“I’m a desperate man
Send lawyers guns and money
The shit has hit the fan.”–Warren Zevon
We are witnessing something I have never witnessed during my lifetime. At least it is not something I cognizantly remember happening. We have seen impeachments and impeachment trials, but I have never seen a serious resolution to expel a member of Congress. What makes it more unusual is that it seems like they took the oath of office just 13 minutes ago.
Majorie Taylor Greene could end up leaving Congress before her term really begins. It takes a two thirds vote for a member to be expelled, so we would need more than a handful of Republicans to agree. I think we all know the chances of that happening are slim and none. However, let’s take a little stock in how we got here and what it means exactly.
The idea of expelling a member of Congress is extreme enough. However, when you consider it would be for things she said that voters should have known about during the campaign it becomes that much more harrowing. Usually, the provision would be used to expel someone for something they did while in office. The idea is that they have done something so horrible that we can’t wait two years for the voters to get another shot to get it right.
In this case, the Democrats are saying the voters got it wrong to begin with. I obviously tend to lean that way (so much so that I might fall over), but this is one of the precedents that is problematic at best. Imagine the Republicans expelling Sheila Jackson Lee. She overwhelmingly wins her district every two years. Expelling her would be telling her voters that they were wrong. That’s a dangerous message to send in a representative democracy.
Yet, here we are. It isn’t so much her support for Q’Anon that makes her unfit. I personally would never support anyone that went there and neither did Republican leadership when she ran in the primary. Yet, it was her comments calling for the murder of Nancy Pelosi and other leaders that brings us to this point.
I think in some cases the social media controls on the Q conspiracy theories has hurt more than its helped. It’s a fine line. The makers of South Park were effective in this strategy when they poked fun at Scientology in a few of their episodes. In one particular episode they simply flashed “this is what Scientologists actually believe” on the bottom of the screen. The message was quite clear and they ended up being sued. It wasn’t successful because they have some creative license and what they said was largely true.
If normal people understood what Q followers believe they might come to their senses. As harsh as it would be to tell residents of the Georgian district that they’ve failed and need to try again, that’s what needs to be done. This is what comes in a world where we pull the lever (figuratively) for an R or D without really paying attention.
The Marjorie Greene’s of the world used to top out as school board members before the community woke up to a crazy idiot that wanted to burn books and cancel the Halloween party. They didn’t stumble their way into Congress. Now, we have a handful of them. Before you know it, that could turn into a dozen or a few dozen if we aren’t careful.
No one is a big fan of Congress telling the American people they know what’s good for them. We want a Congress that reflects us and who we are. Unfortunately, who we are is what is currently in Congress. There are more than a few of us that have lost their ever loving minds. While having an unhinged member of Congress might reflect current national demographics, we can’t govern that way. We can’t have representatives threatening the lives of other representatives no matter how many Georgians want to put her there.
halloffameindex 