by Jonathan Turley
This month, there was an “assault on democracy” in Tennessee.
However, it was apparently not members halting the legislative process, but rather their expulsion.
It appears that nothing says democracy like a bullhorn and obstructing legislative work.
I recently wrote a column on how American politics has become a simple matter of amplification after Democrats stopped the Tennessee House proceedings with a bullhorn to protest the lack of gun control measures.
I noted, “Today, for many, there is no room for nuance. Instead, they live in a world occupied only by ‘fascists’ and ‘insurrectionists.’ ”
Right on cue, Vice President Kamala Harris and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) proceeded to add their own amplified voices to the madness.
AOC even shared a video of protesters chanting “F–k you fascists” and promising that “Gen Z” will even the score.
I do not agree with the expulsion of the two members as opposed to other sanctions.
Expulsion should only come in rare and extreme circumstances.
While repeated disruption of the proceedings might qualify, I would have recommended censures and suspension from Committee positions.
Vice President Harris did not visit the families of the victims of the recent mass shooting in Nashville, but flew to the state to express her outrage at the expulsion of two legislators.
She praised the legislators while blaming the Republicans for victimizing the families whom she ignored on her visit.
Disrupting discourse
The full-throated support for the actions of the expelled legislators is a bizarre position for the Senate president who enforces the same rules in Washington, DC.
Yet she was disgusted by sanctioning members who refused to allow their colleagues to continue legislative business because they lacked the votes for a gun control measure.
Harris proclaimed “it’s about whose voices they were channeling. Understand that — and is that not what a democracy allows?”
Liberal sites like HuffPost gushed with praise for Harris and her “powerful message on Democracy.”
Democracy does not invite or entail the disruption of democratic process.
It is the same bizarre claim for many on the left that silencing others by shouting them down on campuses is a form of free speech.
These legislators were upset because they are in the minority and lack sufficient votes to get what they want.
They were protesting the democratic process, not advancing its principles in shutting down the floor.
For her part, AOC returned to calling the GOP members fascists and said Gen Z was coming: “Their fascism is only further radicalizing and awakening an earthquake of young people, both in the South and across the nation. If you thought youth organizing was strong, just wait for what’s coming. Gen Z don’t play.”
Others piled on: Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) decried, “This is fascism . . . expelling your political opponents . . . is disgusting.” Likewise, Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) declared, “This is fascism, full stop.” Rep. Summer Lee (D-Pa.) added “straight-up fascism in its ugliest, most racist form” because “there is no justification for ousting two legislators who were protesting with and for their constituents.”
Echo chamber
It is an ironic position of some Democrats who have supported calls for expelling House members after Jan. 6, including false claims that members personally assisted rioters in surveilling and getting access to the building.
The Washington Post’s Jennifer Rubin also called for expelling Republican members who voted against certifying the 2020 election.
It did not matter that members like Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) had previously voted against the certification of Republican presidents and called it democracy.
In 2004, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi heaping praise on Boxer declared, “This is not as some of our Republican colleagues have referred to it sadly as frivolous. This debate is fundamental to our democracy.”
Rubin declared, “Every Republican bears a responsibility for what happened on Wednesday, whether or not they participated in a seditious attempt to overthrow our democracy.”
January 6th committee Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) voted to challenge the certification of the 2004 results of President George W. Bush’s re-election; committee member Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) sought to challenge President Donald Trump’s certification in 2016.
It did not matter that Rubin and members like Rep. Bill Pascrell demanded expulsion of dozens of members for their voting the wrong way on certification.
There were no cries of disgust from Harris or others even when Pascrell later called for prevention of 120 GOP members from being seated for signing an amicus brief that the Democrats disagreed with.
Likewise, when GOP members said something on the floor that Rep. David Cicilline (D-RI) felt wrongly portrayed Jan. 6, he called for their censure.
Dangerous hypocrisy
Now, however, Rubin and others are outraged with the expulsion of two members, objecting to “the stunning sight of white lawmakers condescendingly dismissing two young black men.”
This is the real news were not getting from the NYT’s or CNN since their both Leftists Propaganda
failed test
Um… excuse me, but that’s democracy. Actual democracy is majority rule, something Democrats just love when they happen to hold the majority. Recall, the Democrat majority kicked Republicans off of committees and ignored their selections for the January 6th committee for mere SPEECH. None of the Republicans denied committee seats incited a riot inside the Capital, they just said things Democrats didn’t like.
I don’t think expulsion was out of line whatsoever. That had the high possibility of turning violent, mainly because leftists are inherently violent. We’ve seen numerous cases where leftists push and probe and escalate when there is no push-back, and this inevitably leads to violence. Just a censure for that inciting of a riot would not have sent the correct message, just as letting them back in sends the wrong message.
That stupid, racist whore Kamala has a history of inciting and enabling violence. She even supports bailing the violent terrorists right back out of jail to continue to commit more violence. People went to jail for disrupting an official proceeding on January 6th for years, but here is Kamala supporting the exact same activity. Democrats love to use violence.
Golly gee whiz, they sure wouldn’t want to be a party in anything like that, would they? FASCISM, you say?
And who would be doing the burning? The same people that did all the burning in 2019 and 2020? The same people who ALWAYS do all the burning when they don’t get everything exactly and totally their way? And how does Christianity and race enter into this? Yeah, two black, violence-inciting radicals were expelled, but they happen to be the only ones inciting the violence (the fat white woman copped a plea, threw her black brothers under the bus and begged for mercy, since she never wielded the bullhorn). If they hadn’t disrupted the legislative process by inciting violence, NO ONE would have been expelled.