On a congressional vote to expel Marjorie Taylor Greene

 Remember how the inauguration of Joe Biden as President was supposed to usher in a new era of normalcy in American politics?   Yeah... that did not happen.  Donald Trump is out of office, stripped of his precious, precious Twitter account, and in case you were thinking that it couldn't possibly get any worse... have you been paying attention to the trajectory of American politics and the Republican Party in particular?

Hence, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA).  Because of the media and the left's fixations, there is probably insufficient attention right now to her calls for the execution of Democratic leaders and her attachment to QAnon because they have found a shiny thing that is ultimately not nearly as important to the future of democracy, but I'm not allowed to talk about these things.  (Hi, Neil!)

Anyway, Rep. Jimmy Gomez (D-CA) is introducing a motion to expel Greene from Congress.  It'll fail, but a few comments.

First, strategically, this is a great move.  It would force Republicans to go on record tying them to the craziest psycho in their ranks.  Equate every Member who votes to keep her with her, and accuse every such Republican of being a psycho terrorist, just like her.  This is how you use what David Mayhew would call "position-taking" votes.  Make them own that walking proof of every aspersion I have ever cast on the GOP.

"But..." and as they say, "everything before the 'but' is irrelevant."

1)  Or perhaps 2, depending on the counting of thy number.  Politically speaking, a party that is too inept to weaponize a gift like Marjorie Taylor Greene does not deserve to win.  And the Democrats really are that inept.  Too many would rather play toxic games of identity politics, apply purity tests to each other, and look for the most politically suicidal platforms around which they can possibly rally, like "Defund the Police."  Hand them an electoral gift like Marjorie Taylor Greene, and a lot of 'em would rather yell at her that she needs to "check her privilege."  Is that still a slogan, or am I a few years behind?  It's so hard to keep up.

2)  Did Greene actually violate any ethics rules or commit any offenses?  Um... no.  Is she unfit for office?  Fuck yes.  She belongs in a nuthouse, scrawling her manifesto on the walls in crayon.  But she didn't break the rules.  The problem is that the voters in her district failed their small-d democratic competency test when they marked their ballots for "Greene."  Hence...

3)  The problem here is... democracy.  The problem here is that those of us who aren't QAnon-spouting meth-heads, or those with similarly impaired cognitive functioning, don't want to live in a country governed by people who belong in mental institutions, and we frankly have a problem with the voting choices of our fellow citizens who are too stupid, crazy and/or evil to notice that someone like Marjorie Taylor Greene does not belong walking around, much less in the halls of Congress.

And there is a deep irony here.  A few days ago, I posted something about fallacies interpreting the January 6 riots.  This is unfortunately more prominent than it should be, but some on the identity politics left have taken the following interpretation:  the insurrection was all about "white supremacy" and disenfranchising minority voters who voted for Biden.

No.  The insurrectionists believed that Donald Trump won, and that a grand conspiracy had stolen the election.  A conspiracy that involved things like Dominion voting machines flipping votes.  They invoked 1776 because they believed that democracy itself had been stolen from them and that they were fighting to restore it.  They were absolutely convinced that they had won, and that they were on the side of democracy.  They believed this, of course, because they were stupid enough to believe Trump's lies, idiots that they are, but they believed it.  To claim that they knew they lost...

Would be as idiotic as anything Marjorie Taylor Greene has ever said.  Yet the "white supremacy" interpretation of January 6 falls apart unless you presuppose that they knew they lost.

And it ain't hard to find lefties spouting the "white supremacy" interpretation of January 6 as opposed to the "they thought the election was stolen" interpretation.  Which... is the one with all of the facts behind it.

But you know, if you are on the side of expelling Marjorie Taylor Greene from Congress, you really are on the side of disenfranchising her voters.  Because you don't like those voters' choices.  Those voters are overwhelmingly white, which flips the dynamic, but if you actually do want her expelled from Congress because you reject the choice of her voters, then you are guilty of what the insurrections are supposedly guilty of, in the misinterpretation of so many lefties-- actively seeking disenfranchisement.

Are you right to do so?  Well, like I said, she's unfit for office, but she hasn't violated ethics rules, so you need to check yourself.  I'm calling it a good strategic move to put people on the record, but let's have some logical and factual consistency.

What do you really want to do here?  Think, and think about the concept of democracy.