[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1994, Book II)]
[November 4, 1994]
[Pages 1998-2001]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks at a Rally for Democratic Candidates in Los Angeles, California
November 4, 1994

    Thank you very much. Senator Feinstein, Senator Boxer, Kathleen 
Brown, distinguished Members of Congress and candidates on our State 
Democratic ticket, to all of you who are here, thank you for making me 
feel, as always, so very welcome in Los Angeles and California. I want 
to say a special word of thanks to the gospel group, Charity, that 
entertained us so well. They were great. Thank you. I want to thank 
Marlee Matlin for her fine comments before; thank you for being here 
with us. Again let me say, there are very few States who could boast a 
slate of candidates for State office and for the Congress as outstanding 
as those who have already been introduced here tonight. But I just want 
you to know, I am proud to be here with all these nominees of my party 
and your party that you will elect on Tuesday. I thank them, and I thank 
you.
    I want to talk tonight just for a minute about what's really at 
stake in this election. And I want you to think about why--I was looking 
at Dianne Feinstein tonight, and I was thinking, I have been following 
public life in America for a long time now. I never lived in Washington 
as an elected official until 21 months ago, but I've kind of kept up, 
like most of you. In my lifetime, there has never been, ever, not one 
time, a United States Senator who, in his or her first 2 years in 
office, sponsored three major legislative initiatives that will change 
the life of America for the better, the assault weapons ban, the zero 
tolerance for guns in schools, and the largest wilderness bill in the 
history of the United States, the California desert bill. Now, how could 
we not give her a 6-year renewal? We have to do it.
    What is the argument of her opponent? It is the argument they're all 
making, really. It is that Government is inherently bad, it's inherently 
irrelevant, it doesn't make any difference: ``Who cares what I say or 
do; it doesn't make any difference.'' You look at these children behind 
me and the children in this crowd; it does make a difference to their 
future, and Dianne Feinstein will make a difference. He said, ``What 
difference does it make if we pass any laws in Washington; they've been 
up there passing laws for 200 years.'' He's the first person ever to 
seek the United States Senate to run not only against Washington, he's 
now running against George Washington. [Laughter]
    Folks, I don't know about you, but I think what Abraham Lincoln did 
in the Emancipation Proclamation and the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments 
made a pretty big difference in the life of this country. I don't know 
about you, but I think when we had one in four Americans out of work and 
President Roosevelt came in and lifted us up out of the dumps and got us 
going forward, it made a difference in this country. It's not a partisan 
thing. When President Eisenhower signed the bill for the Interstate 
Highway System or President Nixon signed the bill for the Environmental 
Protection Agency, it made a difference in this country. This guy is the 
only person who thinks that none of this matters. You have to say no to 
people who say it doesn't matter, yes to Dianne Feinstein. It does 
matter. California matters. She matters. Reelect her on Tuesday.
    Look at--consider the candidacy of Kathleen Brown. I don't want to 
be presumptuous, but I know something about being a Governor; I

