It was on this date in both 2018, as well as 2019, that “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” profiled the sitting U.S. House Representative from Alabama’s 3rd Congressional District, Mike Rogers, who was first elected to office back in 2002 after serving for 8 years in the Alabama state legislature. Back in 2017, Rogers kicked off the new session of Congress in delightfully insane fashion by hastily submitting a bill to remove the United States from the United Nations on January 3rd, the first day of that term, because he doesn’t understand how things like diplomacy work.
Back during the furor over the fraudulent videos created by the Center for Medical Progress, Rep. Rogers actually co-sponsored two different bills to attack the funding of Planned Parenthood, because apparently for him, irrational anti-choice legislation is like potato chips, he can’t just have one.
But really, Rogers has bigger, weirder aspirations for our country. When Donald Trump started to wistfully talk about a “Space Force”, a branch of the military that would defend America from threats from… space? Well, while Trump is clearly demented, but a lot of times, his ideas aren’t his own. They’re his rambling interpretations of crazy s*** other people whisper in his ear. And, that’s why it seems clear that Congressman Rogers’ repeated calls for a “Space Corps”, in effect a militarized version of NASA (to defend against… intergalactic armies that don’t exist) are the origin of Trump’s nutty suggestion.
Of course, Rep. Rogers also has had a habit over the past few years of putting his foot in his mouth, including in a 2014 speech where he made a homophobic joke, and how in the past few years, he’s opined about how NFL players protesting police violence by kneeling during the national anthem as “Un-American”. Never mind that there’s nothing more American than having the freedom of speech to make such a statement… Rogers has racist GOP voters in Alabama to appeal to.
Anyway, after sixteen years and change office, Rogers voted for such insane legislation as the Terry Schiavo Incapacitated Persons Protection Bill, the resolution to create a Constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage, and every attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act, while voting against all equal pay legislation and LGBTQ protections that crossed his path, to name but a few of his more extreme positions. Mike Rogers has the benefit of having a district that isn’t just in a red state as crimson as Alabama, the 3rd District there has a +16 Republican lean in the Cook Partisan Voting Index that helped him win a ninth term in office in 2018 with 63% of the vote.
He thus returned to Washington, D.C., to continue polishing the turd that is his voting record:
- January 27th, 2019: Mike Rogers voted against HJR 30, which was meant to express disapproval of Donald Trump not acting against Russian Federation for attacking our democracy. You see, he’s fine with our nation being sublet to Vladimir Putin.
- January 23rd, 2019: Rep. Rogers also voted against HR 648, because he was gleefully enjoying the longest government shutdown in history.
- February 28th, 2019: Mike Rogers votes against HR 1112, a bill which would have required universal background checks on all firearm purchases, and close the gun show loophole.
- March 7th, 2019: Rogers votes against HR 183, a resolution to condemn anti-Semitism as a hateful extension of intolerance.
- March 14th, 2019: Rep. Rogers votes against HJR 46, which sane members of Congress voted for to reject Donald Trump’s “national emergency” regarding the U.S. border and his attempts to reallocate funds for a border wall without Congressional approval.
- April 4th, 2019: Mike Rogers is one of 158 Republicans who choose to vote against the re-authorization of the Violence Against Women Act, likely because they feel the 2nd Amendment remaining absolute is more important than preventing people with a history of domestic abuse from owning a firearm (which statistics show, makes them more likely to use those firearms against women in their lives).
- May 17th, 2019: Rogers votes against The Equality Act, which would have prevented discrimination towards Americans based on their gender identity or sexual orientation.
- June 4th, 2019: Rep. Rogers votes against the Dreamers Act, because he’s too xenophobic and partisan to care about immigration reform.
- July 16th, 2019: Mike Rogers votes against a resolution to condemn Donald Trump for his racist statements that four people of color in Congress should “go back where they came from”.
- December 18th, 2019: Rep. Rogers ignores his Congressional duty to hold a president who has been proven to commit high crimes and misdemeanors accountable and votes against the impeachment of Donald Trump.
It’s becoming clear that Mike Rogers may not represent the people of Alabama’s 3rd Congressional District quite as much as he does Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, and white nationalists more and more with each passing vote, but we’re hoping his vocal criticism of all sides regarding the government’s response to the spread of COVID-19 is his political undoing, because as we’ve seen, the Trump administration can’t tolerate any criticism, no matter how warranted it might be.
One Year Ago, April 4th, 2019: Mike Rogers (AL)… 2019 Update
Two Years Ago, April 4th, 2018: Mike Rogers (AL)… Original Profile
Three Year Ago, April 4th, 2017: Virgil Peck (KS)… 2017 Update
Four Years Ago. April 4th, 2016: Virgil Peck (KS)… 2016 Update
Five Years Ago: April 4th, 2015: Virgil Peck (KS)… Original Profile