As someone admittedly guilty of watching and enjoying professional boxing (the ‘sweet science’ for those of us groping to justify it), yesterday’s actions in Congress were embarrassing to the nation. Boxing has become as much a competition of governing bodies as it is men and women trying to render each other unconscious—on purpose. The World Boxing Council (WBC), World Boxing Organization (WBO), the IBF, NABF, and WBA are all parts of the alphabet soup of the sport. Now, we can add to that the GOP. When the reports of light-heavyweight Kevin “ Speakeless”McCarthy allegedly sucker-punching fellow Republican House member Tim Burchett hit the public airwaves, the first reaction was a gleeful titter from all listening and reporting. How CNN’s Manu Raju held his composure and did not break out in a loud guffaw when Burchett described the incident was amazing.
The irony of the Oversight and Accountability Committee Chair, James Comer, shouting at Democrat Jared Moskowitz and calling him a “Smurf” was more like a scene from the acclaimed HBO series Veep. Amidst all the sturm und drang and drama of kidney punches and name-calling, Democratic Senator Bernie Sanders was close to donning a referee shirt to stop Oklahoma GOP Senator Markwayne Mullin from coming to blows with Teamsters Boss Sean O’Brien on the Senate floor. At one point, Sanders pointed his finger downward like a Catholic school nun reminding Mullin he was a “United States Senator.” Mullin, who once plied his trade as a less-than-successful MMA fighter, said to O’Brien, “You want to do it now,” and subsequently rose from his chair to ostensibly make his way to an open space on the Senate floor to physically confront the Teamster Union president before Sanders forcefully intervened.
One would have hoped that had Mullin been in the Senate on January 6, 2021; he would have been as willing to fight for his country as he was to fight a man fighting for the rights of the working man. Instead, on November 9, 2020, Mullin told a Tulsa TV station that “real people” are coming forward with “real evidence” of what he believes is fraud. The Republican hierarchy has granted permission to their constituency to behave in a manner that makes us no better than troglodytes. Mullin tried to justify his actions by pointing to a caning in the 1850s of anti-slavery Senator Charles Sumner by Rep. Preston Brooks with a metal-topped cane in the Senate Chamber. By that logic, having once drowned and burned people to disprove they were witches should be back on the table.
How far backward in history is Senator Mullin willing to go?
As the first Native American in the Senate since Ben Nighthorse Campbell and only the second member of the Cherokee nation in history, the perilous nature of moving backward in history should be apparent. The reversal of history is becoming part and parcel of the Republican philosophy: denying or, worse, rewriting the history of race in America and making women less than human by relegating them to the status of incubators. Open defiance of the Constitution of voter rights in Alabama and recently GOP legislators vowing to override the voters of Ohio on the abortion issue. There is a name for violence to achieve political power and the override of the will of the people—FASCISM!
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