[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 81 (Tuesday, May 11, 2021)]
[House]
[Pages H2186-H2191]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             CANCEL CULTURE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Kahele). Under the Speaker's announced 
policy of January 4, 2021, the gentleman from Colorado (Mr. Buck) is 
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.


                             General Leave

  Mr. BUCK. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that Members have 5 
legislative days to revise and extend their remarks.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Colorado?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. BUCK. Mr. Speaker, cancel culture is a dangerous phenomenon, the 
total silencing and erasing of people and truths the progressives 
dislike.
  Americans are beginning to see what cancel culture is really about. A 
recent survey found that 64 percent of Americans now believe cancel 
culture is a threat to freedom.
  Cancel culture aims not only to cancel certain elements of society 
but to replace them. Consider the following: for years, the political 
left has attempted to erase parts of our American history, especially 
our founding and the story of 1776.
  Why?
  Because their goal is replacement. In place of America's true 
history, the progressives want to push the 1619 Project. This false 
narrative presents students with an alternate history and an alternate 
reality that our Nation was founded not on the principles outlined in 
the Declaration of Independence but instead on a racist pursuit of 
expanding slavery. Canceling 1776 makes sense only in the broader 
context of this effort to advance a false narrative.
  Other areas of curriculum are being canceled in favor of critical 
race theory. Just last week, the Biden administration announced that it 
will use taxpayer funds to push critical race theory in public schools 
across the Nation. Critical race theory is the backdoor way to teach 
Marxism to students and adults in this country under the guise of 
pushing equity.
  In my State of Colorado, the oil and gas industry is being canceled.
  The goal?
  Replace it with Green New Deal objectives.
  Schools named after our Founders must be renamed after liberal icons 
according to the left. Professors and journalists who will not kowtow 
to the progressive agenda find themselves replaced in their jobs.
  Our list of examples could go on.
  I am joined tonight by my colleagues who wish to help expose cancel 
culture. The examples we will highlight touch on all aspects of cancel 
culture, but they all have one thing in common: in each instance, 
progressives seek to cancel, cut, censor, and silence so they can move 
to the next phase: replacement culture.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Biggs), who 
is my good friend.
  Mr. BIGGS. Cancel culture is eroding the very foundation of who we 
are as an American people. Rowan Atkinson, the star of the British TV 
series ``Maigret'' said that it is like a medieval mob coming to burn 
witches. That is what the cancel culture is all about.
  How about taking an analogy from George Orwell's ``Nineteen Eighty-
Four'' novel where they take history and they throw it into the chute. 
They revise history constantly, and you can't even control what you 
think anymore, Mr. Speaker. That is what cancel culture is becoming.
  How about from a book called ``The Girl With Seven Names'' about a 
courageous young woman who escaped from North Korea and she tells us 
how North Korea did the same thing?
  How about China under the Chinese Communist Party as reported in 
``The Hundred-Year Marathon'' by Mr. Pillsbury who wrote that book?
  That is what we see happening, this attempt to erase who we are as 
individuals and then replace them with something else.
  Let me give you some other examples. Pepe Le Pew is no longer 
tolerated by the left and by the woke mob. Miss Piggy is canceled. Dr. 
Seuss books are canceled.
  Here are some others. How about this one: Goya Foods, because this 
guy had the temerity, Robert Unanue, who is the CEO of Goya Foods, had 
the temerity to support President Trump so people attempted to boycott 
and cancel his business. Senator Josh Hawley wrote a book. He is 
canceled because he says that he wants election integrity.
  How about Washington, Lincoln, and Jefferson?
  San Francisco erases those schools named after Washington, Lincoln, 
or Jefferson.
  Matthew Yglesias, the liberal opinion writer who resigned from Vox, a 
company that he cofounded, because his woke staff says he is too center 
right.
  How about Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, and Laura Ingraham?
  They were all attacked for being conservative voices.
  The attack is to silence conservatives' voices. The new rule is we 
will only be tolerant if you are accepting of our views--not just 
accepting--if you comply--not just comply--you bow to the tyrannical 
rules of the left.
  Gina Carano, the ``Mandalorian'' actress, was fired by Disney because 
she says that being a Republican in 2021 is like being a Jew in Nazi, 
Germany. So she has got to go. They canceled the action figure named 
after her.
  Adam Rubenstein, a former New York Times reporter and editor, has got 
to go because he lets Tom Cotton's piece get published in The New York 
Times. Oops. We can't have that.
  J. K. Rowling, the very successful author of the Harry Potter series, 
is canceled because she has the temerity to suggest that transgender 
rights might endanger women's rights. You can't have any conflicting 
view out there, Mr. Speaker. No, you can't do that.
  Then Mike Lindell, you know him, he is the My Pillow guy. He is on TV 
all

