Mr. President, I rise today to say: Enough. We must dedicate ourselves to making sure that the anomalous never becomes normal. With respect and humility, I must say that we have fooled ourselves for long enough that a pivot to governing is right around the corner, a return to civility and stability right behind it. We know better than that. By now, we all know better than that. Here, today, I stand to say that we would better serve the country and better fulfill our obligations under the constitution by adhering to our Article 1 "old normal" -- Mr. Madison's doctrine of the separation of powers. This genius innovation which affirms Madison's status as a true visionary and for which Madison argued in Federalist 51 -- held that the equal branches of our government would balance and counteract each other when necessary. "Ambition counteracts ambition," he wrote. http://www.cnn.com/2017/10/24/politics/jeff-flake-retirement-speech-full-text/index.html
Don't say this loosely, but we're watching history today. Whatever is next, senators are placing hard bets on the future of America in 2017.
— Benjy Sarlin (@BenjySarlin) October 24, 2017 (https://twitter.com/BenjySarlin/status/922906525492015104?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)
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Mr. President, I rise today to say: Enough. We must dedicate ourselves to making sure that the anomalous never becomes normal. With respect and humility, I must say that we have fooled ourselves for long enough that a pivot to governing is right around the corner, a return to civility and stability right behind it. We know better than that. By now, we all know better than that.
Here, today, I stand to say that we would better serve the country and better fulfill our obligations under the constitution by adhering to our Article 1 "old normal" -- Mr. Madison's doctrine of the separation of powers. This genius innovation which affirms Madison's status as a true visionary and for which Madison argued in Federalist 51 -- held that the equal branches of our government would balance and counteract each other when necessary. "Ambition counteracts ambition," he wrote.
http://www.cnn.com/2017/10/24/politics/jeff-flake-retirement-speech-full-text/index.html