Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ, photo at left) isn’t just a freak, he’s a dangerous freak. And he’s in Congress, thanks to Arizona Republican voters.
His Wikipedia biography (here) alludes to “his espousal of far-right conspiracy theories and ties to white nationalist and anti-government groups, such as the Groypers, Proud Boys and Oath Keepers.” He’s advocated political violence; for example, he said in an Oath Keepers meeting, “We are in a Civil War, we just haven’t started shooting yet’… So that is about to change.” He’s so bad that 6 of his 9 siblings endorse his opponents.
Well, he’s at it again — the political violence bit. He tweeted on “an altered animated video depicting the killing of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and an attack on President Joe Biden,” NBC News reported on Monday, November 8, 2021 (see story here; you can see the tweet here). Twitter said the tweet “violated the Twitter Rules rules about hateful conduct” but decided “it may be in the public’s interest for the Tweet to remain accessible.”
Is that a signal to House leaders to do something about it?
Rep. Ted Lieu, a Democrat from California, observed, “In any workplace in America, if a coworker made an anime video killing another coworker, that person would be fired.” Speaker Pelosi called for ethics and criminal investigations (story here). Democrats, however, don’t have enough votes to expel House members, which requires a two-thirds majority. And there isn’t enough civilized decency left in the GOP House caucus to make up the difference. Republicans, as usual, will circle the wagons around their “bad boy” and make excuses for his behavior.
Democrats can, however, strip members of committee assignments by a simple majority vote. Marjorie Taylor Greene, the provocative Republican congresswoman from Georgia, was sanctioned in that manner for similar conduct. This should now happen to Gosar, too. Given his lengthy rap sheet of offenses against decency and decorum, this should be the straw that breaks the camel’s back.
Not because he’s crazy, or an obnoxious troll, or a race-baiting and Jew-baiting jerk, although he’s all of those things. And certainly not because of his political views, positions, and votes in Congress; he’s entitled to those.
Because, especially given the dramatic rise in U.S. gun violence (story here), we don’t need anyone encouraging more violence.
Updatge (11/10/21): Democrats are pursuing a censure resolution against Gosar (story here).