OPINION — U.S. Consultant Stephanie Bice won’t ever be your reasonable pal in Washington, D.C. She is proving solely to be a generic Republican pawn, drooling out Nationwide Republican Congressional Committee speaking factors whereas her get together makes an attempt to dismantle democracy.
Bice stunned many progressive-leaning Oklahomans when she grew to become the one member of the state’s congressional delegation to vote in favor of a fee to analyze the January 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol by home terrorists.
In comparison with on-the-record sedition enablers equivalent to U.S. Representatives Tom Cole, Markwayne Mullin, Kevin Hern, and Frank Lucas, Bice appeared just like the lone voice of purpose.
OPINION by George Lang
“It’s critically necessary that the fee’s work not intrude with ongoing prison investigations,” Bice mentioned in a ready assertion despatched to Oklahoma Metropolis Free Press. “However there’s rather more we should know in regards to the circumstances surrounding that day.”
Apparently after getting an earful from Oklahoma conservatives, Bice adopted up that assertion by releasing a video attacking her favourite bogeyman, Speaker of the Home Nancy Pelosi.
“Before everything, I cannot let this fee be a witch hunt by Nancy Pelosi,” Bice mentioned within the video. “The aim of the fee is to not go after former President Trump however to seek out out why the Capitol Police and the Sergeants at Arms had been so unprepared.”
So, based on Bice, the main focus shouldn’t be on whether or not a few of Bice’s colleagues helped the attackers discover sure Congressional workplaces inside the Capitol, or whether or not Trump instigated the assault (which he did on digital camera). She desires the Capitol Police, who had been attacked and sustained casualties, to be investigated.
In her November 2023 victory speech, Bice confirmed precisely what sort of generic Republican she can be as soon as she took workplace.
“I’m thrilled that after once more Oklahoma is on the federal degree…crimson,” Bice mentioned. “However, let’s be clear, the true work begins tomorrow as a result of I’ve gotta go to work to present Nancy Pelosi a brand new title and that’s former speaker of the home.”
In a November 17, 2023 column, I expressed simply how disappointing it was to have a lazy Steve Russell clone take again the seat for Republicans.
“That’s all Stephanie Bice has deliberate for us?” I wrote. “To be a pain-in-the-ass backbencher within the Home Minority and work as a door jam in opposition to progress?”
Bice gained with 52 % of the vote, which she did partly by convincing moderates and various progressives that she can be a bipartisan voice for an more and more purple district.
However relatively than lengthen an olive department to Horn voters, Bice promised to be an empty vessel for conservative teams to fill with their want lists.
Bice was all the time an anti-choice, gun-nutty arch-conservative when she served within the Oklahoma State Senate. She merely marketed herself successfully as one who smiles and drinks native beer whereas she takes away ladies’s proper to decide on, restricts immigration and lowers the final remaining commonsense obstacles to gun possession.
Progressives ceaselessly make the error of believing there’s nonetheless hope for moderation amongst Republicans. We need to imagine within the false delusion of the affordable Crimson Stater. Bice is a transparent instance of the falsity of such hopes.
A lot as some media shops selected to lionize U.S. Rep Liz Cheney for supporting the January 6 fee, solely to seek out out she has no downside with Heritage Motion’s syndicated anti-voting rights laws, many individuals refuse to recollect Pete Townshend’s phrases and are fooled time and again.
There isn’t a moderation within the Republican Social gathering, nor will there be within the foreseeable future. If Bice had been an precise reasonable, she can be condemned by get together management.
With Bice’s victory final yr, Oklahoma’s fifth Congressional District acquired a Capitol Hill loiterer as its consultant. Her Pelosi name-checking is lazy boilerplate.
And this week she is holding a phone city corridor with Oklahoma veterans, which is affordable virtue-signaling in Oklahoma. As a veteran and a progressive, I resent Bice’s use of veterans as props.
Bice is displaying us her true self, and as Maya Angelou famously wrote, “When somebody exhibits you who they’re, imagine them the primary time.”
Maintain our journalism by changing into a supporter
Oklahoma Metropolis Free Press is devoted to offering prime quality journalism that positively impacts our neighborhood. Click on this linkto help our mission.
Final Up to date Could 26, 2023, 12:09 PM by Brett Dickerson – Editor
The put up Stephanie Bice loiters in Washington, lamely following Republican leaders appeared first on Oklahoma Metropolis Free Press.
Powered by WPeMatico
