Ashley Moody

Mr. President, Claims · 52 wordstoday is Constitution Day. Two hundred thirty nine years ago, our Founders signed the Constitution of this United States.¹ Every Senator in this room has taken an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic. And every one of us swore that oath. Anecdote · 16 wordsI did it at the same time as Senator Husted, who is on the floor today.²Anecdote Reasoning · 29 wordsOur Founders understood the danger of concentrated power; they had just fought a revolution against it. And they understood something about human nature: Power will always want more power. Claims · 114 wordsSo they put limits on it. They divided power among three branches. They built in checks and balances. They preserved the authority of the States. And with the Bill of Rights, they made one thing unmistakably clear: There are some places government simply cannot go. Government cannot silence you because it doesn’t like what you say. Government cannot take away your right to keep and bear arms. It cannot search your home whenever it pleases. It cannot take away your liberty without due process. These aren’t suggestions. They are hard limits on government power. Yet today there is a growing movement on the left that treats safeguards within our Constitution as obstacles to overcome. Positioning · 9 wordsYou don’t like a decision from the Supreme Court?Positioning Claims · 12 wordsPack the Court, add Justices until you get the decisions you want. Positioning · 14 wordsYou don’t like the laws of the people that are enacted through their representatives?Positioning Claims · 13 wordsJust have an Executive, a rogue prosecutor, refuse to enforce the people’s laws. Positioning · 6 wordsDon’t like what Americans are saying?Positioning Claims · 11 wordsPressure private companies to silence them and call it fighting misinformation. Reasoning · 65 wordsAgain and again, we will see the same pattern when constitutional guardrails stand between you and what you want: Simply move the guardrails. And that is dangerous. It is the greatest threat to a constitutional republic. The greatest threat to a constitutional republic is not disagreement. It is the belief that your cause is so important that the Constitution should get out of your way. Procedure · 9 wordsAnd today we are seeing something even more fundamental: ProcedureClaims · 45 wordsthis movement that I referenced to dismantle the institution the Constitution created. Right now, democratic socialists are calling for a far-reaching change to the very foundation of American Government, our Constitution. They want to abolish the Supreme Court, replace the Presidency, abolish the electoral college. Reasoning · 72 wordsAnd at some point, we have to admit this stops being an argument about policy. It becomes an argument about the very foundation of this country, the United States of America. It becomes an attack on the Constitution that we all swore an oath to protect and defend because when you start dismantling institutions designed to keep power in check, the next question has to be: Who keeps power in check then? Anecdote · 68 wordsI have had the rare opportunity to see the balance of power, the separation of power, from all three branches now. I have served as a Federal prosecutor; ³I have served as an attorney general in the great ``Free State of Florida’’; ⁴I have served as a judge for over a decade; ⁵and now I serve on behalf of the people, making their laws in the legislative branch.⁶Anecdote Reasoning · 16 wordsI have seen firsthand why the Founders drew those lines and why we must protect them. Procedure · 24 wordsAnd that brings me back to our oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.Procedure Reasoning · 60 wordsWe know what a foreign enemy looks like. But a threat to our constitutional system doesn’t have to come from beyond our shores. It can come from within the very institutions the Constitution created. And what happens when those that have sworn the oath to protect and defend the Constitution, what happens when they themselves start advocating to dismantle it? Claims · 37 wordsRight now, we have Members of Congress that have sworn to protect the Constitution, but they are coming out and supporting organizations and policies and advocacies that would attack and dismantle the things that protect people’s rights. Reasoning · 10 wordsAn oath means the most when keeping it becomes inconvenient. Anecdote · 36 wordsJust ask the officers, the deputies in my home county of Hillsborough County, who took the oath to protect and serve and went into live fire in order to do their jobs and uphold their oath.Anecdote Procedure · 9 wordsJustice Clarence Thomas recently described the challenge this way: ⁷ProcedureClaims · 79 wordsThis year, America celebrates 250 years since declaring our independence.⁸ The Declaration of Independence announced the promise of America. The Constitution gave us the system to protect it. Our job is not to move its guardrails when they become inconvenient. Our job is to defend them because our enemies do not have to defeat America on a battlefield if we are willing to tear down from within the institution and principles that have sustained this Nation for 250 years. The ask · 39 wordsSo, today, on Constitution Day, let us remember the oath that each one of us took to support the Constitution, to defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic. Let’s remember our duty and carry it out faithfully.Vague promise Thanks · 4 wordsThank you, Mr. President.Thanks Procedure · 4 wordsI yield the floor.Procedure