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used to be one. And on the tough days in Washington, I think it's the 
best job I ever had. [Laughter] It is a joy. But it is only a joy if 
every day you get up and you try to build. The Governor's office is not 
a place for blamers; it's a place for builders. It's a place for people 
who take responsibility and bring out the best in us and bring us 
together and move forward.
    When I think of what you have been through in this State, with the 
recession, with the defense cutbacks--the unemployment rate in 
California when I took office was 9.4 percent. I have done everything I 
could do to bring it down to 7.7 percent, to get those 400,000 jobs, to 
get this State going again. But I need a partner here, someone who wants 
to work for California, not point the finger of blame.
    You know, I want to say two things about your slogan here. The one 
is, I want to talk about 187. But the first thing I want to do--I've got 
plenty to say about that, but the first thing I want to do is to ask you 
this: You're going to vote on 187, and I hope to goodness you're going 
to beat 187. But after the election somebody is going to be Governor 
with 4 years of hard work to do. Will you have a job? Will your schools 
get better? Will your streets get safer? Will your air get cleaner? Will 
your State move forward? That is the question.
    We don't know what the incumbent wants to do, but we know Kathleen 
Brown has a plan, a good plan, that will make California a better place, 
a building place. How did California become the symbol of America's 
future? By building, not by blaming; by bringing together, not by 
tearing apart. Why does California have a chance to lead our country 
into the 21st century? Because of our diversity, not in spite of it, 
because our diversity opens the world to us.
    Now let me say this to people who disagree with us on 187. Let me 
say this: It is true that the State of California has borne an unfair 
burden in the cost of illegal immigration. That is true. And it is true 
that in tough times, that burden is hard to bear. But what I want to 
tell you is, from the day I became President, because I had served with 
Governors in California, in Florida, in Texas and other States, I 
started to do something about it. I worked with Senator Feinstein; I 
worked with Senator Boxer; I worked with your congressional delegation. 
I tried to work with your Governor. I didn't think it was a partisan 
issue. We have almost doubled the border guards in San Diego. We have 
provided funds for the first time for the cost of incarceration. When I 
have been reducing the Government deficit, we have increased by one-
third the amount of money coming to California to deal with the cost of 
illegal immigration. We haven't been laying down, folks, we've been 
answering the call to do something about it.
    Do we need to do more? Yes, we do. But this is not the answer. Look 
at 187; what does it say? It says that the adults of this country and 
the authorities are not able to keep illegal immigrants out of 
California, so we will punish their children. That's what it says. It 
says, close the health clinics to them, even if it creates a public 
health problem for everybody else. It says, turn the teachers into 
police officers and kick the kids out on the street. Let me ask the 
children here, don't you think we've got enough kids on the street 
already? We need more kids in school, making this State a better place.
    Folks, the whole immigration system was a mess when I took office 21 
months ago. I am trying to fix it. It is better than it was; it will get 
better still. Now, a lot of the people who are pointing the finger of 
blame at this election, who are trying to make you mad, you angry, you 
lash out, you vote for this, they helped to create the problem. When the 
Governor was a Senator, he voted for a bill to make it easier for 
illegal immigrants to be in California, because powerful interests 
wanted them to work for low wages. You know it as well as I do. And 
then, when he became the Governor, and a President of his party was in 
Washington, his friend, his ally, he never raised a peep about this to 
put any heat on him, and they did nothing. Then when Senator Feinstein 
and Senator Boxer and President Clinton showed up, we did not say this 
about the Governor. We said nothing bad. We opened our hands. We said, 
``Let's roll up our sleeves; let's take responsibility; let's face this 
problem in a way that brings California together, not drives California 
apart.'' And that is what I have tried to do. Get me a partner in the 
Governor's office who will do the same thing.
    Let me say again--let me say again, folks. Why are they doing well? 
Because they say ``If we can just make the American people''--this is 
nationally and in California--``if we can make people mad enough, they 
will vote without thinking. If we can make them cynical enough, the 
Democrats will stay home. And if we can

