It’s the best. Over there at CNN’s web site, journalist and author Jill Filipovic’s seriously projectionist rant accusing House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy and his fellow Republicans of seeking to “undermine” American democracy when it is “at its most fragile in generations.”
Uh-huh.
The specific cause of Filipo’s wrath is that in the event the GOP takes back the House in November, McCarthy has promised to treat House Democrats exactly as they have treated the GOP minority under Nancy Pelosi’s dictatorial rule. Filipo’s headline:
Kevin McCarthy’s warning signal is Kevin McCarthy’s comments
What is McCarthy really threatening to do about it?
Following Democrats’ precedent, which entirely broke longstanding House tradition, McCarthy has said a GOP majority could remove Democrats Eric Swalwell, Adam Schiff and Ilhan Omar from their committee assignments. For the majority party to remove minority party members from their committee assignments because of something they said had never been done before – until Pelosi’s reign, when Democrats decided they would remove Republicans Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Paul Gosar of Arizona from their committee assignments because they didn’t like what they said or did.
Remember that the votes for Greene and Gosar in Congress are not made by the members of Congress, but rather the voters from Arizona or Georgia. Each party determines which committees its members will be seated on once they are seated. Recall that each party decides which committees their members will be seated on. The opposite party is not allowed to influence the outcome.
Pelosi’s era saw Democrats decide to ignore House tradition, and so they removed Greene and Gosar from their respective committees. Pelosi also blocked McCarthy’s appointments of Ohio’s Jim Jordan and Indiana’s Jim Banks to the January 6 Committee, his absolute prerogative as Republican Leader. Pelosi took it upon herself to appoint the Republican members, appointing two notorious Trump-haters, Wyoming’s Liz Cheney and Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger. This instantly rendered the committee an inept sham, with a predetermined outcome rather than a serious investigation.
You don’t need to be a genius to see that breaking tradition is allowing the other party to follow suit.
It doesn’t matter what Greene and Gosar did or said. They are just like every Member of the House, they are their boss. If the voters don’t like them, they can vote them out. This is democracy.
Filipo then focuses on the 147 House Republicans that voted against certifying the 2020 electoral vote. It is nothing new. Various House Democrats did exactly the same when the House was charged with certifying the Electoral College results of Trump’s 2016 election win and the two George W. Bush wins in 2004 and 2000. Filipo doesn’t even mention that. This means that if some House Republicans vote to disqualify a presidential election certification, it is an act of anti-democracy. But if some House Democrats do the same, well, that’s democracy in action.
She then goes after Madison Cawthorn, a North Carolina congressman who had the nerve to use his free speech rights to speak at the pro-Trump rally at the White House Ellipse in January 6. Cawthorn’s sin? Giving his opinion on the 2020 election, and, in the days before the rally, tweeting that “its time to fight.”
Seriously? As a onetime press secretary to a congressman and senator, I can say with assurance that vowing to “fight” is laughably common Capitol Hill lingo that is 100% bipartisan. Here are some examples from prominent Democrats
> Nancy Pelosi “The Trump administration radically expanded its war on health care this week … asking the court to strike down every last provision of the Affordable Care Act,” said Pelosi in a press conference Thursday. “That will be our fight. We will fight thatIn the Congress That will be our fightThe court will hear the following: we’ll fight it in the court of public opinion.”
>Chuck Schumer Headline at HuffPo: “Chuck Schumer Vows To Fight Trump Immigration Order”. Schumer says: “This fight’s in my bones.”
> Here’s Senate Democrat Whip Dick DurbinHeading one of his own press releases in this manner: “Durbin Vows To Fight House Republican Prohibition On CPSC Database ‘Putting Children And Consumers At Risk’”
>Joe BidenCBS headlines:President Biden Vows To Fight Against GOP Voting Limits, Continues Push For Voting Rights Law”. Biden is quoted thusly: “We’re not giving up,” Biden said about the bill, S.1. “I’m going to fight like heck with every tool at my disposal for its passage.”
You could keep going – the Congressmen pledging to support or oppose this or that. This is one of the most used phrases in politics. Cawthorn is the only one who can say it. CNN and Filipo are dark and dangerous. It is obvious that a politician pledging his support for or against X, in fact, it’s the language of democracy working.
Filipo goes on to conclude that “Republicans could clean house and declare that no one who attempts to undermine a free and fair election — let alone the American democratic system itself — should serve in Congress with an R next to their name. But instead, the party’s leaders are taking vengeful aim at Democrats with threats of stripping them from committees.”
Hello? With zero self-awareness, Filipo is saying that the objections by House Democrats to the certification of those three presidential elections in 2016, 2004 and 2000 means they were about “attempts to undermine a free and fair election.” Really? No.
Victor Davis Hanson from the Daily Caller has compiled a list of anti-democracy haters. He asks this question in his headline:
Who are the real insurrectionists
He asks for:
– “Who is trying to federalize election laws in national elections contrary to the spirit of the Constitution?”
– “Who wishes to repeal or circumvent the Electoral College?”
– “Who wishes to destroy the more than 180-year-old Senate filibuster, the over 150-year-old nine-justice Supreme Court and the more than 60-year-old 50-state union?”
– “Who is attacking the founding constitutional idea of two senators per state?”
According to the Constitution, the President’s impeachment trials must be presided over by the Supreme Court Chief Justice. Hanson correctly asks: “Who slammed through the impeachment of former president Donald Trump without a presiding chief justice?”
The list is endless. However, the evidence is strong. It was the anti-democracy Left at work. And it puts the lie to Filipo’s closing, in which she says:
This is not an issue between partisans. It is fundamentally about the question of America’s future. The behavior of many Republicans and some of their leaders suggests that it is not a “free democratic nation.”
More than in The New York PostAuthor and USA TodayJames Bovard, contributor to this column is proud of it.
‘Pro-democracy’ and polarizing media are the real threat to liberty
Bovard wrote:
It is dangerous for the truth to encourage journalists to act as heroes while they submit to The Powers That Be. “Pro-democracy” press is a threat to liberty because it will ignore or downplay abuses committed by purportedly pro-democracy rulers. Rather than rigorously scrutinizing Biden’s proposals, the media presume his pursuit of vast power is simply proof of his benevolence.
Bingo.
Hello? The harsh fact here is that the hilariously mis-named “pro-democracy” liberal media outlets are, in fact, exactly the opposite. As CNN’s publishing of Filipo’s call for decidedly anti-democratic policies illustrates vividly, the liberal media is exactly pushing “something other than ‘a free democratic nation.’”
At a minimum, what Filipo and CNN are doing here is “projection.” Psychology Today defines projection thusly, bold print for emphasis supplied:
Projection is the process of displacing one’s feelings onto a different person, animal, or object. The term is most commonly used to describe defensive projection—attributing one’s own unacceptable urges to another. If someone bullies or ridicules another peer over his insecurities then the bully may be projecting his struggle with self-esteem onto them.
And if it’s not projection? They are calling for an extremely anti-democratic movement.
Filipo’s article is not a solitary stand alone. It is a mere drop in an ocean of leftist media repeatedly saying this or that conservative or the entire conservative movement is ‘anti-democracy” – when in fact it is their leftist friends, leaders and allies- themselves – who are doing exactly what they accuse others of doing.
If Republicans actually do win the House, Senate, and presidency in 2022. Expect this media ocean of anti-democracy propaganda under the guise of being “pro-democracy” to flood the land.
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