    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1996, Book I)]
    [May 8, 1996]
    [Pages 709-713]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks at a Democratic National Committee Dinner
    May 8, 1996

        Thank you. Thank you very much, Mr. Vice President. You may have
    held your humor in check tonight, but you don't ever hold anything back
    from America every day in your job. The American people will never
    really know--at least, until I write my memoirs--all the magnificent
    things Al Gore has done as Vice President. But I'm telling you, we
    should all be very grateful to him, and I appreciate it. Thank you.
        I want to thank Tipper for so many things: for making me more
    sensitive to the whole issue of mental health; for making me see the
    world in a different and deeper way, through the lens of her camera; and
    for sharing my birthday and all those crazy characteristics we Leos
    have. [Laughter] You know, there comes a time when the four of us are
    out at 12:30 in the morning on Saturday evening, I don't want to talk
    about public policy anymore--[laughter]--so we just let Al and Hillary
    go on their way and we talk about music or something.
        I want to thank Don Fowler and Chris Dodd for the incredible labor
    of love and effort they have exerted, and all of those who work with
    them: Marvin Rosen and the others who have raised so much of the funds,
    and Terry McAuliffe and those who have helped our campaign. I thank them
    all so much.
        I want to thank Dan and Beth and the other cochairs, and all the
    committee who worked so hard tonight. And I'm very grateful to Stevie
    Wonder and to Robin Williams for not only adding a little glamour but
    adding a little depth to our life in their songs and in their humor.
    They made us think about what's really important in life and what's
    really important in public life. I thank them especially for honoring
    our friend Ron Brown. As I said when I spoke at his memorial service, I
    probably wouldn't be here if it weren't for Ron Brown, and I'm glad we
    could be here for him tonight. And thank you, Alma, for being here with
    us.

    [[Page 710]]

        I want to thank the host and chairman of this dinner, Peter Knight,
    who has--if you want to clap for him after what he has done to you for
    months, I think that is a wonderful thing. [Applause] Any man who can
    pick your pocket and still win your applause--[laughter]--deserves to be
    the campaign manager of the Clinton/Gore campaign. So tomorrow he goes
    to work in a new job. Ever since he played a major role in our campaign
    in 1992, I have been profoundly impressed with his mind, his heart, his
    skill, his discipline. And I look forward to his leadership as we go
    down the road ahead. I thank him very, very much.
        I want to thank the First Lady for so many things over what now are
    nearly 21 years of our marriage, for these remarkable 3\1/2\ years we
    have had in the White House, for putting up with a phenomenal amount of
    abuse solely because she happened to be married to me, and doing it with
    good humor and good grace and a strong heart. And not quite solely
    because she happened to be married to me; she also happens to stand for
    some things that some of those in the other party don't like.
        But I think it's a good thing that women as well as men and girls as
    well as boys should have a chance to live this life to the fullest of
    their ability. And I do believe it takes a village to raise a child. And
    I think it takes a village to solve our problems and a village to make
    this country what it ought to be. Stevie Wonder sang it: All for one,
    and one for all.
        And finally let me thank all of you, and let me say that I don't
    want to speak long tonight because, as Robin Williams said, I know I'm
    preaching to the saved. But I want to tell you one more time as clearly
    as I can what is at stake in this year and why it goes beyond the bounds
    of a normal election and why you cannot leave your commitment at this
    door, no matter how much you gave or how difficult it was. For your
    citizenship cannot end here.
        When Al Gore and I ran in 1992, I had a clear vision of what I hoped
    our country would look like in the 21st century, and I haven't lost that
    vision. I want America to be a place where every child can grow up to
    live out his or her dreams without regard to their race or their
    religion or their ethnic group or the station in life from which they
    start. If they're willing to work, I want them to have a chance to live
    out their dreams.
        I want America to be a place where our incredibly rich diversity of
    heritage brings us together and where we live together in peace and
    respect, with safe streets and good schools and a clean environment. I
    want America to be a place where everyone knows that we're doing our
    best to preserve our values together, to move forward together. I want
    America to be the strongest force for peace and freedom in the world in
    the 21st century. I want us to continue reaching out to other people and
    standing up for the things we've stood up for. And I believe in order to
    do that we have got to be willing to work together, to face our
    challenges and not deny them, to protect our values, not just talk about
    them and then regularly violate them.
        These last 3\1/2\ years have been a great opportunity for us. We've
    still got a long way to go as a country, but no one can doubt that in
    every important way we're better off today than we were in 1992, when
    the deficit was twice as high, when we had 8\1/2\ million fewer jobs,
    when we had a higher crime rate, higher welfare rates, higher poverty
    rates, when we seemed to be drifting.
        But what I want to say to you tonight is, more important than any
    single issue is the differences now before the American people in this
    election about how we will walk into the 21st century. In 1992 there was
    so much talk about change. Robin did that great imitation of Ross Perot.
    Ross Perot and I said we represent change. Sixty-two percent of the
    people said, ``Okay, we're for change against the status quo and kind of
    a hands-off policy to our problems.'' And thank goodness in that 62
    percent more people voted for me than Mr. Perot, so I got to show up
    here tonight. And that's what happened.
        But it was change against the status quo. That is not true now.
    There is no status quo option. In this election there are two very
    different visions of change. And unlike most elections, you don't have
    to guess. You know where I stand, what I stand for. You know from what
    we've done in the last 3\1/2\ years I'll do my dead-level-best to do
    what I say I want to do in the next 4 years.
        And now you know where they stand and what they will do. They passed
    a budget in 1995 which will become the law of the land if they control
    the Congress and the White House in 1997. They tried to do certain
    things

