Cancel Culture

Floor Speech

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Mr. DONALDS. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman from Colorado for hosting the Special Order.

I will also tell you, Mr. Speaker, it is actually good to be able to talk in this Chamber without that thing on my face. It is messing up the enunciations.

Mr. Speaker, my colleagues have talked at length about all of the examples and all of the damaging aspects of cancel culture, and I don't want to go through and reiterate those points.

I think the purpose--what I want to take this time to do, Mr. Speaker, is to actually have a pleading with the people of our country.

You see, if you look at the history of world governments, even go before our own Government, the ability to speak has been sacrosanct in order for the ability to be free.

You see, there was a time, under the brutality of European kings, where you could dare not speak a word against the Crown. If you did, you were slaughtered, you were maimed, you were put into chains, you were put into slavery.

The very idea of freedom of speech canonized in our Constitution just wasn't created by our Framers; it is something our Framers understood and they studied from their view of world history. And that very protection is the one thing, the most paramount thing, that the Members of this body, whether they be in our House, the Senate, or the person who occupies the White House at any point in time in American history, can never abridge or infringe.

The reason for that is very simple: Because the thoughts that roll around in your mind are yours alone. They are your thoughts. They were given by God. They were given by your own intellect. And your ability to express them should never be taken away or shamed by a government or by a sect or a substructure of any society, let alone American society.

You see, Mr. Speaker, we have come to a very dangerous point in our politics. This has nothing to do with Social Security and Medicare which, by the way, for the American people, are going to go insolvent in somewhere between 5 and 7 years.

This isn't about our issues talking about guns and supporting the Second Amendment. This isn't about if you want to talk about green technology or embracing fossil fuels or actually embracing nuclear power, which is what we should be doing as a country. This isn't our views on what we do with respect to foreign policy and who our adversary might be.

This goes to the very core of our country. It goes to the very core of our culture. It goes to the very core of whether our society will have the ability to sustain itself for another 200 years into the future.

But I will promise you this, Mr. Speaker, it will not be possible if we have one group of Americans telling another group of Americans that what they say should no longer be heard simply because they don't agree or even if they are offended or even if what somebody says is so vile that unilaterally every American finds it to be distasteful and doesn't want to hear it.

You see, the very thought of any individual must be protected at all times. It is what separates our country from the other countries of the world today and the other societies on our Earth in years past. It is what creates the very foundation of a republic of people to be able to grow, to see, to do, to be their best, because they are free, and there is no government that can oppress them.

The only example I am going to cite tonight is the example of somebody who is actually not on my side of the political aisle. She is a reporter, Alexi McCammond. And Alexi, just so you know, I am not bringing your situation up to make a political point. Far from it. You see, she was a journalist. She was on MSNBC and an NBC contributor. I don't think she would probably like my politics too much. But because of something she said when she was a freshman in college on social media, she was targeted. She was canceled. She had reached a pinnacle in her career through her hard work. I don't even know her, but I know that she was able to accomplish something. But because somebody in her company, because of somebody at Teen Vogue decided they didn't like what she had said, she became the new target.

Mr. Speaker, and frankly, my fellow Americans, we cannot continue as a society if we are quick to shut each other down before we actually decide to open up our ears and listen. There are so many debates on this very floor that are going to take place, not just in this Congress, but in many Congresses to come. There are going to be disagreements in our society, whether you are talking about policing or racism or the past or the future, but the one thing that must remain in our Republic is tolerance.

You see, Mr. Speaker, we have to adopt a standard; not a subjective one, but an objective one. But here is the truth: We already have had that standard. We have already adopted it. It is the objective standard that you are free to speak in the United States of America. And whether it is Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram or YouTube or Snapchat or TikTok, or The Washington Post or The Washington Times, whether you want to talk about The New York Times or you want to talk about redstate.com, you want to talk about MSNBC or FOX News, Morning Joe or Sean Hannity, we must be free to speak at all times because the battlefield of ideas is the only thing that is going to propel our Republic forward. It is the only thing that is going to allow young kids to grow and actually increase their intellect and to be able to transform our economy in ways that none of us in this Capitol today can even fathom. It is the very basis of what makes our Nation the greatest nation. It is what makes us unique. It is what allows us to be able to fight it out every day on this floor, verbally, of course, Mr. Speaker.

My fellow Americans, we are all in this together. Mr. Speaker, we are in this together. We can't cancel each other. We can't move people out of the public square because we find their ideas even vile or distasteful. I may not like what you have to say, Mr. Speaker. We may disagree on votes on this very floor, but the one thing I will always respect, the one thing I will always defend is your ability to say it and your ability to vote that way. My only ask is that you do the same for people on my side of the political aisle.

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