The Grand Illusion
In a secret ballot, the majority of the U.S. House Republican Caucus voted not to remove Wyoming Representative Liz Cheney from her position as House Republican Conference Chair, in effect supporting her right to vote her conscience in supporting the House vote to again impeach Donald Trump. The vote was 145 House Democrats voting not to remove, 61 to remove. That secret ballot allowed Republicans to vote their conscience – or beliefs – without political backlash.
On the other hand, the Republican conference refused to sanction the QAnon spouting, hate-mongering Marjorie Taylor Greene, who had also earlier threatened Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Hillary Clinton, and Barrack Obama. To top matters off, House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy claimed he was unfamiliar with the QAnon extremists – except he seemed to forget that he denounced QAnon months ago.
Before joining Congress, Greene posted videos questioning whether the 9-11 terrorist attacks ever happened, stalking and taunting a teen survivor of the deadly Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida, as well as suggesting that space lasers owned by wealthy Jews were causing deadly wildfires in California. She claimed school shootings were staged by Democrats to promote gun control laws and that “the stage was being set” to hang former President Barack Obama and former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
Even Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell denounced Greene’s views as a “cancer” on the Republican Party and on the country.
When the Republicans refused to discipline Greene, the Democrats pushed through a bill to strip Greene of her committee assignments. One hundred ninety-nine Republicans voted against the bill, in effect publicly supporting the ultra-right-wing, hate-mongering Greene. Only eleven House Republicans wanted her to be sanctioned for her actions.
And what do all these votes illustrate? That the majority of Republican national office-holders are either scared to death of the extremists in their political or base or that they think they can’t get elected without pandering to those extremists… if not both.
And, by the way, Greene says that she’s raised almost $2 million from small donors in the past week or so.
I understand why there should be an open vote by Senators and Representatives in Congress when dealing with Legislation which directly affects the electorate.
I would think that Secret Voting of the members would be the democratic way for any organization to administer itself.
So what would be the House Legal or Caucus Roberts Rules reason for the use of secret ballot for Cheney and open ballot for Green?
Only 2 million? Trump got several hundred million on The Vote was Stolen float.
The Republican Conference can set its own rules for voting, but the vote of the full House had to be open.
Greene is a newly elected representative. $2 million is a huge amount for a new Representative in less than a week, especially from small donors.
“I thought …!” I apologize. Back to comprehension class.
I “thought” both Cheney and Green underwent a vote at the Republican House Caucus. Cheney suffered a vote; Green was applauded for her statement to the caucus.
I should have been clearer. The House Republican leader, Kevin McCarthy, announced that the Republican Conference would not sanction Greene, but there was no vote by the conference, which was another reason why the House Democrats forced a recorded vote.
Beyond that. If you take this type of position saying you’re going to lead. The argument you’ll only do the right thing if it’s anonymous is pretty damning.
Open voting in a society where one would wish and expect argument/discussion is one model. Try this in Putin’s Russia or Trump’s “America Made Great Again” and you would get something extra in your underpants. That is why workers unions went for secret ballots after “On the Waterfront”.