Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) introduced legislation Thursday that would ban the Democratic Party “from participation in the House of Representatives” unless it changes its name.
In the bill, the Texas politician pointed to the fact that, in mid-June, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi “ordered the removal from the capital portraits of four previous speakers of the House who served in the Confederacy, saying that these portraits ‘set back our nation’s work to confront and combat bigotry.’” Each of the busts removed were of Democrats.
As such, Gohmert reasoned Pelosi should call for the removal of “any item that names, symbolizes or mentions any political organization or party that has ever held a public position that supported slavery or the Confederacy, from any area within the House wing of the Capitol or any House office building, and shall donate any such item or symbol to the Library of Congress.”
Gohmert followed up his introduction of the bill by posting to Twitter that he believes the time “has come for Democrats to acknowledge their party’s loathsome and bigoted past.”
He called on the Democratic Party to change its name “to something that isn’t so blatantly and offensively tied to slavery, Jim Crow, discrimination, and the [Ku Klux Klan].”
Though the political parties looked much different then than they do today, from voting to keep black Americans in slavery to passing Jim Crow laws, the Democratic Party consistently stood athwart civil rights.
Gohmert argued Democrats have “perpetuated these abhorrent forms of discrimination and violence practically since their party’s inception.”
“To avoid triggering innocent bystanders by the racist past of the Democratic Party,” the Republican lawmaker concluded, “I would suggest they change their name. That is the standard to which they are holding everyone else, so the name change needs to occur.”