OUR 250-YEAR-OLD EXPERIMENT IN DEMOCRACY

OUR 250-YEAR-OLD EXPERIMENT IN DEMOCRACY

Congressional Record, Volume 172 Issue 57 (Thursday, March 26, 2026) [Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 57 (Thursday, March 26, 2026)] [House] [Page H2721] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [ www.gpo.gov ] OUR 250-YEAR-OLD EXPERIMENT IN DEMOCRACY (Mr. Mullin of California was recognized to address the House for 5 minutes.) Mr. MULLIN. Mr. Speaker, all of us on this floor are heirs to a political system that generations before us believed could be the way to overcome our differences. Is it perfect? Anyone who has been paying even the slightest attention for the past 250 years knows the answer to that question, but each generation has believed in our democracy. All of us elected to this body believe we can make people's lives better, not by fighting in the streets, not by fighting, where might makes right, but by coming together, by talking, by arguing, and then by voting. Sometimes we win. Sometimes we lose. Why is it that the majority party seems to be doing everything in its power to prevent voters from having their say? I am actually old enough to remember when the Republican Party was the party of States' rights. Now, unfortunately, it is the party of following the lead of their President, overriding State laws to ``nationalize the vote.'' It is the party of an executive order attempting to eliminate voting by mail under the guise of voter fraud, which we know is virtually nonexistent. The SAVE Act and the MEGA Act make it harder for voters to cast a ballot. It has sadly become a party of deniers who only believe election results when they win. President Trump's Department of Justice raided an election office in Georgia. He sent FBI agents to seize ballots. Meanwhile, he is attempting to extort Minnesota, California, and others into handing over voter data. His supporters are calling for ICE to surround the polls in November. We remember he sent an angry mob into this citadel of democracy to hang his Vice President and overturn the results of an election he lost in order to prevent a peaceful transfer of power. History will never forget. The American people always have the last word on who has power in this country. If there is one thing we know how to do in this country is run elections. We cast our ballots in school gyms, in churches, in community rooms, and more commonly now at the kitchen table. Even President Trump votes by mail. Ours is a decentralized system by design. The Framers of the Constitution, flawed as they were, knew that we would one day be faced with this moment: A strongman and his followers ready to throw it all away to avoid another free and fair election, but we won't let them. My Republican colleagues, many of whom I genuinely like and respect, know better. Privately, I believe they are deeply ashamed by what is happening, and without a doubt, the American people are increasingly disgusted with what they are seeing and experiencing. They know America is less affordable than it was even just a year ago. Support for the President's callous immigration policies has collapsed. The images of Federal agents executing Americans in the streets have been horrific. All the while, the President is more obsessed with personal grievances, renaming buildings, starting wars, and exacting revenge on his opponents than making people's lives better. He and his party know this is not a winning political message, so they are resorting to changing the rules to cling to power, but the American people know better. All of us have a duty to protect elections. All of us must let the will of the people prevail. This Congress must seat the winners of the election regardless of party. I hope there are some colleagues on the other side of the aisle who can still muster the courage to do the same because our 250-year-old experiment in democracy depends on it. The SPEAKER pro tempore. Members are reminded us again to refrain from engaging in personalities toward the President. ____________________