Speaking on the House floor on Thursday, Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) introduced a privileged resolution calling for the removal from the House of any reminders of slavery, such as the name of Democrat Party.
Gohmert’s resolution calls on Congress to ban any political organization or party that has ever held a public position supportive of slavery or the Confederate States of America – and for Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to remove from the House wing of the U.S. Capitol or any House office building any item that names, symbolizes or mentions any political organization or party that supported slavery or the Confederacy.
Reps. Andy Biggs (R-AZ), Jody Hice (R-GA), Randy Weber (R-TX), and Andy Harris (R-MD) co-sponsored the resolution.
Reading the resolution on the House floor, Gohmert quoted pro-slavery statements in five previous Democrat Party Platforms and cited its past support for the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850:
“The Democratic Party Platform of 1840, 1844, 1848, 1852, and 1856 states ‘That Congress has no power under the Constitution, to interfere with or control the domestic institutions of the several States, and that such States are the sole and proper judges of everything appertaining to their own affairs, not prohibited by the Constitution; that all efforts of the abolitionists, or others, made to induce Congress to interfere with questions of slavery . . . are calculated to lead to the most alarming and dangerous consequences; and that all such efforts have an inevitable tendency to diminish the happiness of the people and endanger the stability and permanency of the Union, and ought not to be countenanced by any friend of our political institutions.’”
“To avoid triggering innocent bystanders by the racist past of the Democratic Party, I would suggest they change their name,” Rep. Gohmert says in a statement announcing the resolution, adding that “That is the standard to which they are holding everyone else, so the name change needs to occur”:
“As outlined in the resolution, a great portion of the history of the Democratic Party is filled with racism and hatred. Since people are demanding we rid ourselves of the entities, symbols, and reminders of the repugnant aspects of our past, then the time has come for Democrats to acknowledge their party’s loathsome and bigoted past, and consider changing their party name to something that isn’t so blatantly and offensively tied to slavery, Jim Crow, discrimination, and the Ku Klux Klan.
“As the country watches violent leftists burn our cities, tear down our statues and call upon every school, military base and city street to be renamed, it is important to note that past atrocities these radicals claim to be so violently offensive were largely committed by members in good standing of the Democratic Party.
“Whether it be supporting the most vile forms of racism or actively working against Civil Rights legislation, Democrats in this country 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, 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.”
The resolution calls for two remedies, the second of which would bar from Congress any party “that has ever held a public position that supported slavery or the Confederacy”:
Resolved,
1. That the Speaker of the House of Representatives shall remove 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.
2. That any political organization or party that has ever held a public position that supported slavery or the Confederacy shall either change its name or be barred from participation in the House of Representatives