(Daily Hampshire Gazette)–“For the first time in his 27-year career in Congress, U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern had his remarks on the floor of the House of Representatives struck from the record on Wednesday, after he criticized former U.S. President Donald Trump for his numerous federal indictments.
Members of the House of Representatives had been debating several pieces of legislation regarding proposed bills on citizen voting in Washington, D.C. and on cryptocurrency regulation when McGovern criticized the bills as frivolous and denounced House Republicans for pandering to extremism rather than bipartisanship. He noted that several prominent GOP members had gone to New York to support Trump in an ongoing criminal trial.
McGovern was then interrupted by Rep. Erin Houchin, R-Indiana, who demanded that McGovern’s remarks be taken down from the record. That resulted in a lengthy pause in the House as Carl determined whether McGovern had violated any rules. Carl eventually ruled that McGovern was in fact in violation, and the Massachusetts congressman was barred from speaking for the rest of the day.”
“This is cancel culture, this is them trying to silence people like me,” the Worcester Democrat, who represents a majority of Hampshire and Franklin counties, said in an interview with the Gazette on Thursday. “They feel uncomfortable when we tell the truth.”
(CEO)—For all the mischaracterizations from Republicans for what constitutes Freedom of Speech. Including their false beliefs that making threatening or hate speech on social media platforms is protected under the First Amendment. The GOP constantly bitches and moans about their language being censored when private companies ban them. In their minds, this is somehow stripping their rights away. This is absurd because that’s not how Freedom of Speech in the First Amendment is defined.
However, what is certainly Constitutionally protected, is political speech being redacted by Congress. Which is exactly what took place during Jim McGovern’s allotted time at a recent hearing. The GOP can claim all they want that what McGovern said about Trump was “offensive”. The problem is McGovern merely stated the facts of Trump’s ongoing criminal situation. What’s truly “offensive” in this case is Trump’s conduct, not the language used to describe it.
The hypocrisy is limitless from those on the modern-day political right. But this kind of censorship is far more dangerous than the day-to-day Republican sanctimonious efforts taking place. As McGovern referred to in his argument, this is the type of punishment one gets when they offend a King in a Monarchy. Or better yet, Trump in his future dictatorship? Either way, it is not the actions of a thriving democracy. If basic facts can’t be openly shared about Trump on the floor of the Republican-led, House of Representatives. Then we already have the foundations of authoritarian rule occurring in the American government.
Republicans frequently tell outright lies about President Biden and have held impeachment inquiries built on Russian propaganda. While Democrats are now being, stricken from the record, for an honest assessment of the current Trump reality. The Right Wing loves to accuse Democrats of being the party affiliated with cancel culture. Yet, they are the ones banning books, women’s reproductive health care, speaking about past slavery or racism in the US, transgender bathroom visits, and publicly discussing LGTBQ+ topics. Along with a laundry list of other subjects that offend their fragile religious sensibilities.
Republicans lie, cheat, and steal then act victimized when held to account for their transgressions. They hold themselves to no morality or integrity standards whatsoever. But the GOP tries to enforce their Christian beliefs on all Americans regardless of their religious background. The double standard to which they live is staggering, to say the least. We can not allow this behavior from our elected officials to be tolerated anymore. It’s incumbent upon us to vote this MAGA movement out of American politics for good. Otherwise, they will chip away at our country’s democratic values long enough, so what’s left, won’t be recognizable anymore. The thing about guardrails is they can only stand up to so much abuse before they eventually give way.
Click the link below for the Daily Hampshire Gazette article quoted in this column
https://www.gazettenet.com/McGoverns-words-struck-from-record-for-criticizing-Trump-55273597
The-Anti-Social-Media Pro-DEMOCRACY WING 