Val Demings: “One and one-half years. The SPEAKER. When we have recalcitrant Members these days, I try to remind them that unless the…”

“One and one-half years. The SPEAKER. When we have recalcitrant Members these days, I try to remind them that unless the legislative body is a team sport, then you cannot come here to be an individual and build a brand. That is not what this is about. However, in the old days--the old days, you know, in previous Congresses, even right before we came in--before social media became such a force in the culture, the rank and file, you just got along. You didn't have much of a choice. You knew your role in the body, and then you earned the respect of your colleagues by working hard and by being productive. Now it is sort of inverted. It is turned upside-down because now the way to get attention is to be a firebrand, as if that is the objective, to be famous. The more bombastic you are online, feeding that beast, then the more attention you get and, in some cases, the more money you raise. There is a race to be more and more outrageous than the next person, which is terribly destructive to this process. When we were freshmen, we would have events, bipartisan events. We had an Honor and Civility Caucus. We all dined together, and we would go and have bipartisan events. I can't do these anymore because no one will turn up on the other side. The parties, the Rs and Ds, do not want to be photographed together. If they go to an event, they will be punished online if someone leaks the photo. How do we put the genie back in the bottle? Chaplain Kibben and I commiserate all the time.…”