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Danforth Speech at National Dinner

Hon. John Danforth
April 29, 2006
Log Cabin Republicans National Dinner

Senator Danforth took a forceful stand against the anti-family constituional amendment being debated in Congress.  The conservative Republican former U.S. Senator and former UN Ambassador to the UN said the amendment is contrary to core GOP principles.  He said, "Some historian should really look at all of the proposals that have been put forth throughout the history of our country for possible Constitutional amendments. Maybe at some point in time there was one that was sillier than this one, but I don't know of one." "It is a concept which is contrary to basic Republican principles. As I understand, the basic concept of the Republican Party is to interpret the Constitution narrowly, not expansively, so that legislatures and especially state legislatures can work out over a period of time the social issues in our country. And not to have these evolving issues fixed and concrete in the Constitution of the United States, taken out of the hands of legislatures and turned over to the federal courts. So this amendment is contrary to what I understand to be a basic tenet of our party. "And then it's said that this is necessary to protect marriage. Whose marriage is this going to protect? How conceivably could it protect any marriage in the United States?"

Complete Transcript

Thank you very much. Rick, thank you very much, all of the introduction, but particularly, for focusing on my book – Faith and Politics – that will come out on Sept. 12. Published by Viking, available at you neighborhood bookstore and an excellent present to give all of your friends.

Thank you very much. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm honored to be here. I want you to know that I believe the Log Cabin Republicans have a special mission, not just to represent some Republicans, not just to represent gays and political issues important to gays, but I believe that you have a mission broader than that and that's what I want to talk to you about tonight.

I believe, and hope, that you see a mission to play a very key role in rebuilding the center of American politics. Right now the center of politics, what I knew for almost all of the time that I was in the United States Senate and before, has collapsed and the American political world is split between two different polls, one on the right and one on the left. That's not where the American people are.

So often I hear people after an election say to me, "I went to the polls but I really wanted to vote for none of the above. Nobody really represents where I am." And I think what people are hearing now from politics, from Democrats and Republicans, has nothing to do with the center and nothing to do remotely with where most Americans are, but it has to do with political extremes. And the result of the polarization of our country politically is stalemate.

Politics is always difficult, it's never easy. It's never easy to get legislation through congress for example. But with the polarization in American politics we've reached a stalemate on the issues that we really should be dealing with and that the American people understand we should be dealing with.

Our national debt has increased 47 percent since the year 2000. Think of it, in this millennium our national debt has increased 47 percent. That's on our watch.

Our deficit is $400 billion dollars and we seem unable to do anything about this.
Social Security and Medicare are always the third rail in American politics, always difficult to deal with. They are both scheduled to be bankrupt in about 25 years. That's just around the corner. That's in the lifetime of the overwhelming majority of people who are here tonight. And we are unable to deal with it and not only because of the difficulty of the issues of Social Security and Medicare but because the polarization of American politics make it impossible for Republicans and Democrats to accomplish anything.

Energy very much now the focus of media attention because of gasoline prices, we don't have any energy policy. A friend of mine said to me not long ago that the energy policy of the United States of America is to hope for warm winters and cool summers. And now the latest idea of, it's embarrassing to say, but the latest idea of Republicans in Congress is to give people $100. I mean, it's laughable to think of that. And you know it's not a new idea. Because when I was early, in my early time in the Senate, when President Carter was in the White House, in order to try to boost the economy, he had the idea of the $50 rebate. His notion was to give everybody a $50 check and that was thought by Republicans to be so preposterous that everybody laughed about it.

And now the Republicans have come up with a $100 dollar check, which is $50 adjusted for inflation. To create the polls, the polar opposites, wedge issues exist. Wedge issues: that is issues that serve the purpose of driving a wedge between the American people and splitting us farther and farther apart.

And you know the wedge issues. Abortion is one. That's an issue that's been with us a long time and even though I think it's very unlikely that the Supreme Court is going to overrule Roe v. Wade – I happen to be pro life myself – but it remains a wedge issue, which is the focus of just a lot of people in politics.