[[Page H2187]]

the time advertising. You can't have him because he is a friend and 
supporter of Donald Trump and questions the election results.

  We have reached the point in our society where the left says that if 
you do not bow your knee to what we say is the new norm--and the only 
acceptable dogma--if you are a heterodox in any way, Mr. Speaker, we 
will cancel you, we will dock you, and we will erase you. That cannot 
stand, and it will not stand.
  This group and the gentleman from Colorado will continue to fight. I 
thank the gentleman for yielding. We will continue to fight this 
outrageous attack on who we are as American people.
  Mr. BUCK. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his remarks.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from North Carolina (Ms. 
Foxx) for a slightly different purpose. She will tell us about a very 
sad circumstance in her home State of North Carolina.
  Ms. FOXX. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for yielding tonight for 
a very short but very serious and solemn set of comments.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to two members of the 
Watauga County Sheriff's Office who lost their lives in the line of 
duty on April 28.
  Sergeant Chris Ward, an 8-year law enforcement officer, and K-9 
Deputy Logan Fox, a former deputy of the Ashe County Sheriff's Office, 
left an indelible mark on Watauga County.
  This is a tremendous loss not only for Watauga County, but also for 
law enforcement across the State and country. These two fallen heroes 
dedicated their lives to law enforcement, and many who knew them 
recognized that their passion for serving the community they were proud 
to call home was second to none.
  This Monday, a Community Day of Remembrance in Boone, North Carolina, 
was held in their honor.
  Businesses, organizations, and proud citizens of Watauga County came 
together to show their overwhelming support for law enforcement and for 
first responders.
  Mr. Speaker, across America law enforcement officers like Sergeant 
Ward and Deputy Fox wake up every day with one important goal in mind: 
fulfilling their duty to uphold law and order. These proud men and 
women leave for work knowing that they may not come home to their 
families, but still, they answer the call to serve without a moment's 
hesitation. That level of commitment to one's duty and community is 
truly awe-inspiring, and I firmly believe that we owe law enforcement a 
profound debt of gratitude.
  Mr. Speaker, I will always support law enforcement across this 
country. They are true gatekeepers of law and order, and they must be 
respected.
  Calls to defund the police from the left are egregious and divisive. 
That rhetoric is profoundly dangerous and is an insult to the men and 
women who work around the clock to protect us.
  God bless the countless law enforcement officers across this country 
and their families. We are forever grateful for the sacrifices you 
continue to make.

