[Please participate in poll below to share how and if this premise could play out]
Isn’t it time that outgoing Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi extracts the appropriate pound of flesh from every House member who participated directly in the Jan. 6th attempted coup? They violated their oaths of office, voted against certifying the election using what each knew was a purely fabricated political excuse.
Some led tours of the Capitol. Some helped recruit or prepare fake electors. Some stood on the House floor and spread volatile lies they knew to be untrue with incitement as a goal. Even possible future Speaker McCarthy has blood on his hands in this.
These actions are all reason enough to be expelled from office. Let’s urge Speaker Pelosi to HOLD EXPULSION VOTES BEFORE THE END OF THE YEAR. And once expelled, they can never again be sworn in, because the 14th Amendment says they lose the right to serve in any public office again.
When the new Congress convenes on Jan. 3, those seats will remain empty. They can only be filled again once special elections in each state are held. Some may flip to Democrats as the revulsion of the GOP brand grows. But either way, there will be by default a Democratic Speaker until enough new Republicans are seated to establish a different plurality.
For each vote, ask Republicans to take the stand to defend their actions and bring evidence of why they shouldn’t be expelled. If they choose to stay silent, they are not fighting expulsion. If they do testify under oath, Contempt of Congress charges lie ahead if they cite The Big Lie, knowing that there was never any evidence supplied in any of the 60 cases the Trump legal team filed to block certification of election results in states. They can’t “double-down” as is customary these days among right-wing zealots backed into a corner because they will perjure themselves.
Of course, the Republican leadership and Trump will cry foul in the loudest possible way. But they will be in “boy who cried wolf” mode, in that they always do that. Expulsions will be based on clear evidence, not political posturing. This may be a dangerous precedent, but it does follow the guidelines that the Constitution put in place for a reason.
Now imagine if this process is started in December. Only enough expulsions have to be completed by the end of the year to keep the House under Democratic control come January. The new Speaker, whomever he or she is, can continue the process for months if needed until every #SeditionCaucus member is gone. Meanwhile, as the majority party, Democrats will still retain control of all House committees, and perhaps the January 6th Committee can reconvene using existing members to further its investigation into Trump’s parade of travesties. Not only that, but they may choose to expand their roll into investigating all House members soon to face expulsion themselves.
This process could see the end of the threat of #RepubloFascism pushing aside democracy through sinister and cynical means. If either Senators Joe Manchin or Kyrsten Sinema see the writing on the wall and ditch the filibuster, the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act could both be passed into law.
These laws would take away the chief weapons that Republicans use to tilt elections in their favor such as partisan gerrymandering and restrictions on mail-in and early voting that have racist roots. Also, being resubmitted in the new Congress, both of these laws could be rewritten to eliminate the newest iterations of GOP election meddling, such as yanking precincts to create huge lines for those precincts that remain in African American neighborhoods.
Also, all public office campaigns would be publicly not privately funded. Therefore the horrendous results of the Citizens United Supreme Court decision could be bypassed.
Of course without the filibuster, progressive legislation could flourish such as enshrining a woman’s rights to her own body and equal treatment of the LGBTQ community under the law, including of course marriage. In fact, every threat to our social safety nets, such as Social Security and Medicare, could be vanquished. In time monopoly capitalism itself could be addressed.
In short, with the filibuster gone we stand ready with all the tools necessary to expand the American dream to its full greatness. We can finally see the potential of the pursuit of happiness cited in the Constitution when taken beyond easing the lives of white land owners. With the addition of women, all people of color, and every other marginalized community, we can finally achieve America’s best incarnation.
This is all possible if Speaker Pelosi is effectively encouraged to take this bold yet justified step. Please share this post here and elsewhere. The time is now for this monumental shift in political power, just in time to save our planet from the greed that could destroy the ability to support life as we know it a generation or two from now.
Please note: this post also appears on Tribel under the handle I use there, Todd Telford. From here on out, all my posts here will start there, because I’d like to be one of the folks looking to make Tribel a different kind of social media option where journalism can flourish beyond the 240 character limit.