Stem cell research. That is the one wedge issue that is still a live one. Because if stem cell research is criminalized a lot of people with very terrible diseases like Lou Gehrig's Disease and Parkinson's and cancer are not going to be cured. That is the one – stem cell research – that is the one issue that has some at least meaning in itself but it's a wedge issue.

The Terri Schiavo case. This awful situation of keeping this poor soul going on a feeding tube, or at least trying to, with the massive involvement of Republican politicians to try to do this even though the Florida courts had repeatedly said she was in a persistent vegetative state and that she had expressed, this is what the courts found, the desire not to be hooked up in this situation but the politicians entered into the fray and that was a wedge issue of its time.

The displays of religion – Ten Commandments and so on – in courthouses, it can't have much of a religious content to it and yet it's become this huge divisive issue in America.

And then one that you are very much involved with and an issue that is scheduled to come up for a vote in June in the United States Senate and that is the Federal Marriage Amendment. Now I'm not an historian. Some historian should really look at all of the proposals that have been put forth throughout the history of our country for possible Constitutional amendments. Maybe at some point in time there was one that was sillier than this one, but I don't know of one.

And once before the Constitution was amended to try to deal with matters of human behavior, that was prohibition, that was such a flop that that was repealed 13 years later.

It is a concept which is contrary to basic Republican principles. As I understand, the basic concept of the Republican Party is to interpret the Constitution narrowly, not expansively, so that legislatures and especially state legislatures can work out over a period of time the social issues in our country. And not to have these evolving issues fixed and concrete in the Constitution of the United States, taken out of the hands of legislatures and turned over to the federal courts. So this amendment is contrary to what I understand to be a basic tenet of our party.

And then it's said that this is necessary to protect marriage. Whose marriage is this going to protect? How conceivably could it protect any marriage in the United States?

Now these various issues, the wedge issues, have been pushed forward in the name of religion. It turns out that a very divisive force in American life today, if not the most divisive force, is religion.

Kevin Philips in his new book American Theocracy writes that for the first time in our history that we have a religious party in the United States. We have escaped that in the past. Religion has become a divisive force in America, and some would say, well maybe that's as it should be. But the meaning of the word religion, the very definition of the word, it comes from the same root as the word ligament, that which binds us together not that which dives us apart.

And I believe that it is important for all Americans – and I am sure that three-quarters of the American people would agree with this if they were really faced with the issue – we must make it clear in our country that we truly believe in the separation of church and state. It is an essential principle.

I know that for the Log Cabin Republicans there are specific legislative issues at the federal level and at the state level where you are involved. I know that there are matters that are legislative, the marriage amendment would clearly be one, and there are others where you would support one side or another on a list of various proposals.

My own view is that there is a basic fairness in the American people and a basic decency in the American people. And that some very difficult issues, some troubling issues to a lot of people, will be issues that the American people will resolve. And that they will resolve them respectfully and honorably and decently if only their voices are heard. And these are the voices from the heart of America. These are the voices from the center of American politics, where our center of gravity has always been. But it is these voices that have been drowned out. They've been drowned out and they've been forced out by extremists. They've been drowned out by people who believe that in the name of God religion should be divisive and not uniting. They've been drowned out by countless talking heads, not talking heads, but screaming heads on television – people screaming at each other, and by politicians who take far out positions, and the basic decency of the American people has been muted.

And I am here to ask you to do something more something more. Something in addition to promoting whatever specific agenda that is important to you. I believe that the Log Cabin Republicans are and can be much more than an interest group. I believe that you can be the heart of a movement to regain our center.

I believe that you can be the heart of a movement to reclaim our Republican Party from where it has gone now. And to do that you're going to have to be reconcilers, you're going to have to be people who reach out, you're going to have to be people who look for the common ground on which the vast majority of people in our country want to stand. I believe that the vast majority of the people want to stand in the center, where you are. And by rebuilding that center it will be then possible for America to get on with the nation's business. So thank you very much for honoring me, it's a pleasure to be here.