                              {time}  1930

  Mr. BUCK. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from North Carolina 
for her comments, and I assure her that our thoughts and prayers are 
with her and the families of those who have fallen.
  I yield to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Roy).
  Mr. ROY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Colorado for 
organizing this important topic of conversation.
  I thank the gentlewoman from North Carolina for recognizing the law 
enforcement officers in her home State, much like the rest of our 
States, who put their lives on the line every single day to defend us, 
to protect our communities.
  This is an important week, obviously, for law enforcement. I think it 
is germane to the point that my friend from Colorado is making about 
canceling because this whole notion of canceling isn't just about 
corporations; it is not just about technology; it is not just about 
Amazon; it is not just about Twitter and Facebook. It is about 
canceling the very people who are, like our friend from North Carolina 
was just talking about, these law enforcement officers--canceling 
police officers, canceling law enforcement, canceling those who are 
standing up and defending us every single day.
  We hear it. I had a little girl in my home district in Austin who 
wrote a project for her school in which she was outlining how she was 
upset about how her father, her dad, who is a police officer, was being 
treated and how, when he would come home, he was despondent a little 
bit about the day because our law enforcement officers are being 
harassed, targeted, criticized, mocked, defunded.
  This is purposeful. This is happening every single day. We are 
literally working to cancel law enforcement.
  In Austin, Texas, they defunded police $150 million. Now, we have 
seen a 50 percent spike in homicides. There are homeless encampments 
all across the streets. We have 1999 levels of funding for the police 
department for a city that has grown by leaps and bounds since then.
  This canceling of law enforcement leaves us at risk, and it 
undermines the very security of our communities. But it is real, and it 
is happening in real-time.
  Twenty major cities have cut police budgets. $1.7 billion has been 
cut from police departments nationwide.
  But it is not just law enforcement. We are talking about that here 
because of my friend from North Carolina. But it is about corporations. 
We are sitting here in the people's House, in front of the American 
flag, and our Nation right now is increasingly run by corporations more 
than the men and women who are in this body.
  I mean, think about it. We hardly ever meet. We never amend. We never 
debate. We never do any actual give-and-take here on the floor. We get 
up and speechify a little bit.
  Meanwhile, corporations are deciding who gets to get their voice 
heard. Corporations are deciding, by the way, what election laws are 
warranted in Georgia or Texas, venerable corporations like Coca-Cola, 
Delta Air Lines, Major League Baseball.
  In the United States of America, baseball has been politicized. I 
can't even watch baseball with my son without having to figure out and 
worry about how he is going to be viewing America because Major League 
Baseball has decided it is more important to be woke and move the All-
Star Game from 50 percent Black Atlanta to 10 percent Black Denver. 
Why? So they can go around patting themselves on the back in Colorado 
while they say: Hey, look at me. I am driving my Subaru, and I have an 
Apple sticker on my car.
  No offense to the gentleman from Colorado.
  Is that woke?
  Hank Aaron passed away this year. We could have celebrated his life 
with an All-Star Game in Atlanta, Georgia, and woke corporate Major 
League Baseball decides it is more important to make a statement about 
election laws in Georgia, which, by the way, the proposed laws differ 
very little from the laws in Colorado, as my friend from Colorado 
knows.
  But they wanted to make a statement through their corporate power and 
their woke corporate boards that are packed with all these elite 
Harvard Business School and Yale school of business types that are 
going into these corporate boardrooms and trying to tell us how to live 
our lives in little ole Texas or Georgia or Colorado. That is what we 
face with these corporations that are trying to tell us how to live.
  I appreciate my friend from Colorado giving us the time to focus on 
this important issue tonight. We have to reclaim our ability to live 
free in this country, and we ought to ask ourselves that question more 
and more: Are we truly free with wide-open borders and half a million 
apprehensions, $30 trillion in debt, and corporations telling us how to 
live our lives? Are we truly free in this country? I think we ought to 
ask that question over and over and over.
  Mr. BUCK. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend from Texas, and I appreciate 
the points that he made.
  I yield to the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Green).
  Mr. GREEN of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, before I jump into my remarks, I 
would like to echo what my colleague from Texas said.

[[Page H2188]]

  The interesting thing about the Major League Baseball decision is, 
only 2 days before they decided that voter ID was too tough for them, 
they signed a deal with Tencent in China, where there are no elections 
whatsoever and where they are committing cultural genocide against the 
Uighurs.
  That wasn't good enough in Georgia, but they signed a deal for 
millions of dollars to support what is going on in China.
  Mr. Speaker, as a physician, I recognize that cancel culture is a 
sickness in our society. It is easy to diagnose, but we have to admit 
it is going to be difficult to cure because we are fighting the woke 
media and the woke left.

