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Floor Speech
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Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous that Senator Fischer and I be permitted to speak for up to 5 minutes each before the vote.
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Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, when Democrats blew up the filibuster for nominees some 8 years ago, Republicans warned then that they would regret that move when the tables were turned. It seemed like such short-term thinking on the Democrats' part, but I have said before that progressive ideology has many Democrats convinced that they are, so to speak, on the side of history in the long run.
If you believe history is heading only in one direction and that direction is your way, you don't worry about the pendulum swinging back. That explains why they broke from 200 years of precedent to filibuster conservative judges nominated by President George W. Bush and then expressed shock and outrage when their own precedent was used against them under President Obama. That ideology also explains why Democrats can passionately defend the filibuster one day as a vital protection for the minority and then just months later, after taking control of a 50-50 Senate thanks only to the Vice President's tie- breaking vote, call the filibuster racist.
The phrase ``demography is destiny'' as applied to politics today is another version of progressive ideology. The assumption with ``demography is destiny'' is that ethnic minorities who tend to vote Democrat are bound to vote that way forever, so they support an open- border policy, with a push for amnesty, even if it green-lights human trafficking and lets the lethal fentanyl pour into the bloodstreams of young Americans, driving down life expectancy in our country.
Progressive Democrats assume more Hispanic citizens means more votes for them and then, somehow, a permanent majority.
Let me remind you that Republicans thought that, after the elections of 1994 and 2010, that we would have a permanent majority. It didn't work out that way. Just like the Irish and Italians of the late 1800s and early 1900s, Hispanic citizens who have assimilated into the fabric of our Nation do not vote as a bloc.
So, just maybe, that is why the left seems increasingly desperate to stoke identity politics and racial division. Such thinking leads to counterproductive calls to, as an example, defund the police, followed by a desperate attempt to do a 180-degree turn when crime spikes and the very communities they sought to pander then end up suffering.
Remember how so many prominent Democrats felt compelled to defend and justify rioters they deemed to be on their side? Now Democrats insist not just on prosecuting January 6 rioters, as we should with all rioters, but on weaponizing that horrible day for political purposes.
They decry disinformation. They decry conspiracy theories on the right about the election while perpetuating conspiracy theories on the left. Remember the absurd claim that because the Postmaster General supported President Trump, absentee ballots wouldn't be delivered in the 2020 election? It caused a lot of unnecessary worry for many Iowans who vote absentee.
Democrats call for supporting our elections while at the same time touting false claims of systemic voter suppression, deeply undermining faith in our democracy.
Democrats do not seem to support America's democratic institutions for those democratic institutions' own sake. But if the Democrats are convinced that they are not just right but on the right side of history, institutions are only worth preserving so long as they can be used to advance their own agenda. You cannot have respectful disagreement with someone on the wrong side of history. In fact, you demonize those people.
This kind of thinking pits neighbor against neighbor and drives wedges within our communities. This sense of division comes up in every one of my 99 county meetings in Iowa. I sense Iowans are fed up with this poison.
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