Voters can elect anyone they like to Congress and in northeast Texas (see map here) they sure do.
Those voters have earned themselves the distinction of electing the stupidest member of Congress.
Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) has had that label for years (see, e.g., story here), and deserves it (see his profile here). Thus, it came as no surprise when he presented a flag flown over the U.S. Capitol to a January 6 rioter who went to prison for attacking the Capitol (photo at left and story here).
Gohmert asked Trump for a pardon because he was afraid he might be in trouble, too. He needn’t have worried. All he did was advocate overthrowing our government and praise people who tried to, which in this country is free speech. You have to do something to get in trouble, which exceeds Gohmert’s capabilities; he’s only a gasbag of hot air.
It wasn’t beyond Simone Gold’s capacities. She pushed past police into the Capitol rotunda, where she gave a rabble-rousing speech. For that, she was sentenced to 60 days in prison (details here), but served only 46 days (see story here).
That didn’t make Gold a patriot, some kind of hero, or a “political prisoner” as Gohmert claimed. It made her a convicted criminal. There are flags, and there are souvenirs. This isn’t the flag that was raised on Iwo Jima. It’s a souvenir flag, and that’s all it is. It doesn’t mean a damn thing.