  The left is using cancel culture to tear our country apart in its 
quest for their version of a utopia. They demonize conservatives as an 
enemy of a nation that we love and hold dear. But no one is safe from 
cancel culture, not even the liberals themselves.
  Who has advanced progressivism more than Barack Obama during his 8 
years as President? No one. Yet, leftists today are canceling Barack 
Obama, who was, until recently, their self-proclaimed hero. In his home 
State of Illinois, Thomas Jefferson Middle School was supposed to be 
renamed the Barack and Michelle Obama Middle School; that is, until the 
far radical left protested that Obama followed the laws in some 
instances by deporting illegal immigrants.
  God forbid that a President, tasked in the Constitution to enforce 
the law, actually enforces the law.
  So, please, my colleagues on the left, tell me how my colleagues on 
the right are safe from cancel culture when your side of the aisle 
isn't even safe. Iconic figures on the left are being canceled.
  Just the other week, the famed atheist Richard Dawkins, who many 
fellow Christians and I find incredibly offensive for his bigoted 
attacks on our faith, was just canceled. Dawkins was stripped of his 
Humanist of the Year Award that he received back in 1996. Of what was 
he found guilty? He believed that a civil discussion on what 
constitutes gender was legitimate. Canceled.
  A professor even canceled lecturing on the writings of James Baldwin, 
known for his participation in the civil rights and gay liberation 
movements, because his students said it made them ``relive 
intergenerational trauma.''
  Matthew Yglesias, the founder of the liberal news website Vox, has 
been canceled simply because he didn't want to defund the police. 
Canceled.
  Again, my colleagues on the left, tell me how cancel culture doesn't 
exist, and tell me that conservatives aren't being attacked.
  Who are these conservatives getting canceled?
  Well, the left tried unsuccessfully, as was mentioned earlier, to 
cancel Goya Foods executive Robert Unanue because he supported Donald 
Trump.
  President Abraham Lincoln, who ended the Democrat Party's institution 
of slavery, is being canceled.
  Lincoln's general, President Ulysses S. Grant: Canceled.
  Covington Catholic children--yes, I said children--were completely 
slandered with lies by the left-wing media simply because they happened 
to be wearing MAGA hats.
  Senate Democrats tried to cancel Justice Amy Coney Barrett because 
she actually believes what her Catholic faith teaches.
  Vice President Kamala Harris tried to cancel a lower court appointee 
just 3 years ago because he was a member of the Catholic charitable 
group Knights of Columbus. Apparently, they hold the controversial view 
that we shouldn't terminate the lives of innocent, unborn children.
  Enough is enough. If we want our country to continue to prosper, we 
need to stop seeing each other as political enemies and candidates for 
cancellation. We need to remember the motto on the great seal above my 
head as I speak: E pluribus unum, out of many, one.
  We are a nation of many different States, localities, ethnicities, 
religions, backgrounds, and political beliefs. We need to stop focusing 
on our differences and start seeing each other as Americans, once 
again, regardless of what we believe.
  Cancel culture is anti-American and, for the sake of our Nation, it 
needs to end now. I urge my Democrat colleagues to join us in this. 
Your own icons are being canceled. You will be the next victim. You 
will be assimilated.
  Mr. BUCK. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his impassioned 
remarks and great research. We could all learn a lot from that. I 
appreciate it very much.
  I yield to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Cloud).
  Mr. CLOUD. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Colorado for 
organizing this. This is an essential topic in this essential time that 
we find ourselves.
  We have a unique foundation, in that our Nation rests on the 
understanding that our inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the 
pursuit of happiness are not a grant from this government but, rather, 
a gift from God.
  Among these inalienable rights enshrined in our First Amendment is 
the freedom of speech. Indeed, the peace and tranquility of our entire 
Republic rest on the understanding that the people have a right to have 
their voice heard.
  But we have entered into a most troubling time in our Nation. For all 
the talk of unity by this current administration, this government has 
sought only conformity.
  In this Chamber, we have witnessed the unilateral march of the 
extreme-left legislation designed not to protect our liberties but, 
rather, force the American people to conform to their extreme ideas of 
government-mandated social engineering and the restructuring of an 
economy from the most successful model in history to one of socialism, 
which has failed everywhere it has been tried.
  Then there is Big Tech. These companies that arose to prominence in 
an environment that only economic freedom and opportunity provide have 
now embraced authoritarianism, fostering a world that is worse than the 
one they hoped to correct.
  They have selectively canceled conservative voices while allowing 
leftist members, even in this body, to repeatedly call for unrest in 
our streets and violence against dissenting voices.
  They have allowed their platforms to raise money to bail out violent 
rioters, these true insurrectionists who have called for an end to 
America, that have burned our flags and literally taken over city 
blocks, declaring them autonomous to the United States.
  Yes, these Big Tech platforms continue to provide a platform for 
Communist China, for terrorist groups, and others to spew their 
propaganda.
  Then there are the multinational corporations that have bought into 
this diabolical movement. They are either ignorant to history or simply 
care more about their quarterly earnings report than the liberty, 
opportunity, or personal prosperity of their neighbors, the American 
people.
  They would rather cozy up to the powerful to gain access to crush 
their competition and to protect corporate profits than stand up for 
the very principles and economic opportunity that enabled their own 
success. They do a disservice to the people of this Nation. The 
hypocrisy is not overlooked.
  To some in our Nation who have experienced the relative peace and 
security that comes with being heirs of these blessings of liberty, 
these trends could seem novel or perhaps part of the natural ebb and 
flow of politics in a free society.
  Sometimes it is harder for us born here to see the signs, but some of 
the most compelling voices sounding the alarm right now are the 
immigrants who come here. I have spoken to many from Cuba, Ecuador, 
Iran, and Venezuela. They see the signs in a way that many of us do 
not, and they are fearful, angered, and heartbroken.

