Quick Hitter: Censure for Green

When Texas Representative Al Green stood up and confronted Trump at the pseudo SOTU on Tuesday, he knew full well that he was likely to be censured for it. In fact, he notified his followers exactly when it was scheduled to happen so they could tune in.

House Speaker Mike Johnson played right into his hands, hypocritically chastising Green for his lack of decorum. After all, his caucus is well known for their mature restraint and professionalism while tending to the country’s business. As expected, Johnson brough Green up for censure on Thursday, which again is exactly what Green wanted. A House Censure is basically a public reprimand. There are no consequences to it other than public shaming. It’s basically the House version of “that’ll go down in your permanent record”.

The only surprise for me was that 10 House Democrats joined all of the Republicans in voting to censure. I realize that there are various schools of thought amongst the Dems regarding how best to stand up to Trump’s authoritarian power play, that’s to be expected when a caucus is as heterogeneous as the current Dems are. I even understand that some were upset with Green or embarrassed by his actions, and how they feel that lowering themselves to the level of the MAGA crowd is not the appropriate strategy. What I don’t understand or condone is playing the MAGA game along with them. There was no need for Ami Bera of California, Ed Case of Hawaii, Jim Costa of California, Laura Gillen of New York, Jim Himes of Connecticut, Chrissy Houlahan of Pennsylvania, Marcy Kaptur of Ohio, Jared Moskowitz of Florida, Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington and Tom Suozzi of New York to play this stupid game.

One of the ten, Jim Himes of Connecticut, is my Representative. As soon as I saw that he had voted to censure, I sent him the following:

Good evening Representative Himes,

I am writing to express my disappointment in your vote to censure Representative Al Lee for his expression of his own First Amendment rights during Trump's speech. While I understand that you may not agree with his methods, I feel that official censure is a step too far.

The Republicans have already made a mockery of the impeachment process, and that actually can have consequences. This censure, especially considering the boorish behavior that your colleagues such as Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert have displayed, without censure, per my recollection, is ridiculously hypocritical. The head of the current MAGA party has no qualms with acting like a petulant child on the world stage, as evidenced by his embarrassing ambush of Ukrainian President Zelenskyy last Friday. Lending the process some credibility by voting with them is a disappointment.

I have voted for you several times. I feel that you are a fine representative, I just wanted you to know that this choice of yours is gravely disappointing.

Thank you.

If any of the 10 are your reps, I highly recommend letting them know how you feel about their vote. Hell, if you have a MAGA rep, send them a letter too. Someone in their office should be able to read it to them.

Take Care and Stay Strong