
Congress took a historic step towards accountability, as they censured a member of the House of Representatives for the first time in ten years. Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Arizona), the Republican congressman who infamously tweeted a video depicting him killing AOC and President Biden, has been censured and removed from his committee assignments. Though the move is appropriate, it is far too lenient, and considering how many Republicans voted in Gosar’s favor, it seems that this measure is the least that Congress can do.
From the very beginning, Republicans revealed their moral bankruptcy. The vote, which was almost entirely along party lines, with 223 voting in favor of the resolution and 207 against it, was another example of Republicans failing to acknowledge basic reality.
In a previous article on this issue, I noted that Congressional Republicans condemned previous examples of artists threatening leadership in the White House. Such as when Kathy Griffin posed with a fake Trump head covered in blood. Snoop Dog was famously visited by the secret service for making a music video shooting a Trump figure. All of this is to say that Republicans don’t honestly believe that depictions of violence are acceptable in politics. And though I am sad to say it, that hypocrisy was on show today.
Rather than facing the contradiction they created, Republicans have dedicated the full might of their caucus to distracting the American people from their utter disregard for decency. Putting that moral bankruptcy front and center, Rep. Lauren Boebert dove into a deranged rant, falsely claiming Rep. Ilhan Omar married her brother and referring to her as a member of the “Jihad Squad.”
In a normal country, that language alone would be a scandal. That a representative’s religion and previous marriage could be used to turn a blind eye to violent threats is an indictment of our current political system.
In a normal country, this wouldn’t happen. Unfortunately, we are not a normal country anymore.