Attacks and Threats on Democracy and Rule of Law

Floor Speech

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Ms. STANSBURY. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for convening this Special Order hour.

Mr. Speaker, this week marks this administration's first 100 days in office. It has been 100 days of chaos, corruption, confusion, and absolute destruction of our Constitution and the norms that this great Nation was built on; 100 days of tearing apart our democracy, our families, our communities, the vital Federal programs that serve the people who make up our communities; thousands fired, agencies dismantled, and people's personal and private data stolen; self-dealing billions of dollars in Federal contracts, judges jailed, a Congress that refuses to act and to do its job, and the countless Americans who are living in fear.

Mr. Speaker, I have just wrapped up a townhall tour across my district. While my colleagues across the aisle are afraid to even face their constituents, we are showing up every day across our communities: 15 townhalls touching 15,000 New Mexicans across every county that we represent in 12 towns and communities and Tribal communities across our State.

Let me say this: Our people are afraid. Everywhere we go, across the aisle, we saw people who are afraid they are going to lose their Social Security, people who are afraid they are going to lose the healthcare that keeps them and their family members alive, people who are afraid that they are not going to be able to afford to put a roof over their head or food on the table, people who are afraid watching as their family members and friends are facing the threats of deportation, students who are afraid to show up to school because they don't know what will happen to themselves or their families.

This is the sign of an unhealthy democracy. This is the sign of an executive who has lost touch with the American people. This is the sign of an authoritarian and autocratic way of operating. This is the sign of a democracy that has lost its way. This is a sign that the American people need to continue to stand up, to speak out, to show up, to attend those townhalls, to call their Representatives, to continue marching, to continue making sure that we hold our elected officials to account.

All across my district, there is not a single family who has not been touched over the last 100 days: People who have lost their jobs, teachers and firefighters, people who work for the VA and the Forest Service, who work for our national security programs, scientists and engineers, people who just started their jobs and people who have been there for countless decades. These are real stories, real people, real lives that have been impacted every single day for the last 100 days.

What have my colleagues across the aisle done? Nothing. They have done nothing. They have failed to do their most basic constitutional duty of speaking up on behalf of the people that they represent, of holding the administration accountable, of saying something when they see something that is wrong.

Not only do they refuse to do their most basic job, but they are here in this building working on a tax package behind closed doors all around us that will further take away the rights of the American people, that will decimate basic programs that help people put food on the table and a roof over their heads.

All around us, our colleagues are refusing to say out loud the things they will say to us in private: that they, too, are frightened about what is happening; that they, too, have constituents and veterans and elderly people on Social Security and disability who are frightened for their lives right now.

What is happening in this country is not normal. We refuse to normalize it. We refuse to allow our democracy to be hijacked. We refuse to allow the silence that is deafening this country right now to continue. We must continue to speak up.

I say, Mr. Speaker, the time to act is now because if we do not, we will lose everything. We must restore accountability. We must restore our institutions. We must restore our norms. We must stand up. We must speak out. We need our colleagues across the aisle to join us before we lose our democracy.

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