Joe Neguse: “237 years ago, one of our Founding Fathers, John Adams, laid bare his greatest fear for our country, which is that in…”

“237 years ago, one of our Founding Fathers, John Adams, laid bare his greatest fear for our country, which is that in every assembly, Congresses like this one, Members would gain influence not by sense, but by noise; not by greatness, but by meanness; not by learning, but by ignorance. Why am I quoting John Adams at 10:30 p.m. on a Friday night? It is because this debate, the Judiciary chairman's remarks, are emblematic of the reality, the cold, hard truth that John Adams' fears proved prescient. All we hear is noise from the other side. It is the kind of noise that expects the American people to believe that a bill that passed unanimously in the United States Senate somehow defunds the police. It is the kind of noise that expects the American people to believe that every conservative Republican U.S. Senator passed a bill last night that defunds the police. That is their argument. The bill that the Senate passed, every conservative Senator and every liberal one came to a consensus that the stalemate needed to end, that TSA agents needed to be paid, and that FEMA needed to be funded. They passed that bill on a unanimous basis. The only reason we are not considering it is because our colleagues on the other side of the aisle have been captured by the far-right wing of their party. It is shameful. We have an opportunity tonight to perhaps rise to the occasion and prove John Adams wrong.”