Gosar censure sets precedent for Democrats
Though many House Republicans would disagree (207 of them to be exact), the censure of Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona for posting an animated video that depicted him killing Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-cortez with a sword was both good and necessary.
As the Associated Press reported, the censure vote also removed Gosar from his House committee assignments.
Both sides of the aisle were, of course, at odds.
Republican Minority Leader Kevin Mccarthy called the censure an “abuse of power” by Democrats.
Democrats disagreed.
“These actions demand a response. We cannot have members joking about murdering each other,” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. “This is both an endangerment of our elected officials and an insult to the institution.”
Ocasio-cortez herself said in an impassioned speech, “When we incite violence with depictions against our colleagues, that trickles down to violence in this country.”
Gosar was emotionless as he stood in the well of the House as Pelosi read the censure resolution.
Sitting in the front row: Rep. Maxine Waters.
As the nation awaited the verdict on former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin in the killing of George Floyd in April, the Democratic Congresswoman from California visited Brooklyn Center, Minn., to support protests against police brutality.
“We’ve got to stay on the street, and we’ve got to get more active,” she said.
“We’ve got to get more confrontational. We’ve got to make sure that they know that we mean business.” As Roll Call reported, Republicans said Waters’ remarks were a call for protesters to be violent. Mccarthy tweeted that if Pelosi did not take action against such “dangerous rhetoric,” he would bring action against her.
He brought up a resolution to censure Waters, and House Democrats voted to kill it.
Gosar’s censure is both good and necessary because one doesn’t joke about killing elected officials, especially if you are one yourself. Though Kathy Griffin is a private citizen, her posing with the mock head of Donald Trump was tasteless and beyond the pale, and her career paid the price — a cultural censure if you will.
Gosar should know better, and he is rightly rebuked. But Waters should have known better as well, as should Rep. Ilhan Omar when she issued anti-semitic comments implying lawmakers’ support for Israel was driven by campaign donations from pro-israel groups.
She wasn’t removed from committees nor censured. Instead, the House approved a resolution to condemn “anti-semitism, Islamophobia, racism and other forms of bigotry.” Omar wasn’t named.
Which is why Gosar’s censure is also necessary — as Mccarthy put it, a “new standard will continue to be applied in the future.”
Bad behavior for thee but not for me has got to stop — it turbo-charges polarization even more and makes any kind of bipartisanship almost impossible.
Depicting violence against an elected official, animated or not, is revolting and beneath the dignity of the office Gosar represents. Antisemitism, mob confrontation and other unsavory behaviors espoused by elected officials also have no place in the halls of Congress.
Gosar has been censured — so too should anyone from either party who crosses the line.