Presidents Call for Big Citizenship, Not Big Government (Published 1997)
- ️https://www.nytimes.com/by/james-bennet
- ️Tue Apr 29 1997
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- April 29, 1997
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Here at the birthplace of the Federal Government, President Clinton and two of his predecessors gathered today to declare that government could not fix some of the country's biggest domestic problems. Private citizens, they said, must fill in.
''The era of big government may be over, but the era of big challenges for our country is not,'' President Clinton declared outside Independence Hall, at a damp, two-hour rally to encourage volunteering. ''And so we need an era of big citizenship. That is why we are here.''
Invoking the Declaration of Independence, Mr. Clinton and former Presidents George Bush and Gerald R. Ford signed the ''Summit Declaration of Commitment.'' Nancy Reagan, who joined them on the podium, also signed the document.
''We owe a debt of service to fulfill the God-given promise of America -- and of her children,'' it declared. Today's rally, at which Oprah Winfrey served as master of ceremonies, marked the high point of the Presidents' Summit for America's Future, three days of speeches, brainstorming and carefully choreographed symbolism to promote volunteering.
The meeting, which was reported on television today with the intensity if not all the skepticism of a political convention, has surely been a political coup for Mr. Clinton. He built his re-election campaign partly around an image of being the protector of children, and his aides have been hunting for issues to distract attention from ethics investigations.
But the gathering has also underscored the ascendancy in American politics of what began as Republican ideas. It was conceived by one Republican -- George Romney, the former Governor of Michigan -- and it is being led by another, Gen. Colin L. Powell. Aside from Mr. Clinton, the podium was dominated by Republicans, including Mr. Bush, whose ''Thousand Points of Light'' volunteering campaign was once widely derided by Democrats. Former President Jimmy Carter, who joined in a rally with Mr. Clinton and Mr. Bush here on Sunday, appeared in a videotape today.