[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1998, Book I)]
[April 26, 1998]
[Pages 623-625]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]
Remarks at a Democratic National Committee Dinner
April 26, 1998
Thank you. Thank you very much. Let me see, we have now seen a
magnificent musical rendition of a wonderful novel. We heard two fine
speeches. If I had any sense, I would sit down. [Laughter]
[[Page 624]]
When Bob was talking about that obscurity is forever, I think the
Vice President is too sensitive. I thought he was talking about being a
former President, not being a--[laughter].
I want to thank the Kogods and the Smiths and all their family members for having us in this
magnificent home, for giving us a chance to look at all the wonderful
art, for being in this beautiful tent. I'm delighted with the weather,
and I'm delighted with the company. I want to thank the leaders of our
party and the cochairs of this event tonight.
As you leave here--and the Vice President has already said a lot of
the things that I think should be said about what it means for a party
to be 150 years old. But let me say, when Hillary and I were in Chile
recently, someone, I think on her staff, got us a copy of a speech which
Theodore Roosevelt gave in Chile after he left the White House in the
early part of this century, a speech which I have to say I believe the
members of his party ignored. But it's brilliant speech about how in
politics, if you want to really matter, you have to be faithful to
eternal values, but you have to always be willing to lift the dead hand
of history off your politics, always be willing to do whatever is
necessary to advance the expansion of freedom and opportunity for
people, and never to be paralyzed by what you used to do when it no
longer makes sense.
It's really quite a brilliant speech, and I read it when I was in
Chile, thinking, that's what I think, and that's what I think our party
embodies.
What I would like for you to think about, leaving here tonight,
basically are just three things. Number one, in terms of what we're
going to do in the next 2\1/2\ years, in order to continue to win
Presidential elections, win back the Congress, and become the dominant
party in the country again, I think we not only have to continue to win
with an aggressive, specific agenda; I think we have to also keep
pushing the big ideas--that we do believe in opportunity for everybody;
we do believe that we should expand the reach of human freedom; we do
believe that we're stronger as a diverse country.
And there are two or three really simple things that I would like to
mention that to me are quite important. And frankly, I haven't succeeded
yet in convincing huge numbers of the American people that this has to
be a part of our thinking. The first is that it no longer makes sense to
have a clear, bright line between what is an American domestic policy
and what is a foreign policy. Now, if I had succeeded in doing that, we
wouldn't have some of the disputes we still have in our country today,
and there would be more support in our country for paying our U.N. dues,
investing in the International Monetary Fund, being responsible citizens
in every way.
I think the American people know we're living in an interdependent
world, but it's not such a high priority that politicians for their own
purposes don't feel they can--they still feel free to walk away from
some of our responsibilities in the world. And I think that's a great
mistake, because I can tell you--you know, I believe that every nation I
have set foot in as President, I was doing something that was good for
the American people and their future and our children's future.
You do not have to be a Jewish-American or an Arab-American to know
that the children of our country will have a brighter future if there is
peace in the Middle East. You don't have to have come out of central
Europe to know that the children of our country will have a brighter
future if there is peace in Bosnia. You don't have to be Greek or
Turkish to know that we'd be a whole lot better off if we'd resolve the
problems over Cyprus. You don't have to be Indian or Pakistani to know
that it would be an ultimate disaster if those two great nations went to
war over Kashmir, when they could go to peace and change the whole
future of the 21st century by their numbers and their ingenuity.
This is elemental, and as Democrats we have got to continue to push
the fact that our children live in a smaller and smaller world and that
we cannot any longer just look at the outlines of the United States on a
map and say only those events which occur within that border and only
the people who live within those borders bear directly on our lives, our
future, and our imagination.
The other thing I'd like to say is that I think that we have got to
learn to stop thinking of ourselves as the environmental party and start
thinking of the environment as a part of all of our other policies. I
think we will never have the kind of country we want unless we say we
can conquer the problem of climate change as we grow the economy. We
dare not think of
[[Page 625]]
some--we can't even have health policy unless we have environmental
policy. We have to learn to think in a more integrated fashion.
This may be late at night, and you may think that's esoteric, but
I'm telling you, I'm about through with my public service as an elected
official. Most of my service as President is over, and I'm thinking
about the things that will shape what our children have to live with for
30 or 40 years.
And the last thing I want to say is what the musical was about
tonight is still the most important thing. We have to got to inculcate
in our people both the pride in their own heritage, beliefs, and
convictions and a fundamental respect, even a celebration, of people who
are different from them. It is a great opportunity for the United States
that we are the most diverse democracy in the world.
Now, as a factual matter, both Russia and India also have huge
numbers of different ethnic groups, languages, and religions within
their borders, but the difference is, largely those people live in
geographically separate parts of the same country. Here, we're the most
mixed up, if you will--I don't mean addlebrained--[laughter]--I mean
intermixed--diverse democracy in all of human history.
And if there is one thing I have learned as President that I did not
really know when I took office in the way I know it now, it is that when
people fight and kill each other or live in paralyzed isolation because
of their ethnic, their racial, or their religious differences, they do
not do it because of some dark content of human nature, some inevitable
hard hand of history. They do it because they don't have leaders who
stand up and say, this is the right thing to do; that is wrong to do; we
must not live apart; it is wrong to kill and hurt and maim people.
So when you go home tonight, I hope you'll remember the play for the
rest of your life, the musical. I hope you will always be proud you were
here. But remember, there is a reason we're still hanging around after
all these years: because we've still got the same values we started
with, but we never let the dead hand of history keep us from making the
changes necessary to make the American dream more real for more people
in a more profound way in each new age and time.
And if we leave with that and we continue to fight for that and we
remember the three specific things I said tonight, then 150 years from
now a bunch of other people will be having a nice dinner celebrating the
300th birthday of the Democratic Committee. [Laughter]
Thank you, and God bless you.
Note: The President spoke at 9:41 p.m. at a private residence. In his
remarks, he referred to dinner cohosts Arlene and Lauren Kogod and
Clarice and Bob Smith.