                              {time}  1945

  Venezuela, just a few short years ago, was the economic jewel of 
South America. Today, it is a wasteland fraught with poverty, conflict, 
and oppression.
  A couple in my district came from Iran. They are terrified by what 
they are now seeing here. One of them liked a post about the killing of 
Soleimani and found her account temporarily halted on the platform. The 
irony is too rich.
  I spoke to a lady from Ecuador. She had come to this country at about 
18 years of age with her family. Under severe persecution, she had fled 
the country to come here. She didn't refer to this as the United States 
of America.

[[Page H2189]]

She said: ``I come to freedom country. We have to do everything we can 
to protect freedom country.'' Those were her words.
  So we know that while the terminology and the methods may be new, the 
cancel culture movement is hardly new to history. Despotic regimes have 
worked to silence dissent for millennia.
  What is different about this moment is the broad embrace of the 
movement by those in positions of power within the United States of 
America in order to consolidate political power or perhaps preserve 
their personal status quo, all at the sake of the liberties of their 
fellow citizens.
  Ronald Reagan reminded us that freedom is never more than one 
generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in 
the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for 
them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling 
our children and our children's children what it was once like to live 
in the United States where men were free.
  It is time to restore power to the American people. It is time for 
people across this Nation to stand up in boardrooms and classrooms and 
houses of worship and in this hallowed Chamber, to stand up with 
courage to this evil movement.
  God forbid we be the generation that allows this precious and unique 
experiment in self-government, this imperfect but beautiful Republic, 
to sink, enveloped by the undertow of the forces of envy, strife, and 
division. Let us not let that happen.
  Let us be that generation, like generations before, that work toward 
that more perfect union, one that protects and preserves our beloved 
freedom country.
  Mr. BUCK. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Pennsylvania 
(Mr. Perry).
  Mr. PERRY. Mr. Speaker, I surely thank my good friend, the gentleman 
from Colorado, for the opportunity to speak and the importance of this 
subject.
  Ladies and gentlemen, in the thirties and forties, they banned and 
burned books. That was just what they had at the time. They weren't 
really banning the book; they were banning and burning the idea--the 
ideas, the differences of opinion. I submit to you that that fascist 
regime then did what this cancel culture is doing right now.
  We have already talked about Major League Baseball canceling the All-
Star Game in Atlanta and acting like we don't know that there are more 
restrictive States elsewhere, including the State that it went to. It 
is absolutely ridiculous.
  Facebook canceled the Great Barrington Declaration, a declaration of 
medical professionals and scientists who declared that lockdowns had 
adverse effects on physical and mental health and we would be better 
served by focusing on the protection of people who face a high risk of 
mortality should they become infected.
  How dare they. How dare they not accept the narrative, the dogma, the 
groupthink. Who do they think they are?
  Google fired employee Kevin Cernekee for the crime--what was his 
crime? He held conservative views.
  How about OSU Coach Mike Gundy? What was his crime? Wearing the wrong 
T-shirt while fishing.
  That is how absurd this gets. And it just keeps on going, ladies and 
gentlemen. It doesn't stop.
  Of course, President Trump, the President of the United States, was 
canceled by big tech, banned from Twitter, likely permanently banned 
from Facebook and, as has already been stated, by the same companies 
doing business with and helping the Communist Chinese Government 
oppress its citizens, the same companies that allow the Ayatollah to 
freely transmit over their platform. No problem there. And it just 
keeps on going.
  I mean, the President talked about hydroxychloroquine in the early 
stages of the pandemic as a potential solution or treatment. Man, who 
knows? I mean, it has been around since the 1940s. How dare he. And how 
