Have you heard about Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA 14)? She’s a prominent QAnon supporter; believes that the Parkland and Sandy Hook shootings were false flags; said that Hillary Clinton is behind school shootings to help Democrats rustle up support for stricter gun control laws. She hounded and harassed David Hogg outside the Capitol building before she was elected. She believes that the Camp Fire in California was caused by Jewish space lasers.
And she has supported people calling for the execution or assassination of Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Nancy Pelosi, along with other prominent Democrats.
How do Republicans condemn her? Oh, by giving her a spot on the Education Committee. She doesn’t even believe the truth about school shootings, and she’s on the Education Committee.
A motion to expel her from the House of Representatives is soon to be filed, but even with unanimous Democratic support, it would require 70 Republicans to reach the required two-thirds majority. And not a single one of them has said a peep, aside from House Minority Leader McCarthy saying he’s gonna take her aside and “talk to her”.
I find it impossible to credit that 70 Republicans will vote to expel one of their own from the House, for any reason. God couldn’t even find 10 righteous men in Sodom.
If there are things she’s done since being elected that would merit her expulsion, then let it be. But she was duly elected by the fearful, racist voters in her fine State who knew well where she stood. They’re the problem.
It’s very rare for Representatives to be expelled from Congress.
The Constitution gives the House wide latitude to expel members for violating its rules, breaking the law or engaging in “disorderly behavior.” Without a doubt, Capitol Hill would be a saner, more civil place if Greene were catapulted from her seat back to Georgia, where she came from. The House has used this power sparingly, giving three members the boot in 1861 for supporting the Confederacy and two more recently after they were convicted on criminal charges of bribery.
The voters who elected her are certainly a huge part of the problem, but it is also a huge problem for Congressional Republicans to accept her, and not to be completely on board with kicking such a person out of the actual legislative body of the freaking country.
Just like Democrats were better off with Trump as the GOP nominee because how could such a disgusting, unqualified, racist clown of a candidate possibly win?
Agreed, except that the “Perhaps” qualifier is unnecessary…
It is a own-goal for one party to try to police the other. If most Republicans want her out, good for them. The decent thing would then be for Democratic house members to go along. But if I was a Democratic politician, I wouldn’t want to hide from my constituents the less savory side of the opposition.
I agree. I just don’t like the idea of a duly elected representative being kicked out for things that should have prevented her election in the first place. The (racist) people spoke, and she won. Anyone can get fired from any job due to fucking up. If she fucks up, and there’s a way to get rid of her, that’s fine with me.
In our system of government, there was no practical way for Democrats to block DJT from running in 2016 or 2020. just as there is no practical way for Democrats to block him from running in 2024. However, it would help to stop handing him opportunities for Senate acquittals that he can sell as exonerations.
I’m referring to lots of Democrats who responded to his rise in 2016 with glee, because how could the Democrats lose if Trump was the GOP nominee? Obviously Democrats don’t generally get to vote for the GOP nominee, but some of the discussions were around things like how the media were covering him, which could have had an impact.
The very first joke on Saturday Night Live tonight was about her and about how crazy it is that she was promoted (i.e., given a seat on the Education Committee) after displaying how crazy she is. I still say it’s a good thing for the Democratic Party that the crazy one that people focus on is on the other side.
That’s a different proposition. If there has to be a crazy representative in Congress, better to have her on the other side – maybe. I mean, only because if she were a Democrat, I think she’d be dealt with, but sure, if she’s not going to get dealt with, better them than us.
But I think it’s a corrosive idea that we benefit from the other side having crazy people on it. We would all be better off with a sane other side.
I’ve never voted for a Republican, but there used to be plenty of them that I respected, and would not have hesitated to vote for over a truly terrible Democrat. Now, it seems like they are almost all at least half-crazy and/or openly evil. It hasn’t been a great boon to Democrats. It’s mostly just ruining the country and the ability to reason and compromise about where we are headed.
I wouldn’t be at all surprised if the Republicans considered Education to be a “lesser” congressional committee (with committees like Ways and Means, Judiciary and Armed Services maybe among the more prestigious). So perhaps, as far as they were concerned, they were shunting her off to some forlorn corner of Congress where she would have limited impact on what they consider to be important matters.
This. She didn’t assume power in a vacuum. She was the top vote getter in a primary contest that included more than a half-dozen Republicans, some of whom, I assume, were at least somewhat sane. In the runoff against her closet opponent, she won almost 60 percent of the vote. And even if the Democratic candidate in the general election hadn’t dropped out, he likely still would have gotten his ass handed to him, as Trump won 75 percent of the vote in the district in 2016 and 73 percent in 2020. So, yeah, they deserve a YUGE part of the blame here.
The reasons given for the expulsion seem to be for things she’s done since being in Congress. She’s part of QAnon and evidence is mounting that she aided their attack on the Capitol. She’s apparently been calling for violence against Democratic lawmakers, as well. A Democrat is actually moving her office to protect herself.. Now, granted, she’s been threatening Democratic congresspeople since well before she was elected, but it doesn’t seem she’s stopped since being in office.
Yeah, that approach really worked in the last Presidential election, didn’t it? Remember “He doesn’t know enough to do any damage, and the Republicans will stop his really crazy ideas anyway”?
You’ll see it is a myth that the GOP has a persistent electoral college advantage. Hillary did well given the underlying dynamics of the race, and lost because of bad luck concerning how the vote was distributed that particular year.
Trump is a weak candidate. He was weak in 2016, when he got lucky, and again weak in 2020.