  If these rights come from government, then they can be extended or 
withdrawn at the whim of those in power. Mr. Mamdani and his friends 
will decide how much you may earn, where and how you can live, which 
groups will receive the favors of government and which will be denied 
them, who must live under the law and who can live above it, even the 
temperature that you must set your thermostat.
  Wherever the socialists take control, we see this fundamental change, 
and there is nothing exceptional about it. It is the consistent product 
of socialist regimes: confiscatory taxes, chronic shortages of basic 
necessities, rampant homelessness, rising crime, bitter racial strife, 
failing schools, shuttered businesses, and ultimately, fleeing 
families.
  His third point is that our founding principles create inequalities 
so vast that in America ``children go to sleep hungry, while the 
world's first trillionaire hungers for more.''
  Well, no one starves in America. Indeed, the poorest Americans today 
are wealthier than the vast majority of mankind. Yes, in America 
extraordinary individuals, including legal immigrants, can achieve 
extraordinary success. The left loves to dehumanize them as oligarchs. 
Their vast fortunes were made because consumers found value in their 
products and freely bought them. They have provided mankind with 
quantum leaps in technological progress that in turn produced the jobs 
and goods and services that provide Americans with a prosperity and 
standard of living unparalleled throughout the world. As John F. 
Kennedy reminded us: ``A rising tide lifts all boats.''
  The true oligarchs are the socialists who use the power of government 
to plunder the earnings of productive Americans in order to enrich 
themselves and their acolytes. As Winston

[[Page H4412]]

Churchill warned: ``The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal 
sharing of blessings. The inherent virtue of socialism is the equal 
sharing of miseries.''
  Mr. Speaker, if America follows Mr. Mamdani, it will not be the first 
civilization to succumb to the siren song of a benevolent, all-powerful 
government, but every civilization that has done so has awakened one 
morning to discover that the benevolence is gone and that the all-
powerful government remains.
  The American Founders feared that one day a generation might emerge 
that has lost the memory of freedom. Let that not be the legacy of our 
generation.

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