Parties Must Call Out Their Own

When it came to Democratic committee assignments, Kevin McCarthy broke even last week. The Republican Speaker was wrong to block Representative Adam Schiff (D-Burbank) from the House Intelligence Committee. The impeachment hearings against Donald Trump that Schiff ran were highly charged and extremely polarizing, but it’s difficult to see how Schiff’s ban was anything more than partisan payback.

Representative Eric Swalwell’s (D-Livermore) exclusion from the Intelligence Committee is a tougher call. There have been questions in the past about Swalwell’s vulnerability on security issues relating to China. Swalwell’s allies argue that many years have passed since the incident in question and that corrective measures were taken. His opponents say the risk is still too high for a committee that handles such sensitive information. This is a judgment call and at a certain point, the majority is empowered to make these types of decisions.

But McCarthy’s call on Ilhan Omar was exactly right. The Minnesota Democrat has been making offensive and dangerous public statements against Israel and Jews since taking office and has made only the most scant efforts to make any amends. Despite her protests to the contrary, McCarthy’s decision to remove her from the House Foreign Affairs Committee is not a result of either her race or religion. Ilhan Omar is an antisemite. That’s why she is no longer a member of the congressional committee that oversees the United States’ relations with the rest of the world.

Omar is an antisemite. That is neither a Republican or a Democratic position. It is simply fact. The disagreement between the two parties is whether there is a price she should pay for her bigotry. 

Antisemitism, while odious, is not against the law. There is no rule that prohibits antisemites from serving in Congress. So prohibiting her from serving on this one committee, given the delicate and high-stakes nature of its dealings on behalf of the U.S. with other countries, seems like a reasonable middle ground that allows Omar to continue to serve the voters who elected her but protects this country’s global standing and international alliances.

Until both parties are willing to call out the evil and the ugly in their own ranks, far too many of these extremists will continue to thrive on the furthest boundaries of our politics.

But Republicans should take no joy from this action and should strongly resist the temptation to offer anything beyond the most tepid of congratulations. Their party – my former party – is far too willing to engage with racists, bigots and white supremacists to relish this moment. Both Republicans and Democrats have been playing a dangerous game of selective outrage on these topics for many years. Until both sides are willing to call out the evil and the ugly in their own ranks, far too many of these extremists will continue to thrive on the furthest boundaries of our politics, safe in the knowledge that they’ll be protected by their fellow partisans. Neither party has a monopoly on hatred and prejudice. And as long as party affiliation comes before decency and humanity, the bigots on both sides will have a home.

Omar should not serve on this committee, just as the Democrats were right to stop Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) from committee service given their incendiary and violent references to their colleagues. The hypocrisy on both sides of the aisle over these previous examples is stultifying. Although a small number of House members in both parties expressed their discomfort with the idea of forbidding any colleague to serve on a committee – regardless of party – almost all of them ultimately decided that those on the other side should be quickly banished but that their own fellow partisans had done nothing wrong.

Even on the day that Omar’s removal from the Foreign Affairs Committee became official, the Democratic caucus was frantically trying to offer her the tiniest of fig leaves. Omar signed on to a resolution they introduced recognizing Israel as a democratic ally and “condemning antisemitism,” as if that eleventh hour vote would erase the prejudice she has exhibited for the last several years. It was exactly as shameless as the Republicans who find ways to excuse Gosar and Greene’s conduct. 

Both parties should be ashamed of themselves. Neither will be. And we wonder why Americans hate politics.

Dan Schnur is a Professor at the University of California – Berkeley, USC and Pepperdine. Join Dan for his weekly webinar “Politics in the Time of Coronavirus” (www.lawac.org) on Tuesdays at 5 PM.