They Were Expendable
January 7, 2023
Early this morning, on the 15th vote at 12:30 a.m., Kevin McCarthy finally achieved his Pyrrhic victory and was elected Speaker of the House. As numerous commentators have pointed out, it was a hollow victory befitting the empty suit who “won” it. In the negotiations leading to his win, McCarthy gave the bomb throwers everything they asked for. McCarthy can be ousted on the motion of a single House Republican and he ceded control of the all-important Rules Committee, “which controls what legislation reaches the floor and in what form,” (Source: “Speaker Quest Reveals McCarthy’s Tenuous Grip on an Unruly Majority,” by Luke Broadwater, The New York Times, 1/7/23).
There has been something darkly comic about watching the serial humiliation of a feckless dimwit, as he lost the Speakership vote to a Biggie quoting brother from Brooklyn day after day. Yet, as we marked the second anniversary of the violent insurrection at the Capitol yesterday, this circus hit a bit differently. We realized that, while President Biden was busy awarding medals to an assortment of law enforcement officers, public officials and ordinary people who made valiant sacrifices to uphold our democracy yesterday, steps away, elected officials who, at best, are on record repeatedly denying the legitimacy of a valid election, or at worst, stand credibly accused of complicity with the coup conspirators, were hijacking the levers of power in the House of Representatives.
Lauren Boebert, who infamously tweeted, “Today is 1776,” on January 6, 2021, was “among a group of lawmakers who met with White House aides and Trump campaign officials in the weeks after the 2020 election to discuss whether…Mike Pence could delay certification of the election,” (Source: “Boebert was present for early stages of Jan. 6 discussions, ex-Trump aide testifies,” by Ernest Luning, Coloradopolitics.com, 4/27/22). Although Boebert has denied involvement in the violence of January 6th, there is no question that she has trafficked in hateful anti-LGBTQ rhetoric that has contributed to murderous violence against LGBTQ people in her home state.
Each of the 20 “Never Kevins,” who effectively control the House holds truly odious views about anyone who isn’t a Bible thumping, gun toting, straight white man. Boebert, Biggs, Gosar, Gaetz and their ilk, were elected by our fellow citizens because of those views. They were sent to Congress to use the levers of power to harm those they consider outside of their definition of Americans- LGBTQ people, Black, Latinx, Asian and Indigenous people, Jewish people, and women who believe in bodily autonomy. The sobering fact is that these people represent a “constituency.”
If we have learned nothing else in the last 246 years of our history, we have learned that constituencies that prop up white supremacy are rarely forcefully challenged. Instead their views are mainstreamed and used as an excuse not to enact policies that redress structural racism and advance equity for fear of angering this constituency and precipitating a backlash.
It is already happening. We need only look to Biden’s move on Thursday to broaden Title 42 to allow for the immediate expulsion of asylum seekers from Haiti, Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela for proof. This is an expansion of a racist Trump-era policy that blocks legitimate Black and Brown asylum seekers from entering the country under the guise of protecting public health. While the new rules expand the number of people from those countries eligible for entry through a “parole” program, applicants must have a fiscal sponsor and know that the program exists, ensuring that it will be out of reach for the most desperate asylum seekers. Under these new regulations, more asylum seekers will be expelled each month than were expelled in the entire previous year, (Source: “Biden immigration plan would restrict illegal border crossings,” by Cleve R. Wootson, Jr., Nick Miroff, Maria Sachetti and Kevin Seiff, The Washington Post, 1/5/23).
Senator Menendez and Jonathan Blazer of the ACLU blasted this blatantly racist policy, stating that it would “put more lives in grave danger,” (ibid). Yet the move was described in anodyne terms as “reflect[ing] a political move to the center,” deemed necessary ahead of Biden’s presumed re-election bid.
Make no mistake— our failure to hold those responsible for planning, financing and inciting January 6th accountable has landed us here, with the House under the thumb of the insurrectionist wing of the Republican Party and our Democratic President using Black and Brown migrants as sacrificial lambs to mollify their constituents. At a perilous time like this, we would do well to remember, if a politician tells us that in order to preserve democracy, a group of people must be expendable, democracy isn’t what they’re preserving.
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