The devolution of the Republican Party continues to accelerate headlong toward the rocky cliffs of ultimate oblivion. Its leader, the aspiring tyrant and sociopath Donald Trump, is the key propellant of this political disintegration. The Party’s worshipful devotion to Trump makes every member complicit in his heinous crimes against America and humanity.
The latest testament to the downward spiral of the GOP (Greedy One Percent) is a resolution introduced by Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert. Gohmert’s resolution instructs the Speaker of the House to “remove any item that names, symbolizes or mentions any political organization or party that has ever held a public position that supported slavery or the Confederacy.” It further directs that any such party “be barred from participation in the House of Representatives.”
This is what Gohmert likely believes is a crafty way of disparaging the Democratic Party which, as the party of the South during the Civil War era, advocated for slavery and secession. He is proposing this resolution in response to Nancy Pelosi’s order to remove statues, and other tributes to Confederate traitors, from the Capitol building. The bill approving the order passed the House this week, 301 to 113.
Gohmert and a couple of his GOP colleagues were unable to constrain their dismay over this initiative to finally put an end to the official honorary treatment of treasonous confederate politicians and generals. “The time has come,” Gohmert ranted, “for Democrats to acknowledge their party’s loathsome and bigoted past.”
Of course, the Democratic Party long ago acknowledged – and renounced – the tangential past association with the doctrine of southern racism. Historians agree that it was just southern Democrats, not the Party, that trafficked in such bigotry. What Gohmert isn’t saying (but surely knows) is that there was a realignment in the mid-20th century wherein Democrats embraced civil rights, resulting in the flight of southern bigots to the Republican Party. And that’s where they remain today with the fervent support of white nationalists and neo-Nazis.
So Gohmert’s snarky resolution is just another thinly disguised shout out to the GOP’s racist base. It calls on a party that for decades has demonstrated its support for civil rights to be banned, while ignoring the fact that Republicans continue to work for suppression of civil rights and equal justice. There is a reason that the Democratic Party today has the support of 92% of African-Americans.
If Gohmert were sincere about his proposal it would call, instead, for the banning of Republicans and acknowledge their “loathsome and bigoted” present. His resolution’s call to ban any political party that has ever supported the Confederacy seems tailor-made for the GOP. That is made all the more clear with the vote on the bill to remove Confederate statues. All 113 votes opposing the bill (including Gohmert), and thus supporting the confederacy, were Republicans. And not to be left out, Donald Trump weighed in on the matter in his typically deranged way. Trump tweeted that…
I spoke to highly respected (Chairman) Senator @JimInhofe, who has informed me that he WILL NOT be changing the names of our great Military Bases and Forts, places from which we won two World Wars (and more!). Like me, Jim is not a believer in “Cancel Culture”.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 24, 2020
First of all, this isn’t up to Sen. Inhofe. The bill has now passed both the House and the Senate by veto-proof margins and will shortly be on Trump’s desk. Should he live down to his racist standards and veto it, his veto is unlikely to be sustained. What’s more, Trump’s assertion that he’s “not a believer in ‘Cancel Culture'” is contradicted by all of the times he has personally “canceled” people and businesses that he disapproved of.
What Trump is a believer in is the same thing that Gohmert and the rest of the GOP believes: That they should have unchallenged, dictatorial, single-party rule over America. Unfortunately for them, the American people have a different perspective and will fight for the democracy and liberty that the Constitution guarantees. And the next battle in that fight is November 3rd.
How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
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