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Rep.
Cori
Bush
(D-MO) recently revealed she is moving her office for the safety of
her staff after she was harassed by QAnon conspiracy theorist and
Trump cult member Rep. Marjorie
Taylor Greene
(R-GA). This troubling incident is yet more proof that this
unofficial, yet odious caucus of the Republican Party has to go -
before somebody gets killed.
On
Jan. 13, Greene reportedly came from behind Bush - a Black
Lives Matter activist-turned-congresswoman
from St. Louis - in a tunnel separating the Cannon Office Building
from the Capitol Building. Maskless, as people of her ilk usually
are, Greene was ranting loudly into her phone. The incident took
place only a day after various members of Congress tested positive
for COVID-19 after being holed up with mask-averse Republican
“colleagues” during the deadly Jan. 6 Capitol
insurrection.
During
that infamous armed insurrection, Trump supporters, including Proud
Boys, QAnon cultists, off-duty cops, enlisted military, veterans and
others stormed the Capitol. Their goal was to take over the
government for Trump and in the name of white supremacy, to Make
America White Again. And the participants in the Trump-funded,
produced
and incited
attack were aided by members of the U.S. House and Senate who falsely
claimed the election was stolen, yet took an oath to uphold and
defend the U.S. Constitution.
We
will learn more about the role of members of Congress and the Senate
in the deadly Capitol siege, but we know already that Speaker Nancy
Pelosi
has said the Congress has an enemy
within,
with members of Congress escaping Capitol metal detectors, bringing
their guns to the floor
of the House and threatening violence against other members.
The
QAnon conspiracy theorist from Georgia, who advocated for the
assassination of prominent Democrats and argued “a
bullet to the head would be quicker“
to remove Pelosi, has made a host of remarks that reflect her
extremism, racism, Islamophobia and antisemitism. For example, she
said Muslims should not serve in government, and Blacks “are
held slaves
to the Democratic Party“
and should be proud of Confederate monuments.
Further,
Greene believes 911 and the school
shootings at Parkland,
Florida and Newtown, Connecticut were hoaxes and claims the
California wildfires were caused by Jewish people with their space
lasers.
Senate
minority leader Mitch
McConnell
called Greene’s embrace of “loony lies and conspiracy
theories” as a “cancer for the Republican Party.”
And the Republican
Jewish Coalition
condemned her and her language as “far outside the mainstream
of the Republican Party.”
While
it was proper and just to repudiate this woman, Greene is most
certainly in the GOP mainstream. For those who have not noticed,
including folks who enabled Trump for the past four years and
supported his attempt at regime change, the Republican Party is a
cancer that has had decades to metastasize.
A
straight line connects the anti-civil rights presidential race of
Barry Goldwater
and the voter intimidation campaign against Black and Latino voters
by William
Rehnquist
in the 1960s, the race-baiting Southern Strategy of Richard
Nixon,
the “welfare queen” and states’ rights campaign of
Ronald
Reagan,
and the raw white nationalist message of Trump.
Now,
the GOP has become an armed insurgency in full view, mixed with a
white domestic terror cult that worships guns and white Jesus, money,
lunacy, and above all, Donald Trump. Employing voter suppression and
violence to maintain white minority rule, this Republican Party is
fighting the Civil War all over again - and Marjorie Taylor Greene is
one of its most loyal Confederate soldiers.
A
House resolution would strip Greene of her committee
assignments
in the House Education & Labor Committee and the House Budget
Committee, which the House GOP awarded her for her racist lunacy. But
that is not enough, and Marjorie Taylor Greene is not alone. The
House and Senate should remove Greene and others of her ilk for the
danger they pose to the government, functioning democracy and Black
people.
Rep.
Lauren
Boebert
(R-CO) and Madison
Cawthorn
join Greene to form an Anti-Squad.
Boebert - a gun-rights activist who reportedly received
her GED
last
year
and makes Sarah
Palin look
like a genius - deserves expulsion for leading a large tour of the
Capitol complex right before the attack, and tweeting
Pelosi’s location
during the attack.
Cawthorn,
the youngest member of Congress, visited
Hitler’s vacation home
because it, as he said, “has been on my bucket list for awhile”
and might give people the impression he is a Nazi. During the Capitol
siege, lawmakers such as Reps. Alexandria
Ocasio-Cortez
and Ayanna
Pressley
did
not feel safe
in the presence of some of their fellow Republican legislators.
And
an organizer of the “Stop
the Steal”
rally-turned-insurrection said he received help from Republican Reps.
Andy
Biggs of
Arizona,
Mo Brooks
of Alabama and Paul
A. Gosar of
Arizona.
On
the Senate side, Ted
Cruz
of Texas and Josh
Hawley
of Missouri face calls to resign, and an ethics
complaint
accusing them of inciting violence by amplifying claims of election
fraud in the 2020 election. They are supposed to know better because
they are “smart” and went to elite Ivy League schools, we
are told, as if evil people didn’t attend college.
Senator
Tommy
Tuberville
(R-AL),
whose claim to fame is being a mediocre college coach who believes
the three
branches of government
are “the House, the Senate and executive,” met with Trump
and his advisers the night before the Capitol attack, despite
Tuberville’s denials.
White
supremacy always results in death, and it is on full display in
America. Now, even white lawmakers have learned they are not safe
from it. Democrats should reject any idea that they can get along and
work with these people, because there is no compromise with those who
do not stand against democracy and refuse to stand against racism.
The
reality is that these Republicans won’t resign, so they must be
excised from the body politic to ensure the safety of Congress and
give multiracial democracy a fighting chance. If we don’t make
examples of them and hold them accountable, they will undermine any
Democratic Party agenda of civil rights, equity and justice, return
us to authoritarianism and take down as many people as they can.
This commentary was originally published by The Grio
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