Constitution Under Attack

Floor Speech

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Mr. GROTHMAN. Mr. Speaker, I think probably the single most important thing done in this body is when we uphold our oath to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.

I, therefore, would bring to the attention of the body two instances while we were on break in which the Constitution was under attack, and I don't think enough Americans know about it.

One of the things was in the State of New Mexico, the Governor of New Mexico decided to declare war on the Second Amendment on the grounds that there was an uptick or maybe a big increase in murder in the Albuquerque area.

The Second Amendment is absolute. We don't get rid of the Second Amendment if the murder rate is up 30 percent. The reason we don't get rid of it is our Forefathers wanted the power to be with the people, not the government. But it is particularly ridiculous in that it is obvious why we have had an uptick in murder in the last 3 years in this country. I think there are three obvious reasons.

One, the government is mucking around where they shouldn't, as was mentioned by the founders of Black Lives Matter. People around here wanted to disrupt what they refer to as the Western-prescribed nuclear family. In other words, they want to get the man out of the household.

We also have people trying to elect district attorneys who don't like to put people in jail, judges who don't like to put people in jail, and antipolice forces who make the police timid. When all these things get done, you wind up having an increase in murder.

I would point out that John Adams said that America was built for a moral and religious people. We have to get back to that moral and religious people so they don't abuse their right to guns. In the interim, the idea of leaving guns in the hands of the lawbreakers, which of course is what will happen, and taking guns from the people who are law abiding could not be worse. It is almost hard to believe that at this time in our history we have a Governor--a lawyer no less-- who wants to enact a law, taking away the guns from the law abiding but presumably leaving in place the policies which resulted in increase in murder in the first place by not taking action against the type of people who are breaking the law.

The Second Amendment was under attack. A decision was made in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in which the Biden administration had tried to weigh in on social platforms that were giving a narrative of the COVID epidemic that was not in line with what Pfizer and their political allies wanted to say.

We have a First Amendment in this country, and we expect decisions to be made based upon a free exchange of ideas. We beat people in the court of public opinion. We don't say the government shouldn't weigh in and say we are not going to let people who disagree with us have a public platform.

The Biden administration chafes at the idea of free speech. They wanted to get only their way in dealing with the pandemic, and they decided to restrict free speech here in America. That should scare everyone to death, that we elected a President of the United States who wanted to restrict free speech.

Another thing that really concerned me about that, in an article by The New York Times, which I think is still viewed as an important paper by some people in this body, said the Court decision, which was a slap down of the Biden administration, was a victory for conservatives.

In other words, today, the people who write for The New York Times have said that upholding free speech is something conservatives do, implying it is not something that progressives or Democrats or liberals, or whatever, do. This is a scary thing.

When I was very young, I was a Democrat, believe it or not. At that time the Democrats were perceived I think even more boldly in favor of free speech than Republicans. So everybody was in favor of free speech. Nobody disagreed with the First Amendment.

Now, we have a decision in which truly the paper of record of leftwing America is saying that when the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals upholds free speech or slaps down the Biden administration for trying to restrict free speech, that is a victory for conservatives, implying it is a defeat for the progressives. Think about that.

I hope The New York Times reconsiders its position and does some sort of apology to America and say that they are going to try to do what they can to make progressives or the left, or whatever, advocates for free speech again.

In any event, we have two examples of the Constitution under attack. I hope the public demands that we stand united behind the First and Second Amendment.

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