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    to the environment and to the fabric of this country, which they will be
    able to do and which they will do. And you don't have to guess.
        So we can look ahead. One side says--their side--that in this great
    new information age with so many opportunities, Government is the
    problem and what we really need for the American people is an unlimited
    number of choices and freedom from Government. If we all just walk away,
    everything will work out fine. Our side says, that view forgets history.
    You remember what the great writer Anatole France said: ``The rich and
    poor are equally free to sleep under the bridge at night.''
        We believe that the future requires not only the existence of
    opportunity but making sure that every American has the chance to seize
    that opportunity, and that what we should be doing here at this moment
    is giving people the ability to make the most of their own lives, as
    workers, as family members, in communities, and as citizens. That is the
    central difference between the two approaches in the debate in
    Washington, DC, and in the country today. And the American people must
    choose which road they will walk into the 21st century.
        And let me reiterate what others have said. I don't care what the
    polls say today. This is a time of profound change. And just as there is
    volatility in the economy, just as there is volatility in our society,
    there will inevitably be volatility in our political life. If you want
    this to come out in a way that you believe in, then you have to leave
    here tonight committed to doing everything you can to reach every
    friend, every neighbor, every person you come in contact with, to try to
    convince that person that this is the road we should walk together into
    the 21st century. This is the road we should walk together.
        And you have lots of specific examples. They talked about the
    deficit; we brought it down. They say they want to help working people
    and value families, but we stood up for the family and medical leave law
    that Chris Dodd had to fight 7 years for because they fought it every
    step of the way.
        We, those of us who are here tonight, can afford to be here, but
    we're still for raising the minimum wage, because we want people who
    raise families and work full time to be able to live in dignity. That's
    important.
        It's one thing to say you're for law and order, but we put a hundred
    thousand police officers on the street, helping to reduce the crime
    level. We put money into community programs to prevent crimes so our
    children have something to say yes to as well as something to say no to.
    We did pass the assault weapons ban, and we also passed the Brady bill.
    And you know what? None of those hunters shooting at those moose that
    Robin portrayed so well tonight have lost their guns. But 60,000
    people--60,000 people did lose out. Sixty thousand people with criminal
    records have not been able to buy handguns because of the passage of the
    Brady bill. We were right. That was the right decision for America.
        We think everybody ought to be able to go to college, because what
    you can earn depends on what you can learn. And so we fought for a new
    student loan program, lower cost, less hassle, better repayment terms.
    We were for it, and by and large they weren't.
        So we have very different views. None of those cases--not a single,
    solitary one--involves the Government guaranteeing an outcome to any
    citizen. What did we try to do? We tried to guarantee safe streets, the
    opportunity to get an education, the opportunity to get a job, a healthy
    economy. And the same thing is true with the environment. I plead guilty
    to believing we cannot grow the American economy over the long run
    unless we preserve the quality of our land, of our water, our natural
    resources, and the animals who inhabit this Earth with us. I am guilty.
    I plead guilty. And I believe most of the American people would say the
    same thing.
        That doesn't guarantee us anything except the chance to have a
    decent, coherent life. And so I say to you again, if you believe that
    every person ought to have a chance to make the most of his or her life;
    if you are sick and tired of seeing this country divided by race, by
    religion, over these issues that serve to drive a wedge between the
    American people, and you know that unless we come together we'll never
    be the country we ought to be; if you want your country to stand up for
    peace and freedom, even when you may not agree with the President on
    every issue--I've done a lot of things that weren't popular with some
    groups, whether it was Haiti or Mexico or getting involved in the
    Northern Ireland situation for the first time, and I know that a lot of
    people say from time to time, well, maybe he does this, that, or the
    other thing too much.

