On Wednesday, Texas Congressman Chip Roy seemingly turned his back on the Republican effort to put the Democrats in their place and voted against Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene's censure of Michigan Democrat Rashida Tlaib.
Tlaib deserves to be censured as her behavior has been nothing short of disgusting during the weeks after the terrorist organization in Gaza, Hamas, crossed the border into Israel and committed atrocities upon the people there that will live in infamy for decades to come. So horrible were the actions that Israel has begun an all-out war with the goal of completely destroying Hamas root and stem...and it's something that Tlaib isn't too happy about.
As fellow editor Susie Moore commented in her article, Roy's reasoning for shooting down MTG's censure of Tlaib makes complete sense when you understand why:
"Rep. Rashida Tlaib has repeatedly made outrageous remarks toward Israel and the Jewish people. Her conduct is unbecoming of a member of Congress and certainly worthy of condemnation - if not censure.
"However, tonight’s feckless resolution to censure Tlaib was deeply flawed and made legally and factually unverified claims, including the claim of leading an 'insurrection'.
"I voted to table the resolution. In January 2021, the legal term insurrection was stretched and abused by many following the events at the Capitol. We should not continue to perpetuate claims of 'insurrection' at the Capitol and we should not abuse the term now." -Rep. Roy
Roy isn't wrong. For starters, we don't need to give weight to the Democrat's claims that what Republicans did was an "insurrection" by saying Tlaib attempted one too. While I get what MTG was trying to do and think that the tactic works really well on social media, we don't need to legitimize the Democrats' claims about January 6 by claiming something similar that the Democrats did was, in fact, an insurrection. It's great for a short-term victory but maybe not the long-term, and it'll be the people who suffer the most from legitimizing that definition of "insurrection."
Moreover, this censure attempt reeks of revenge on MTG's part, who herself was the victim of a Democrat censure campaign based on ridiculous reasons. Greene's mistake, in my opinion, was trying to take an eye for an eye here and be as ridiculous as the Democrats were with her censure attempt. Again, I understand she's trying to make the Democrats taste their own medicine, but legitimizing this level of ridiculous behavior that we laugh at Democrats for isn't going to be a boon for Republicans in the long term.
Let the Democrats be childish. Let them look childish. We can strike at them effectively without resorting to the same tactics.
Not only that, it would have been far more effective if Greene hadn't gone to that unnecessary degree of attack. She approached the censure of Tlaib with a shotgun, not a sniper rifle. She shot sloppily and missed when she should have been more direct, patient, and accurate.
It would have been more effective if Greene had, for instance, kept the reasoning tight and clever. She should have censured Tlaib for her association with and defense of an organization that the SPLC and ADL — leftist groups that the Democrats have deferred to repeatedly to define what is and isn't evil — have labeled as antisemitic.
This would have put Democrats in a very dicey position that would have made them too afraid to vote no, or, at the very least, if they defied the censure attempt, their names could have further been used to prove the Democrats don't actually care about the Jewish community and support antisemitic groups.
Not that you can't do that now, but it would have been far more effective if Greene had kept the main thing the main thing, and possibly caused some disruption between Democrats themselves. By not keeping the censure attempts focused and better thought out, Tlaib's censure looks more like a joke than a serious thing.
If I was Roy, I probably would have taken the same action, though I would have cringed while I did it.
Because, all said, I truly believe that MTG's fire isn't a bad thing. In fact, I think we need more of it. Greene's desire to go after the Democrats is something Republicans desperately need, and it's the Republicans' lack of offensiveness that has, partly, caused the Democrats to become so cocky and corrupt.
MTG is, in my opinion, someone who is absolutely necessary in today's political landscape. She's bloodthirsty and ready for the fray, and if we had more people with her level of gumption and willingness to fight, then we'd be better off as a country.
But Greene is playing checkers, not chess. She needs to think two to three moves ahead, not just move pieces on the board at whim. If she learns to do that, then she'd be one of the most dangerous politicians on The Hill to the Democrats, who would feel the need to analyze and second-guess everything they do for fear of what MTG would return fire with.
I like that MTG wants to be dangerous to Democrats; she just has to learn how to be better about it.
