Since I’d seen a lot of people talking online about Senator Coburn saying something about the USA being more free 30 years ago than now and couldn’t find the actual quote from the confirmation hearing so I could read it in his own words, I had to annoy myself by listening to him drone on and on in order to make my own transcript of it. If you also like to hear or read people’s own words, rather than have people tell you what someone said (in quotation marks, no less, even though it’s not a quote), here you go:

Have you ever contemplated the idea of what your freedom was like 30 years ago and what it is today?

I want to tell you, a lot of Americans have, and I certainly have. There’s a marked change in this country, from when I was twenty to now when I am 62. And one of the problems with confidence –and the reason I asked you the question– is a lot of Americans are losing confidence, because they are losing freedom. They’re losing liberty.
–Sen. Coburn, R-Oklahoma, Kagan confirmation hearing, Day Three – Part Four

I would imagine that Senator Coburn, a white man of some means, has noticed a “marked change” in this country since 1980. I would also imagine minorities and women have also noticed a “marked change” in freedom since 1980 as well. As a woman, let me tell you, Senator Coburn, I feel far more free now to do as I wish than I did in 1980.

In 1980, I was told I couldn’t take shop class, because I was a girl. In 1983, I was told I couldn’t be a Navy pilot, because woman are irrational (no shit, really that was the excuse given to me). So, yes, seeing as girls can now take shop class and women can be Navy pilots, seems to me freedom has increased for some people, though perhaps not for wealthy white men … if only because they do seem somewhat opposed to sharing their freedoms with others not so white or male (or straight).

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) also had an excellent response to Coburn.