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make them believe that Government is bad, that it always makes things 
worse, then we win all the way around because when the economy gets 
better, we can say, well, that happened in spite of the President and 
the Congress. If things get better, we'll say Government had nothing to 
do with it. If it gets worse, we'll blame Government. And we can say any 
kind of outrageous thing we want to appeal to extremists and mean 
elements in our country, and we can still get elected.'' That is their 
strategy.
    Well, let me ask you something. I don't know about you, but I think 
it mattered when you had that earthquake and we produced $11.5 billion 
in record time. I think it mattered when we fixed I-5 and all the other 
roads in record time, something never before done in the United States 
of America. Do you know, today we reopened the last earthquake-damaged 
freeway, the Route 14 connector on I-5? I think that matters, and I 
think you think it matters.
    I think it matters that 4.9 million families in California are 
protected by the family leave bill, so they can take a little time off 
when a child is born or a parent sick without losing a job. I think it 
matters. I think it matters when 2.1 million families in this State get 
an income tax cut so they can raise their children and work and not be 
in poverty. I think that matters.
    After all you've been through with the cost of higher education 
going through the roof, I think it matters that our student loan reform 
makes 1.6 million Californians eligible for lower cost college loans. 
And when we put hundreds of millions of dollars into defense conversion 
and give a third of it to people out here struggling to get off of the 
terrible recession you've been through, that matters. When we invest in 
scientific research at your laboratories and create jobs, it matters. 
When we revitalize the shipbuilding industry in San Diego, it matters. 
When we do these things, it matters.
    When we do things that build the future, it counts. That's why today 
we had this wonderful news that unemployment is at a 4-year low, that 
over 5 million new jobs have now been created. That matters. That makes 
a difference.
    Folks, you have to decide what sort of future you want. I want a 
strong America. And what makes us strong? What makes us strong is 
strength abroad and strength at home. We cannot be strong abroad, even 
though we have the strongest military, unless we have strong families 
and strong education system and safe streets and good jobs. That is the 
strength we are bringing to America, and we need to keep right on doing 
it. We don't need to turn back now.
    And this whole thing comes down to the state of mind of the people 
of California on election day, because if people are cynical and angry, 
they either won't vote or they will vote against their own interests. 
You know, as a parent, one of the first things I tried to do, like most 
parents, as soon as my child was old enough to understand it, was to 
say, ``Never, never make an important decision when you are mad. When 
you are mad, count to 10 before you say something.'' And every time I 
only got to 2, I wound up in a lot of trouble. [Laughter]
    Now that is exactly what the Republicans are trying to get you to do 
in this election. You look at the Wilson ads; you look at the Huffington 
ads; you listen to them. What they want you to do is not to take time to 
count to 10, not to remember that this State is the hope of America, not 
to remember what we can do when we're at our best. They want you to lash 
out, or they want you to give up. They want you to stay home or come out 
and vote for not the future but the past. That is what is going on in 
this election. If you say, ``No thank you, we are going forward in jobs, 
forward in bringing our deficit down, forward in investing in our 
future, forward in education, forward in building strong families,'' we 
will win. We will win because you will win. You will win. We'll win.
    Now, I just want you to think about this. I know you think I'm 
beating a dead horse, but I've been all over this country and I know 
what I'm talking about. We will win if people think and feel their best 
and look at the record and look at the positions. And if that happens, 
Dianne Feinstein will be reelected. It is unbelievable that anybody with 
her record should even have a close race. You need to send her back 
there with an enormous, enormous ovation of support. And Kathleen Brown 
will be elected because she represents the future, not the past, for 
California.
    Folks, I have done everything I know to do to be a good partner to 
the people of California. I have done everything I know to do. I have 
tried to take this immigration issue on. I've tried to bring this 
economy back. I've tried to help you with defense conversion. I've tried 
to help you build your high-tech base. I've tried to help you sell your 
products all over the world. I have

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tried to do things that no President has ever done. The farmers in the 
valley are selling California rice to Japan for the first time under 
this administration. And we did not do any of that by going to work in a 
cynical, negative frame of mind, saying that we're never going to make 
anything good happen.
    My fellow Americans, your Government is neither good nor bad, 
inherently. It is our tool. It is a reflection of us. Whether it is good 
or bad, what it does, how much it costs, how well we do it is a function 
of what we believe and where we are going. Let's go into the future. 
Let's don't go back. Let's don't go back. Let's don't go back.
    Every one of you, promise yourselves you're going to ask somebody to 
vote for Dianne Feinstein, vote for Kathleen Brown, vote no on 187. Go 
see your neighbors, and turn it around. Go forward! Yes to the future!
    Thank you, and God bless you all.

Note: The President spoke at 6:01 p.m. at City Hall. In his remarks, he 
referred to actress Marlee Matlin.