dare the doctors who believe in him and believe the same thing. Who do 
they think they are when the press and the cancel culture says no way?
  Of course, the worst of it, a Representative right here in this body, 
the gentlewoman from Missouri, and 54 of her colleagues sought to 
cancel 140 Members of Congress for objecting to the electors in several 
States due to the election irregularities and constitutional 
infractions in these States, including my home State of Pennsylvania. 
They introduced H. Res. 25, calling for the removal of those Members 
from the House of Representatives. They don't bother telling you that 
they themselves objected to more States in 2016 than the Republicans 
did in 2020. Let's cancel them. Free speech has been canceled.
  If you want to protest and burn your city down, protest is great. 
Violence and rioting is not accepted, except when it is. But think you 
are going to the church in the same town? Canceled.
  Your right to protest. You can riot, yes. But come to the Capitol and 
address your grievances with your elected representatives, no.
  Ladies and gentlemen, cancel culture is a synonym for fascism; and 
the sooner we recognize it, the better off we are going to be at 
dealing with it.
  Mr. BUCK. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for not naming my home 
State as he was talking about the All-Star Game.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. 
Tiffany), and I thank him for joining us in this Special Order hour.

  Mr. TIFFANY. Mr. Speaker:

     I do not like the cancel mob.
     I do not like the groupthink blob.
     We should not censor our own speech.
     That's not a habit we should teach.
     This isn't China or Iran.
     Free speech belongs to every man.
     This right belongs to women, too.
     To teachers, students, me and you.
     Don't let them tell you what to say.
     Or what to think or how to pray.
     America's for you and me.
     For Dr. Seuss--not Jack Dorsey.
     I thank the Speaker for the time.
     And hope you liked my free speech rhyme.

  Mr. BUCK. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman, and I suggest he is in 
the wrong line of work. That was great. I thank him very much for that.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. 
Clyde).
  Mr. CLYDE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Colorado for 
hosting this Special Order on this very important and increasingly 
pervasive issue in our society: Cancel culture.
  I hold very deep concerns about how this ugly movement is corrupting 
our youth and stands to seriously threaten the many core values shared 
by those in my district, those from north Georgia: altruism, 
patriotism, faith, and integrity, just to name a few.
  While calling people out on their actions and/or behaviors is nothing 
new in our society, there is something inherently dangerous about 
fringe groups of people moving in a calculated manner to strip people 
of jobs, to strip businesses of revenue, and shutting down entire 
thought groups altogether, without a fair and just consideration being 
afforded to the targeted party.
  Each of us has an understanding of what is right and wrong, just as 
we, as lawmakers, have our own ideas for what is good policy and what 
is not. We can debate and defend our personal opinions and sincerely 
held beliefs all we want, but when rights enshrined by the Constitution 
are at risk, I believe we have a duty to step up and defend those 
rights.
  Whether we are talking about standing up for God-given, unalienable 
religious liberties, Second Amendment rights or First Amendment 
protections, I wholeheartedly believe that we should also be pointing 
to the truth within the Constitution.
  It is easy to point to the Constitution as a blanketed rationale for 
countless issues. Both sides do it, and I find it does the public a 
disservice at large on two fronts, especially when one side just 
doesn't tell the truth.
  For one, I believe blanketed statements pointing to enumerated rights 
inadvertently desensitizes Americans, especially our youth, to the 
importance of the Constitution.
  Secondly, we are not challenging ourselves to push beyond the 
emotional sphere of these issues and to think critically and 
analytically to find the truth.
  So we, as conservatives, need to stand up to cancel culture in two 
ways.
  First, the Constitution has provided the basis for which the canceled 
individual and the ``cancelor'' engage in debate to begin with.

