Our Generation's Legacy
Floor Speech
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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If these rights come from government, then they can be extended or withdrawn at the whim of those in power.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 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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