Republicans: democracy, we don’t believe in that!
Happening right now, Republicans are trying to remove 4 Democrats from office, 3 Tennessee state house members, and a Wisconsin supreme court justice elect, you literally cannot make this shit up.
In Tennessee; after a recent mass shooting at the Covenant school, where three 9-year-olds and three adults were gunned down, 3 Democrat lawmakers joined a protest at the state capital calling for gun reform. Republican House speaker, Cameron Sexton claims the three representatives, Gloria Johnson, Justin Jones, and Justin Pearson, broke “several rules of decorum and procedure on the House floor”, which, obviously requires that they should be expelled for standing with the people who they represent.
But, being an alleged child molester, prescribing drugs to family members illegally, or urinating in other members’ chairs does not break house rules, none of these congresspeople were expelled. I would suggest that these actions were infinitely more severe than protesting gun laws with a bullhorn.
In the history of the Tennessee state house, only twice has a member, interestingly, both Republicans, been removed. In 1980, Rep. Robert Fisher was removed for accepting a bribe, which is ironic, given that bribes have now been normalized and called campaign contributions. A second representative in 2016, Rep. Jeremy Durham, was expelled for allegations of sexual harassment, legitimate reasons I’d say!
This shows the Trump effect in action, where actions have no consequences. Before Trump took office on January 20, 2017, Republicans had moral standards and punished their own. Today, I guarantee that the GOP would have circled the wagons to protect both of these representatives in 2023.
The Republican solution to the Covenant school shooting is more guns, putting forward a bill that would arm teachers, which is the GOP party line, thanks to them being, let’s call it what it is, bribed by the NRA. Arming teachers and militarizing our schools is not the answer to the question of reducing gun violence. How long will it be before a teacher accidentally shoots a student, or leaves their gun in a bathroom?
Anyway, back on topic, this is clearly a partisan move, knowing that no Democrats need to vote in favor of expulsion, as the Republicans have a supermajority, 75 members, no doubt from gerrymandered districts; when they only need a two-thirds majority vote to oust Johnson, Jones, and Pearson.
Moving onto Wisconsin, where Republicans are already talking about impeaching the newly elected liberal Supreme Court Justice, Janet Protasiewicz. Judge Protasiewicz’s election pushed the court’s bias toward the liberal side, and the right wing has lost their collective minds over it, as it’s likely to thwart the GOP’s plans to ban abortion and reverse the extensively gerrymandered districts in the state.
Republicans recently obtained a supermajority in the Wisconsin Senate and the newly elected Senator, Dan Knodl said he would consider impeaching Protasiewicz from her position as a judge on the Milwaukee County Circuit Court. This, I would assume, as a non-expert on the legal repercussions of impeachment, would disqualify Protasiewicz from taking her seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court.
Due to gerrymandered districts, Republicans have a supermajority in the Wisconsin Senate, meaning they could push to convict on any impeachment of Protasiewicz from the Wisconsin state assembly.
Republicans like to scream about VOTER FRAUD when they lose elections, when in reality, they are the party who do the gerrymandering, voter suppression, and yes, most cases of people voting illegally, have been votes for Republicans, not to mention the 2021 insurrection. They know that in a fair Democracy, they would not hold any power, as their policies are not popular with the majority of Americans.
Update; Apr, 6 2023, 19:12: Two black representatives expelled.
The two black representatives, Justin Jones, and Justin Pearson were expelled from the Tennessee House, while the white representative, Gloria Johnson survived the vote. I don’t know what is in the hearts of the TN GOP, but it does not look good, especially with the reputation of Tennessee being good ol’ boys.