by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist
Louie Gohmert, a Republican from Texas who has long been acknowledged on social media as the "dumbest" member of Congress, is leaving his safe seat in the House this year to go home and run in a crowded Republican primary for Texas Attorney General - against an incumbent. That doesn't sound like a smart political move, but I'm not a Republican and I'm not from Texas, so what do I know?
Gohmert's departure, however, will create an opening for a new "dumbest member of Congress," and with the depth and breadth of the "dumb contingent" of the GOP caucus in Congress, the race to fill Gohmert's title of "dumbest member" may be quite a crowded affair!
When all of the politicking and shuffling about kicks into high gear, I fully expect my congressman, Jason Smith, to be a contender for the title. Not only is Smith quick to spout whatever inanity crosses his mind, he also likes to lace his remarks with just enough raw anger to draw extra attention to himself. Smith was one of the Republicans who voted last January 6th - 2021 - to not accept the results of the presidential election, a petty and mean-spirited little constitutional maneuver whose goal was to overturn a free and fair election, an election which Smith's preferred candidate lost by more than seven million votes.
And ever since Joe Biden was sworn in as President of the United States on January 20th, 2021, Jason Smith has been vociferous and unflagging in his criticism of Biden. Congressman Smith, who never holds town halls where he might be confronted with opinions other than his own, occasionally communicates to his constituency and the nation through segments on right-wing Fox News. He also sends out a weekly email update which always begins with an attack on the President.
Today Jason Smith's newsletter led with an attack on COVID-19 vaccination mandates. His anger and vitriol and blatant disregard for science and the health of the nation speak for themselves:
"As I've repeatedly stated, these vaccine mandates are the most blatantly unconstitutional, authoritarian actions I believe the federal government has ever taken against its citizens. Overturning these rules is absolutely essential to Americans' freedom and liberty, and while the Supreme Court held one of the most important hearings of my lifetime on Biden's mandates, I'm not putting all my eggs in the basket on the outcome of this case."
(It's sort of telling that he does not seem to have faith that the Supreme Court will back his radical position, a court that was stacked with a conservative majority by the political leader to whom he constantly scrapes, bows, and grovels.)
Jason, the next time you are back home racing about Missouri's 8th congressional district getting your picture taken with livestock and farm machinery, stop by and see your mom. And while you and mom are chatting, ask her about life in the 1950's and what it was like going to school and learning that it was "shot day." Everyone got in line, rolled up their sleeves, and got vaccinated against things like polio and small pox. There were no protests, no angry parents threatening doctors, nurses, and teachers. People got their shots - and polio and small pox were defeated. It was the patriotic thing to do.
Then ask mom about the President during that time. His name was Eisenhower and he was a Republican. People called Eisenhower "Ike." He had been a general in World War II and had led the allied forces in the invasion of Europe on D-Day, the assault that finally began bringing down the curtain on that awful war. Ike knew that the health of a nation was important, and he led a government that was not afraid to address health issues directly - and all of us school kids had to roll up our sleeves and get those shots. We were vaccinated for our own health and the health of our country.
But now we have Republicans in Congress literally screaming that vaccine mandates are authoritarian actions.
You, Congressman Smith, need to set you politics aside, at least on the issue of vaccinations, and help make America healthy again! You can be a true leader, or a Gohmert, but clearly not both.
2 comments:
The constitutionality of vaccine mandates was settled by the Supreme Court in Jacobson v. Massachusetts, 197 U.S. 11, (1905). Vaccine mandates fall within the police powers of the States and is reserved, as such, to the States under the Tenth Amendment of the Constitution.
Justice Harlan spoke for the Court, in pertinent part saying: "The authority of the State to enact this statute is to be
referred to what is commonly called the police power -- a power which the State did not surrender when becoming a member of the Union under the Constitution."
That opinion goes on to debunk the "but my liberty" arguments of the anti-vaxxers.
The so-called Biden Mandates, I predict, will be sustained or rejected by the Supreme Court on the basis of statutory interpretation. While the Congress doesn't have the power reserved to the States to protect the health and safety of the population, they do have the Commerce Clause. The result will rest upon the extent that the Supreme Court finds that Congress sufficiently granted the President authority to protect the health of employees in order to "regulate commerce among the several states."
Republicans at the state level have largely abdicated their authority to protect the health and safety of the people in their states. The Tenth Amendment's police powers is useless if those in charge refuse to act to protect health and safety.
If Jason Smith didn't learn how to do legal research while he was at Oklahoma City University Law School, then he should take a refresher course. Yelling those mandates are unconstitutional is a demagogic in his tool kit. Using the demagogic in a way to encourage disease and death is unconscionable. Perhaps the man has no soul?
I suspect many Republican legislators have given their souls to Trump for safekeeping.
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