Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) told an audience of supporters at a rally on Thursday that the Second Amendment is about “the ability to maintain an armed rebellion against the government.”
Gaetz spoke in Dalton, Georgia, in his latest in a series of appearances alongside Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA).
Telling the crowd that they must fight to preserve their rights under the Constitution, he referred to its Second Amendment. Continue reading.
I got a response from a concerned reader and citizen yesterday that I’d like to discuss today. It was in reaction to Tuesday’s piece about Alan Wolfe, the political scientist and sociologist who seemed to predict, in 2004, the Republicans’ turn toward fascism. He wrote in an obscure supplement to an obscure journal only niche readers saw, but reading this 17-year-old essay is like reading a profile of the Republican Party in 2021.
In my piece, I said the pundit corps still seems to hesitate using the word “fascism” even after all we’ve seen. I said that’s probably because it calls to mind images of gas chambers. It doesn’t take genocide to make a fascist, though. As Wolfe made so clear, all it takes is a totalizing worldview in which everyone in the out-group is the enemy.
To which my concerned citizen pointed out something worth dwelling on: “Hesitancy to call the GOP ‘fascist’ is justified in many minds because so many GOP elites aver that they are simply giving lip-service to MAGA and don’t really believe in it.” Continue reading.
For decades, the GOP claimed the mantle of an economically conservative party and exploited societal issues such as racism and abortion to bolster their electoral support. Yet over the past few years, a reversal has occurred, such that the GOP’s cultural identity now eclipses any pretense of an economic agenda. As an example, just this week, Fox News declared, “Critical Race Theory Replaces Economy as Top Issue.”
Over the course of the 1980s through the 2000s, American conservative thought was often framed as primarily economically oriented. The Republican Party, however, gained electoral support by appealing to societal resentments. From Ronald Reagan’s “welfare queen” to encouraging turnout with anti-LGBTQ legislation, the GOP augmented cultural wars. It knew how to exploit culture to win elections and power.
Yet during all this time, the GOP had an economic agenda—”fiscal conservatism”—that appealed to voters less moved by resentment. This agenda revolved around deregulation of industry, reductions in government spending and tax cuts. The GOP also had an even broader vision: deconstruction of the social safety net as established by the New Deal and the Great Society. From Reagan to Newt Gingrich to George W. Bush, Republican leaders mounted attacks on the safety net, largely centered on privatization and incentives to encourage Americans to choose other options. Continue reading.
Denial of insurrection, always-on work culture piles on trauma
A congressional staffer froze recently when elevator doors opened and there stood a member of the House who has downplayed the violence of the Jan. 6 insurrection. Some congressional employees are shaken by what they see as the whitewashing of the attack, and the denials have reignited lingering trauma.
One House employee who works in the Capitol building and heard the rioters banging on their office door said seeing the lawmakers try to erase the destruction is jarring.
Thirteen staffers interviewed by CQ Roll Call, who were granted anonymity to speak candidly about their mental health and how they are coping, point to comments like those from Rep. Andrew Clyde. Despite helping barricade the House chamber from rioters, the Georgia Republican downplayed the events of Jan. 6 at a hearing earlier this month as“acts of vandalism” and said the rioters were “orderly” and looked like “a normal tourist visit.” Continue reading.
Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) is finding that Democrats who once worked with him on bipartisan bills no longer want to touch them with a 10-foot pole if he’s involved.
Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.) last week removed himself as a co-sponsor from a bill authored by Gosar that would crack down on illegal foreign donations to political campaigns.
A California Democrat, Rep. Mike Levin, said he informed Gosar that it would be “detrimental” to the chances of a public lands bill becoming law if his name were on it, even though they introduced it together in the last session of Congress. Continue reading.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) is facing calls to boot Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) out of the GOP conference for her remarks comparing COVID-19 mask and vaccine rules to the genocide of 6 million Jews during World War II.
“Just stop. This is demented and dangerous. There is no comparison,” Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) tweeted at Greene Tuesday after she doubled down on her Holocaust comparison.
“I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again: while we cannot stop her from calling herself a Republican, we can and should refuse to let her caucus with the @HouseGOP.” Continue reading.
As Georgia GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene continues to take heat for her comments comparing mask mandates to Nazi policies against the Jews during the Holocaust, a video from last year showing Greene arguing against the removal of Confederate monuments, saying that given the choice, she’d advocate to allow a statue of Hitler or Satan.
The video, which was first resurfaced by Punchbowl News reporter Jake Sherman, shows then-candidate Greene speaking before a Dalton, Georgia, city council meeting on June 15.
“We’re seeing situations where Christopher Columbus, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, all kinds of statues are being attacked, and it seems to be just an effort to take down history,” Greene says in the video. “And whether I see a statue that may be something that I would full disagree with, like Adolph Hitler — maybe a statue of Satan himself — I would not want to say take it down, but again, it’s so that I could tell my children and teach others about who these people are and what they did.” Continue reading.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) on Tuesday quickly deleted a tweet she promoted from one of her supporters that called Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) a “moron” and a “feckless c**t.”
As flagged by the Washington Post’s Aaron Blake, Greene promoted a tweet by right-wing Twitter account @ASimplePatriot on Tuesday that used obscene language to attack McCarthy over his criticism of Greene’s latest comparison of public health advocates to Nazis.
“Look you moron, nobody supported Israel in their recent conflict with Hamas more than MTG,” the Green supporter wrote. “Her analogy may not have been perfect but you seriously need to get a grip you feckless c**t. Pelosi is the villain here.” Continue reading.
WASHINGTON, DC – Today, Rep. Dean Phillips (MN-03) announced the introduction of the Vet Center Support Act, a bill that would identify barriers to constructing new Vet Centers and increasing staff capacity to assess how well veterans’ mental health needs are being met in underserved areas. Minnesota only has three Vet Centers statewide – one Center for every 100,000 veterans – one of the worst ratios in the country.
Vet Centers are community-based health providers that offer mental health services and readjustment counseling to veterans, active duty, National Guard members, Reservists, and their families. Yet, despite their proven track record of suicide prevention and excellent care, as well as the growing demand for their services, the state of Minnesota has not gained a new Vet Center in over a decade. After hearing from veterans, service organizations, state officials, and the Congressman’s own Veterans Advisory Council, Rep. Phillips wrote the Vet Center Support Act to address shortages in veterans’ mental health care across the country.
Continue reading “Ahead of Memorial Day, Rep. Phillips Introduces Legislation to Improve Veterans’ Access to Lifesaving Mental Health Care”
WASHINGTON, DC — With the Senate vote on the bipartisan commission to investigate delayed, Rep. Phillips issues the following statement:
“I value tradition. Like most Americans, I yearn for the days when Senators debated rather than divided and broke bread rather than our collective trust in government. But here we are, just months removed from an insurrection, merging from a pandemic, witnessing graphic displays of corruption, and at risk of irretrievable erosion of faith in elections – the very foundation of our democratic republic. I believe a bipartisan January 6 Commission and HR1, the For The People Act, are too important to forgo without debate, deliberation and a floor vote in the Senate. So it’s time to call on tradition and return the filibuster to its roots; the talking filibuster. Senators who wish to prevent a bill from a facing a simple majority vote would have to be so committed to obstruction that they’re willing to speak on the floor for as many hours or days or even months as it takes to force the others to concede. I believe in tradition, and tradition dictates Senators should be debating and voting, or have to work a whole lot harder to do nothing at all.”
