The Worst Of Times
House Republicans defend the indefensible ... and will pay no political price for doing so
I’m Michael A. Cohen, and this is Truth and Consequences: A no-holds-barred look at the absurdities, hypocrisies, and surreality of American politics. If you received this email - or you are a free subscriber - and you’d like to subscribe: you can sign up here.
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For tomorrow’s weekly Zoom Chat, I’ll be joined by my good friend Helaine Olen, who is an opinion columnist for the Washington Post. We’ll be discussing her latest piece on why Democrats need to start taking inflation seriously, among other topics. Tomorrow’s call will be starting at 12:45 PM, and Helaine will join me at 1:00 PM as we dive into the week that was in American politics. The link for the chat is here.
Gosar Go Bad
Yesterday afternoon I made a bad decision. I watched the House debate a censure motion regarding Rep. Paul Gosar’s tweeting of an anime video in which he murders Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez.
One might think that this would be a relatively cut-and-dry situation in any institution other than the US House of Representatives. People shouldn’t post videos in which they murder one of their work colleagues. I’m not going to explain why it’s wrong to do that because, honestly, it would be obvious to most normal people.
Unfortunately, the House GOP caucus is not composed of normal people. It’s bad enough that only two Republicans voted for the censure motion, which stripped Gosar of his committee assignments — Rep. Liz Cheney and Rep. Adam Kinzinger. What made yesterday’s spectacle so much worse was watching one Republican member after another get up to defend Gosar.
In fairness, that’s not entirely accurate: few Republicans defended what Gosar did. Instead, they engaged in the kind of debates that will be familiar to those with young children. They made whataboutist arguments. They went after familiar GOP punching bags like Rep. Maxine Waters, Rep. Ilhan Omar, and Rep. Eric Swalwell for allegedly committing similarly bad acts and not being punished for them (as an FYI, none of these members threatened to murder a fellow member of Congress). They talked about the situation at the border and undocumented immigrants. They attacked President Biden and the Democrat’s alleged affinity for socialism and Marxism. Rep. Andy Biggs defended the art of anime video. Gosar took a similar approach by noting that “anime .. speaks to young voters who are too often overlooked” before comparing himself to Alexander Hamilton.
Every Republican also repeatedly called the Democratic Party the "Democrat" Party to avoid associating their political rivals with democratic values. It’s behavior that is both unbelievably childish and stupid and yet has become wholly normalized in our politics.
Some Republicans even made the novel argument that Democrats censuring Gosar will lead to similar behavior if Republicans take control of the institution next year. According to Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska, “I just think it's a mistake to take people off committees because this is a precedent that the Democrats are gonna have to live by when they're the minority. Retribution is not good. I think it's going to happen.”
If only Republicans had agency, but alas …
Republicans did everything in the House debate but wrestle with the implications of a sitting member of Congress distributing a video where he murders a woman with whom they serve.
As Ocasio-Cortez said in a powerful and passionate speech, “What is so hard about saying that this is wrong?”
Keep Digging
I’m long past the point where anything the modern GOP does surprises me. Right on cue, I saw this afternoon that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is singing legislation banning COVID-19 vaccine mandates in a town called Brandon, Florida ..,. because “Let’s Go Brandon” (which actually means “Fuck Joe Biden”) has become the favored catchphrase of rank-and-file Republicans. As I noted on Twitter, the modern GOP is a party of 12-year-old boys who read the Cliffs Notes for the Fountainhead.
But the Gosar debate is a new and terrifying low. Republicans didn’t want to censure their colleague because to do so would mean acknowledging the actual humanity of their Democratic colleagues — and, in particular, Ocasio-Cortez. Also, it would mean handing Democrats a “win.” In a contest of defending the indefensible or siding with Democrats, it's not a close call for the overwhelming majority of Republicans.
Indeed, after the vote, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said that Gosar and his fellow terrible human, Marjorie Taylor-Greene, would get back their committee assignments in the next Congress (Greene was stripped of her committee assignments in February). In fact, said McCarthy, they might even get “better assignments.” So in the modern Republican Party, the price for threatening a colleague with murder is a promotion.
Perhaps the worst part about all of this is that it will have no political impact at all. Gosar won close to 70 percent of the vote in his House District last November and he’ll likely do just as well next year. Few voters will be moved by the fact that their members of Congress refused to condemn Gosar’s behavior. If anything, the only political impact from the censure vote would have come if more House Republicans had voted for it — from aggrieved and angry Republican voters.
I generally try to look on the positive side, but honestly, it’s getting more challenging. If Republicans can’t even uphold the most basic elements of common decency and professional collegiality, what hope is there for a more normal politics? The censure of Gosar is yet another reminder that we’re not even close to the political bottom.
Asymmetrical Tribalism
For MSNBC, I finally wrote up my longer thoughts on an issue I raised last week — asymmetrical tribalism.
While 221 Democrats voted to hold Gosar responsible for his actions, only two Republicans did; one voted present, and three didn’t vote. The 207 other Republican votes were opposed to censure.
This isn’t the first time Gosar has done something inflammatory and reckless. He has repeatedly denounced immigrants, appeared alongside white supremacists, suggested that the neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, had been planned by "an Obama sympathizer," pushed QAnon conspiracy theories and even claimed at a House hearing that his background as a dentist made him uniquely qualified to read body language. In 2018, his own family members ran an ad urging voters in his district not to vote for him. It hardly mattered. He still got 68 percent of the vote. In 2020, he slightly increased his vote total. In 2022, it would be a miracle if he weren’t elected again.
Gosar’s continued electoral success raises a difficult question: Is there anything a Republican politician can do to alienate Republican voters?
The answer, seemingly, is no. Devotion and loyalty to the Republican tribe trump all else.
There’s another reason that House Republicans wouldn’t censure Paul Gosar: they will pay no political price from their supporters for doing so. Even if there are rank-and-file Republicans who believe that what Gosar did is wrong, the binds of loyalty to the party will likely remain intact.
One additional point that I make in the piece is that this puts Democrats in a nearly impossible political position. There is virtually no way to win over Republican voters with transactional or issue-based appeals because, ultimately, tribalistic allegiance to the GOP is too strong.
What’s Going On?
On a more positive note, read this obituary of Justus Rosenberg, who died this week at 100 and lived a truly remarkable life.
Read Ben Jacobs on Paul Gosar.
The threats against public officials are getting even worse.
I’m proud to be an American, and I think there are few greater privileges than to be born in this country. But then I see videos like this and I ask myself, "how great can America be if this walking tub of fried chicken batter is a US Senator?”
Happy Birthday, Papi!
It’s gonna get a lot worse before it gets better. A LOT WORSE.