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        But let me say this, 20 years from now I want your country to be the
    strongest country in the world. But other countries will be stronger
    than they are today. And we have to make sure that other countries join
    us in fighting terrorism, in standing up against dangerous weapons, in
    standing up to drug smuggling, in standing up for a decent life for all
    the children of this world. If we don't cooperate with these countries
    and try to lead and shape the future, then it will diminish the future
    for all of us. And if you believe all that, then I ask you to leave here
    committed not to saying, ``Okay, I did my part. I went to that
    fundraiser. We raised $12 million. Big deal.'' No, I ask you to walk
    away and say, ``I'm going to work every day between now and election day
    in November so we walk the right road into the future.'' That is my
    commitment, and that's what I want you to do.
        Lastly, let me make this point. If we seek to prevail, we must have
    a strong sense of history and a big heart. This country has had a few
    major decision points in its history. When we started--Robin did a
    little debate about the Founding Fathers--all the things we take for
    granted today, they were big decisions: would we have a Bill of Rights
    or not; how were we going to limit Government to protect people; would
    we be one country or just a little collection of States.
        The next big crisis we had was the Civil War, when Abraham Lincoln
    gave his life, first to keep us one country and, second, to make us live
    up to the letter of the Constitution and get rid of slavery. Then, a
    hundred years ago we had an age very like today, when the economy
    changed, the way we lived and worked changed. And Theodore Roosevelt, a
    great Republican President, and Woodrow Wilson, a great Democratic
    President, led us into what we now call the progressive era, when we
    said, ``Hey, this industrial age is a great thing. People being able to
    move out of the country and live in the city, it's a great thing. But
    it's not a great thing that children are working 60 hours a week. It's
    not a great thing that women are being abused in the workplace. It's not
    a great thing that we are destroying our natural resources. It's not a
    great thing that small businesses are being crushed by unfair monopolies
    and not having a chance. We think we'll use the power of Government to
    help people make more of their own lives and preserve what is essential
    to this country.'' And that's what we've got to do again today.
        When President Roosevelt got us through the Depression and stood up
    for freedom against fascism in World War II, when we stood up against
    communism in the cold war, all these things kept America what it is
    today. And believe me, the decisions we have to make today as we move
    from the cold war to the global society, as we move from the industrial
    age to the information and technology age, they're every bit as
    profound.
        No one has all the answers. The most important thing is, what road
    are we going to walk down? If you want America to be something, we have
    to have a strong sense of history. We have to understand that we are
    here today because our forebears were committed to living up to the
    promise of the Constitution, to meeting our challenges and protecting
    our values and giving everybody a chance.
        And the other thing we have got to have is a little bit of heart.
    You know, they make fun of me sometimes. They say Bill Clinton is too
    emotional, feels your pain, and all that sort of stuff. Let me tell you
    something, you just think about it. When they lay you down for the last
    time, what are you going to remember? You wish you'd spent a few more
    hours at the office? No, you're going to think about your children, your
    family, the people you like, the people you love, how it felt to learn
    and experience things for the first time, the music that made you feel
    alive and big. That's what makes life worth living.
        Yesterday I was in a little town in New Jersey that was dominated by
    basically white ethnic schoolkids. We were at an anti-teen-smoking
    event. But in this blue collar, ethnic town, there were Jewish kids,
    there were Hindus of Indian heritage, there were two young women in
    their Muslim formal dress in the school, all living together as
    Americans. All proving, once again, that we believe that anybody who
    just shares our values and will respect the honest differences of others
    should have the chance to live in this way, to live out their dreams
    that go way beyond economics. And I just want you to know why I feel
    that way.
        Just before I left to come over here tonight, I met with a group of
    people. I frequently have coffee with people from around the country who
    are active in public affairs, and most of them couldn't afford to come
    here tonight. The peo-

