Political Quotes

“Words hold power. They are intentional representations of our values and our beliefs. Our democracy is at its strongest when we protect the right to dissent, to resist, and to speak truth to power. However, over the past few weeks, this body has wrongfully and dangerously conflated dissent with hate speech and has willfully characterized acts of resistance as acts of bigotry. Bigotry and hateful speech are real, tangible threats to our shared humanity and our multiracial democracy, and we must address them. As someone who has heard Members of this body who are not being brought up for censure casually use their platforms to carelessly promote violent, racist, anti-Semitic, Islamophobic, xenophobic, and anti-immigrant language and ideals, I am clear that this resolution is another ill-intentioned attempt to persecute dissenting voices who refuse to stay silent and whose perspective challenges this body and the dominant narrative. We must resist the urge to scapegoat and vilify those who disagree with us, and I unequivocally stand with my friend, Rashida Tlaib. I will be voting against the resolution, and I encourage my friends to do your job. Mr. McCORMICK. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.”