Former U.S. Rep. Dean Phillips (D-MN) recently exposed the supposed “legalized corruption” within Congress during his farewell speech in December. Departing from his time as a representative, Phillips took to the House floor to deliver a speech centered around his father’s death in the Vietnam War.

However, the Minnesota Democrat, who served as the Co-Chair of the House Democratic Policy and Communications Committee, made it a point to call out both sides of the aisle, alleging Democrats and Republicans prioritized their own “self-protection over principles.” He argued that the two-party system should work toward the broader American good instead of going “to war against one another.”

During part of his speech, Phillips discussed numerous issues, such as campaign financing, political polarization, and selfish motivations among members of Congress. Speaking about those who laid their lives down to defend the United States, he said, “They didn’t sacrifice their lives for members of Congress to spend 10,000 hours a week begging for campaign dollars used to eviscerate fellow Americans running for office.”

He continued, “They didn’t sacrifice their lives for Congress to do nothing as 60% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck. They didn’t sacrifice their lives for Congress to do nothing as 500,000 Americans go bankrupt from MEDICAL DEBT each year – and twenty-SIX million go without any health coverage at all. They didn’t sacrifice their lives for Congress to do nothing as 50,000 Americans die from gun violence and another 100,000 from overdoses every single year.”

Further exposing the apparent brokenness within the American political system, Phillips continued, “They didn’t sacrifice their lives for Congress to do nothing as wealthy industries shower millions of campaign dollars on the very committee members who set the rules for their industries…and then allow each party to collect “dues” from those committee members to fund campaigns.”

“It’s legalized corruption!” Phillips said passionately, “And it’s unacceptable. My father and one million other Americans didn’t sacrifice their lives for Congress to enable two private corporations, the two major parties, to maintain a virtual monopoly on our democracy. And having paid the ultimate price themselves, they surely didn’t sacrifice their lives for members of Congress to prioritize their own self-protection over their principles.”

Calling on his fellow members of Congress to act with courage in serving the interests of their constituents, he said, “However, they did sacrifice their lives because of decisions made in this very room by people just like us. So as I bid farewell, I humbly ask all members of the next Congress to call on your better angels and act with courage – not cowardice.”

Watch Phillips below:

Building on this point, Phillips continued, “The courage to compete with our ideas rather than defeat one another with our ideologies. The courage to fix our problems rather than fixate on our politics. The courage to replace condemnation with invitation, and the courage to replace confrontation with common sense. In closing, I believe we all have a choice to make. Will we be a nation that metaphorically goes to the moon together, or one that goes to war against one another? As a free people, that choice remains ours — all of ours.”

Note:  The featured image is a screenshot from the embedded video.