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    ple I met with tonight were four local government leaders from the
    Northeast, three State legislative leaders from the South and the West,
    and some Hispanic and African-American women who are active in political
    organizations all over the country. And I just go around the table and
    let them talk.
        About the 10th person to talk was this very tall, stately,
    impressive African-American woman from San Francisco. She looked at me--
    this is self-serving, but I am going to tell you anyway--this woman
    looked at me and said, ``Before we get down to what I came to talk
    about, let's get first things first.'' She said, ``My daddy is 75 years
    old, and he lives in St. Louis, but he was born and grew up in Hope,
    Arkansas''--the same little town in Arkansas I was born in--``and he
    went to Yeager High School,'' which was the all-black high school at the
    time when the schools were segregated. ``And he told me that your
    grandfather, at his little store, was one of only four white people in
    town that would really do business with black folks.'' She said, ``Is
    that true?''
        I said, ``Yes, ma'am, it's true. And I can still remember when I was
    5 years old, sitting on that wooden store counter next to a big jar of
    Jackson's cookies that were this big and sold for a penny apiece,
    listening to my granddaddy tell me that those people who came into his
    store were good people, and they worked hard, and they deserved a better
    deal in life.''
        Now, let me tell you folks, that's what makes this country great.
    Our political system is not great because it's a political system. It is
    not even great because it works economically. It's great because it
    gives us all a chance to live out our dreams and because in every
    generation we keep trying to meet the challenges and protect our values
    and live up to what we say we believe in. That is really what this is
    all about.
        And we cannot go into the global economy of the 21st century by
    walking away from our common responsibilities and saying that we don't
    have a common responsibility to help everybody's kids live up to the
    fullest of their dreams. You think about it, talk about it, stand up for
    it, work for it. Don't be overconfident, and we will prevail.
        Thank you, and God bless you, and good night.

    Note: The President spoke at 10:32 p.m. at the Washington Convention
    Center. In his remarks, he referred to Donald L. Fowler, national
    chairman, Senator Christopher J. Dodd, general chairman, and Marvin
    Rosen, national finance chairman, Democratic National Committee; Terence
    McAuliffe, finance chairman, Clinton/Gore '96; Dan Dutko and Beth
    Dozoretz, dinner cochairs; musician Stevie Wonder; comedian Robin
    Williams; Alma Brown, widow of former Secretary of Commerce Ronald H.
    Brown; and Reform Party Presidential candidate Ross Perot.