[[Page H2190]]

  Second, we should be putting truth behind our decision to stand up in 
defense of those being targeted.
  For example, I stand here today to oppose the progressive push to 
cancel biological genders, to cancel religious liberties, and to cancel 
the Second Amendment. Probably the most bold example of cancel culture 
that I have ever seen is that of Facebook and Twitter trying to cancel 
the sitting President of the United States, Donald Trump.
  I stand in defense of biological genders because the truth is that 
women are biologically different from men. Young men should not have to 
compete against self-identified transgenders who are biological men. 
Moreover, the truth is that women are the bearers of life, and only 
women can give birth. Call them what they are. Moms are moms, not 
birthing people.
  How ridiculous is that term, ``birthing people''?
  How about H.R. 5, the Equality Act. That was another brazen attempt 
by progressives to cancel biological sex by normalizing transgender 
equality.
  As I have said before and will say again, transgender medical 
treatment for children is child abuse, and any effort to normalize such 
treatments is a serious violation of the welfare and bodily integrity 
of our children. Allowing children to undergo life-changing alterations 
to their bodies should be a violation of the law, and the child abuser 
should be criminally prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
  I oppose efforts by progressives to cancel religious liberties in 
their entirety. While I could speak at length about the various targets 
of cancel culture that fall under religious liberties, there is no 
better example than the Democrats' bill on the floor this week, H.R. 
1065, that blatantly and knowingly leaves out protections for religious 
entities, as prescribed under the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
  Under this act, a religious employer could have to consider allowing 
an employee to take paid time off to have an abortion procedure. While 
religious liberty protections are the center of this cancellation 
attempt, the truth is that an unborn child is a living, human child, 
and we must protect it as such.
  I stand strong against the Democrats' all-out attack on the Second 
Amendment, because it is no secret they are trying to cancel Americans' 
right to keep and bear arms in a piecemeal manner. The truth is that 
law-abiding gun owners are not the perpetrators of violent crimes. 
However, law-abiding gun owners will bear the brunt of the impact from 
this ploy. The facts are on the side of the law-abiding gun owners.
  The Democrats know that and they just can't stand it. That is why 
Democrats are rolling out rules to ban guns piece by piece so that guns 
in the homes of Americans, as we speak, become outlawed over time. 
They do this under the guise of abolishing firearms made at home by 
individuals by calling them ghost guns.

  The truth is that we see through this thinly veiled facade, and we 
will not sit by and allow them to cancel our rights.
  Finally, I challenge all of my colleagues to not just stand up to the 
cancel culture in the name of the Constitution, but to do so by adding 
truth to the dialogue.
  Mr. BUCK. Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from 
Florida (Mr. Donalds).
  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.

