Republican leaders in the Senate and House went full fascist Tuesday, casting votes that prevent a bipartisan congressional committee from affirming its preparation for the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris.
The resolution, offered by House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer at a meeting of the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies, failed on a 3-3 party-line vote after Senate GOP leaders Mitch McConnell and Roy Blunt joined House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy in opposing the basic precept that The People pick the president, not the delusional ousted head of the losing party.
"The extent to which Republicans are refusing to accept the outcome of the election and recognize Joe Biden and Kamala Harris as our next President and Vice President is astounding," Hoyer said in a statement following the meeting. "Their continued deference to President Trump's temper tantrums threatens our democracy and undermines faith in our system of elections."
The joint committee, made up of three congressional members from each party, presides over the official inaugural ceremonies at the U.S. Capitol, and the normally perfunctory vote allows the panel to coordinate with the incoming president’s inaugural committee. The Democratic members of the panel—Sen. Amy Klobuchar, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and Hoyer—all voted in favor of the measure.
This is a preview of the exact posture congressional Republicans will almost surely adopt during the entirety of Biden's presidency. Given Trump's growing grip on the party at the state level, GOP lawmakers in Washington will spend the entire four years tending to their rabid base in hopes that they can lure Trump voters back to the polls in 2022 and 2024. In effect, congressional Republicans are proving in real time that even without Trump in the Oval Office, they are perfectly happy to burn down the pillars of U.S. democracy in service of staying in power. Republicans are no longer willing participants in this democratic experiment but rather abettors of a coup attempt. It’s only a matter of time before they scrap the formality of winning elections altogether.
