Republicans across the country are leading a movement to remove and censor Democratic lawmakers simply for speaking out against the GOP, a move that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York) says is the next natural step after the GOP-backed coup attempt. on January 6, 2021.
On Wednesday, Ocasio-Cortez spoke at a gathering with Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-Florida) and Tennessee State Rep. Justin Jones (D), whom Republicans voted to kick out of the legislature earlier this month. At the rally, she said the Jan. 6 attack was just one of the first steps toward the GOP’s goal of total political control; rather than a big, violent coup, the GOP is implementing a slow takeover across the country.
For [Republicans], January 6 was just a dress rehearsal. Because, legally, let’s not lose the plot: they were trying to prevent a duly elected official, in this case the President of the United States, from taking office, she said.
Legislatures across the country have addressed this issue and [said], you know what? Let’s try to get Rep Jones out of office. Let’s try to get Representative Zooey Zephyr of Montana to resign. Let’s try to chase people away because we can’t beat them, Ocasio-Cortez continued. This is their motivation.
Ocasio-Cortez’s speech came as Republicans in Montana voted for ban Zephyr, a Democrat and the first openly trans woman to be elected to the state legislature, from the House Chamber for the remainder of the legislative session. The vote came after she championed trans rights during a debate on a bill that would ban gender-affirming care for minors, saying Republicans supporting the bill would have blood on their hands for voting to restrict access to life-saving care.
Republicans focused on the blood declaration supposedly justifying its removal, though it’s clear their real motives were to silence a trans, Democratic woman in the chamber; say that his opponents would have blood on the hands is a common phrase in politics, but only Zephyr, it seems, was punished for using it.
Zephyr’s impeachment is just one of recent moves by Republican lawmakers to silence fellow Democrats in blatant displays of fascism. Just three weeks ago, Republicans voted to expel Jones and fellow Tennessee Rep. Justin Pearson (D) because the two took part in a peaceful protest at the State House calling for gun safety reform on fire after a gruesome shootout at a Nashville school killed three 9-year-olds and three adults. The two were later reinstated after public outcry over their expulsion.
Those votes came after the Republican-dominated U.S. House voted in February to remove Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minnesota), the first black Muslim woman in Congress, from her committee assignments for what she called pure Islamophobia.
Meanwhile, Republicans and far-right officials are rapidly eroding democracy across the country, undermining people’s rights, working to destroy the right to vote in Democratic-leaning regions in particular and fueling widespread corruption within the judiciary. The Republicans’ fascist takeover seems to be happening in plain sight, while mainstream Democrats seem content to let it happen although Ocasio-Cortez struck an optimistic note, saying progressive movements will be able to stop them.
I can’t stress enough that they won’t win. It is the last breath of a movement that is dying. That’s what fascism does when it’s on its heels, she says. It’s always darkest before dawn. We win this thing.
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