House Democrats’ Protest Whiplash | The Nation

On Thursday morning we acquired to see the worst and the perfect of the Home Democratic caucus. I received’t quickly overlook both.

First, the worst: Ten Democrats voted with all Home Republicans to censure their colleague, Consultant Al Inexperienced of Texas, for disrupting President Donald Trump’s barrage of lies Tuesday evening. Brandishing his cane, the disabled 77-year-old rose when Trump touted his supposed electoral mandate (he doesn’t have one, however that’s one other story.) “You don’t have any mandate to chop Medicaid!” Inexperienced known as out. When he continued to protest, Home Speaker Mike Johnson had him faraway from the chamber. Progressive colleagues, together with Representatives Maxwell Frost and Jasmine Crockett, adopted.

Home Republicans shortly retaliated by drafting a decision to censure Inexperienced.

“He selected to intentionally violate Home guidelines in a fashion that we expect might be unprecedented in historical past—interrupting a message of a president of the US, who’s an honored visitor,” Johnson explained forward of the vote.

Wait, Mike, you don’t keep in mind Tea Social gathering GOP Consultant Joe Wilson screaming “You lie!” at President Obama throughout an handle to each homes of Congress in 2010? You don’t keep in mind your caucus colleagues Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert interrupting President Biden’s 2022 State of the Union handle, trying like poo-flinging baboons? Or Greene doing it to Biden once more in 2024?

Mike, you mocked Democrats for having “a 77-year-old congressman [as] the face of their resistance.” However ditch the ageism, as a result of at 53, you appear to be already dropping your reminiscence.

Sadly, 10 Democrats sided with the ludicrous Johnson. They’re Representatives Ami Bera of California, Ed Case of Hawaii, Jim Costa of California, Laura Gillen of New York, Jim Himes of Connecticut, Chrissy Houlahan of Pennsylvania, Marcy Kaptur of Ohio, Jared Moskowitz of Florida, Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington, and Tom Suozzi of New York.

Kaptur and Himes had been the massive disappointments; the remainder had been to be anticipated.

When the vote was carried out, Johnson summoned Inexperienced to the properly of the Home chamber, the place custom holds the censured should stand to take heed to the censure decision. I felt the hair get up on my arms as I noticed a distinguished older Black congressman summoned to his humiliation by a white congressman. Historical past doesn’t repeat itself, as Seamus Heaney advised us, nevertheless it typically rhymes. I often quote that in good occasions; I’m quoting it now as a warning.

However right here was the perfect of the Home Democrats’ strikes at present: Inexperienced moved into the properly. So did more than a dozen of his Home progressive colleagues, together with Rashida Tlaib, Maxine Waters, Ayanna Pressley, and Gwen Moore. They started to sing “We Shall Overcome.” And what started as an act of white GOP humiliation turned a logo of multiracial resistance as a substitute. It will possibly’t take away the stain from the ten Dems who additionally voted to humiliate Inexperienced, nevertheless it was thrilling to these of us despairing over the censure transfer.

“Congressman Al Inexperienced’s protest is not only an act of defiance—it’s an act of patriotism,” Rep. Lateefah Simon texted me Thursday afternoon. “His righteous stand towards the President’s merciless try and dismantle healthcare for our poorest, our elders, and other people with disabilities needs to be celebrated.

“I stand with Congressman Inexperienced. I stand with each American who refuses to let this nation slide right into a system that values revenue over folks. That is our nation. That is our struggle. And we is not going to again down.”

I can’t be the one one reminded of one other time a cane was brandished within the Capitol: In Might 1856, when pro-slavery Consultant Preston Brooks nearly beat to loss of life abolitionist Senator Charles Sumner throughout a debate over whether or not to increase slavery’s lethal attain into new states and territories. This time, although, it was a Black man brandishing a cane, utilizing it not as a weapon however as a rod of righteousness. We will overcome, ultimately.

Earlier than Trump’s Tuesday handle, Home Democratic chief Hakeem Jeffries walked a tightrope about how you can greatest reply. Jeffries had advised his colleagues that they need to do what they thought was greatest for his or her constituents. However he additionally exhorted members who did attend “to remain on message and maintain the highlight centered on the folks affected by Trump’s insurance policies,” NBC Information reported, and “not make the story about themselves.”

With all due respect, Chief Jeffries, you are the story, as Democrats look ahead to courageous management to cease Trump and copresident Elon Musk’s hostile takeover of presidency, and sadly don’t see it coming. Exhorting folks to look at “decorum” and to “honor the workplace of the presidency” is at greatest gaslighting Democrats, and at worst unconditional give up to Trump and Musk. Do higher, sir. Or else you’ll by no means, ever get the speaker’s gavel.