                              {time}  2000

  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

[[Page H2191]]

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.
  Mr. BUCK. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his profound 
remarks. I now yield to the gentlewoman from Wyoming (Ms. Cheney), my 
friend and my neighbor to the north.
  Ms. CHENEY. Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank very much my friend, 
colleague, Mr. Buck, for yielding me time this evening.
  I know the topic, Mr. Speaker, is cancel culture. I have some 
thoughts about that. But tonight I rise to discuss freedom and our 
constitutional duty to protect it.
  Mr. Speaker, I have been privileged to see firsthand how powerful and 
how fragile freedom is. Twenty-eight years ago, I stood outside a 
polling place, a schoolhouse in western Kenya. Soldiers had chased away 
people who were lined up to vote. A few hours later, they came 
streaming back in, risking further attack, undaunted in their 
determination to exercise their right to vote.
  In 1992, I sat across the table from a young mayor in Nizhny 
Novgorod, Russia. I listened to him talk of his dream of liberating his 
nation from communism. Years later, for his dedication to the cause of 
freedom, Boris Nemtsov was assassinated by Vladimir Putin's thugs.
  In Warsaw in 1990, I listened to a young Polish woman tell me that 
her greatest fear was that people would forget; they would forget what 
it was like to live under Soviet domination, that they would forget the 
price of freedom.
  Three men--an immigrant who escaped Castro's totalitarian regime, a 
young man who grew up behind the Iron Curtain and became his country's 
minister of defense, and a dissident who spent years in the Soviet 
gulag--have all told me it was the miracle of America, captured in the 
words of President Ronald Reagan that inspired them.

  I have seen the power of faith and freedom. I listened to Pope John 
Paul II speak to thousands in Nairobi in 1985, and 19 years later, I 
watched that same Pope take my father's hands, look in his eyes, and 
say, ``God bless America.''
  God has blessed America, Mr. Speaker, but our freedom only survives 
if we protect it, if we honor our oath, taken before God in this 
Chamber, to support and defend the Constitution, if we recognize 
threats to freedom when they arise.
  Today, we face a threat America has never seen before. A former 
President, who provoked a violent attack on this Capitol in an effort 
to steal the election, has resumed his aggressive effort to convince 
Americans that the election was stolen from him. He risks inciting 
further violence.
  Millions of Americans have been misled by the former President. They 
have heard only his words but not the truth, as he continues to 
undermine our democratic process, sowing seeds of doubt about whether 
democracy really works at all.
  I am a conservative Republican, and the most conservative of 
conservative principles is reverence for the rule of law. The electoral 
college has voted. More than 60 State and Federal courts, including 
multiple judges the former President appointed, have rejected his 
claims. The Trump Department of Justice investigated the former 
President's claims of widespread fraud and found no evidence to support 
them. The election is over. That is the rule of law. That is our 
constitutional process. Those who refuse to accept the rulings of our 
courts are at war with the Constitution.
  Our duty is clear. Every one of us who has sworn the oath must act to 
prevent the unraveling of our democracy. This is not about policy. This 
is not about partisanship. This is about our duty as Americans. 
Remaining silent and ignoring the lie emboldens the liar.
  I will not participate in that. I will not sit back and watch in 
silence while others lead our party down a path that abandons the rule 
of law and joins the former President's crusade to undermine our 
democracy.
  As the party of Reagan, Republicans have championed democracy, won 
the Cold War, and defeated the Soviet Communists. Today, America is on 
the cusp of another Cold War. This time with Communist China. Attacks 
against our democratic process and the rule of law empower our 
adversaries and feed Communist propaganda that American democracy is a 
failure. We must speak the truth. Our election was not stolen, and 
America has not failed.
  I received a message last week from a Gold Star father who said, 
``Standing up for the truth honors all who gave all.'' We must all 
strive to be worthy of the sacrifice of those who have died for our 
freedom. They are the patriots Katharine Lee Bates described in the 
words of ``America the Beautiful'' when she wrote, Oh beautiful for 
heroes proved in liberating strife, who more than self, their country 
loved and mercy more than life.
  Ultimately, Mr. Speaker, this is at the heart of what our oath 
requires: That we love our country more, that we love her so much that 
we will stand above politics to defend her, that we will do everything 
in our power to protect our Constitution and our freedom that has been 
paid for by the blood of so many. We must love America so much that we 
will never yield in her defense. That is our duty.
  Mr. BUCK. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman, and I inform the 
Speaker that we have no further speakers. I yield back the balance of 
my time.

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