Congressional Record/Volume 167/Issue 4/Senate/Counting of Electoral Ballots/Arizona Objection Debate/King Speech
Mr. King. Mr. President, Winston Churchill once said that he could do a 2-hour speech extemporaneously, but a 10-minute speech took immense preparation. I don’t know what he would have said about a 4-minute speech.
We are a 240-year anomaly in world history. We think that what we have here in this country is the way it has always been.
It is a very unusual form of government. The normal form of government throughout world history is dictators, kings, czars, pharaohs, warlords, tyrants. And we thought 20 years ago the march of history was toward democracy, but it is in retreat in Hungary and Turkey—goodness knows, in Russia.
Democracy as we have practiced it is fragile. It is fragile, and it rests upon trust. It rests upon trust in facts. It rests upon trust in courts, in public officials, and, yes, in elections.
I don’t sympathize or justify or in any way—in any way—support—that is putting it mildly—what happened here today, but I understand it. I understand it because I saw those people interviewed today, and they said: We are here because this election has been stolen.
And the reason they said that is that their leader has been telling them that every day for 2 months.
We cannot afford to pull bricks out from the foundation of trust that underlies our entire system. And I agree with Governor Romney that the answer to this problem is to tell people the truth—is to tell them what happened.
It is easy to confront your opponents. It is hard to confront your friends.
It is hard to tell your supporters something they don’t want to hear, but that is our obligation. That is why the word “leader” is applied to people in jobs like ours. It is not supposed to be easy. It is supposed to be something that we take on as a sacred obligation, and if people believe something that isn’t true, it is our obligation to tell them: No, I am sorry, it isn’t, just as Senator Portman just said, as Mike Lee just said: I am sorry we can’t do this here. We don’t want to do this here. This is a power reserved to the States, not to the Congress.
And I agree with the majority leader. I think this is one of the most important votes any of us will ever take.
On December 1, 1862, Abraham Lincoln came to this building. He came to this building in the darkest days of the Civil War. He was trying to awaken the Congress to the crisis that we were facing, and he didn’t feel that they were fully and effectively engaged. He ended his speech that day with words that I think have an eerie relevance tonight. Here is what Abraham Lincoln said:
Fellow-[Americans], we cannot escape history. We of this Congress and this administration, will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No personal significance, or insignificance, can spare one or another of us.
And here are his final words:
The fiery trial through which we pass will light us down in honor or dishonor to the latest generation.
The fiery trial through which we pass, will light us down in honor or dishonor to the latest generation.
Thank you, Mr. President.