On Dec. 16, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), a talented member of the House Democratic leadership and the favorite to be the next speaker, gave a rousing floor speech. “I rise today to condemn the treacherous and seditious behavior of some in this nation who continue to poison the integrity of our democracy,” he said. “It’s time to stop providing aid and comfort to an insurrection.”
Appropriate sentiments, but what should those who want to protect American democracy do about it? Right now, it looks like House Democrats might be wimping out.
The list of those who sought to overturn the will of the people includes 17 state attorneys general and 126 Republican members of Congress, more than half of the GOP caucus. Without offering any evidence of fraud, these insurrectionists signed on to a preposterous lawsuit brought by the Texas attorney general that sought to invalidate the election results in Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin and hand the election to President Trump.
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This crew of phony patriots argued that the Constitution allows state legislatures to choose electors and that those legislatures were injuring other states by refusing to hijack democracy and invalidate their own certified elections. “Madness,” Mitt Romney called it.
The U.S. Supreme Court curtly declined to review the case on the grounds that Texas lacked the standing to bring it, a legal point that did nothing to dampen the fervor of the enemies of democracy now spread across the once Grand Old Party.
These Banana Republicans apparently viewed the constitutional claim in the Texas case as a cynical way to avoid actively embracing looney tunes conspiracy theories while still protecting themselves from 2022 primary challenges from Trumpists. But 17 of those House members had to tie themselves into ridiculous pretzels to do so.
Let’s name them: Rep. Rick W. Allen (R-GA), Rep. Buddy Carter (R-GA), Rep. Doug Collins (R-GA), Rep. A. Drew Ferguson, IV (R-GA), Rep. Jody Hice (R-GA), Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-GA), Rep. Jack Bergman (R-MI), Rep. Bill Huizenga (R-MI), Rep. John Moolenaar (R-MI), Rep. Tim Walberg (R-MI),, Rep. John Joyce (R-PA), Rep. Fred Keller (R-PA), Rep. Mike Kelly (R-PA), Rep. Dan Meuser (R-PA), Rep. Guy Reschenthaler (R-PA), Rep. Glenn “GT” Thompson (R-PA), and Rep. Tom Tiffany (R-WI).
These are the “Seditious Seventeen” from Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. Why have I singled them out? Because they essentially argued in court to invalidate not just Joe Biden’s election but their own.
Or maybe they were merely asking the Supreme Court to order that the top portion of millions of mail-in ballots be clipped off and discarded while the down-ballot votes were counted. This would have conveniently re-elected Trump and them at the same time. All they needed were tens of thousands of scissors for election workers across four states.
“The time for magical thinking and conspiracy theories is over,” Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) said this week. “They can’t have it both ways. Either the election is valid as the courts established [in more than 50 cases] or not. Which is it?”
Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-NJ) has asked House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to use her influence to deprive members who signed the brief aimed at “tear[ing] the United States government apart” from being seated in the 117th Congress. Pascrell cites Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which states that anyone who “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” cannot serve in federal office.
I’m told this will never happen, and even milder rebukes are controversial among Democrats who have been discussing what to do. Many think the country is exhausted and their constituents want to move on.
This is an understandable but dangerous reaction. If Democrats do nothing except give a few speeches on the floor, what will happen after the next election?
I’ll tell you. Many Republicans across the country who lose in 2022 will refuse to concede and will head to court, judge-shopping like Trump for someone to support their flimsy claims. Yes, the judiciary acquitted itself well this year, with even the three Trump appointees to the high court ruling against his pathetic cases. But you can bet that sore losers will try their luck again next time. Beset by endless litigation, the American democratic system will break.
The only way to avoid this calamity is to put a price on assaulting democracy. That starts with Democrats closing “the toughness gap” between the parties. Why are the anti-Trump political consultants who run the Lincoln Project— former Republicans all—the only ones willing to bombard Banana Republicans with negative ads? Yes, most are in safe districts. But if even a couple of them lose in 2022 because of their attacks on democracy, it would deter future assaults.
At the state level, defenders of democracy must fight like hell against efforts to severely restrict mail-in voting, among other voter suppression measures the GOP has already announced it will pursue. But that’s not enough. Lawyers in the 17 states with anti-democratic attorneys general need to petition for their disbarment. If a lawyer can be disbarred for a substance abuse problem, why can’t he or she be disbarred or otherwise sanctioned for joining an effort to overturn a national election without presenting any evidence of fraud?
But the most important place to push back is in what was once called “the People’s House.” Democrats there must do something beyond filing a report that will gather dust or allowing one-minute floor speeches that no one will notice, much less remember.
One option is to offer the 17 members a choice: repent or face censure. “I’d love for us to get beyond the polarization of this election and this is the way to do it,” Raskin said. “These members should correct the historical record and stand by the elections in their states.”
Of course the insurrectionists are too hostile to the essence of American democracy to do so, which means that when Congress reconvenes on Jan. 3, all 126 members should be censured by the outgoing House. The case for censure is like the case for impeaching Trump: Sometimes it’s necessary to lay down a marker for history—to say that what Hakim Jeffries calls “treacherous and seditious behavior” will not go unanswered. Not now, not ever.
