A push by Rep. Louie Gohmert to “ban” the Democratic Party and pressure party leaders to change its name over past support for slavery and racist policies is likely to be rejected in the Democratic majority in the House on Monday.
Gohmert, a Texas Republican, introduced a resolution Thursday that would prohibit anything that “names, symbolizes or mentions any political organization or party that has ever held a public position that supported slavery or the Confederacy.”
His resolution, which he read on the House floor, included several examples of Democrats obstructing civil rights legislation or pushing racist policies. That included President Woodrow Wilson reinstating segregation in the federal workforce just over a century ago and the Ku Klux Klan’s attendance at the 1924 Democratic National Convention.
The resolution was co-sponsored by Republican Reps. Andy Biggs of Arizona, Andy Harris of Maryland, Jody Hice of Georgia, and Randy Weber of Texas. According to Biggs, all of the lawmakers involved expected Democrats to table the resolution immediately.
“Even though in some respects you say, ‘Oh, that sounds like tongue in cheek,’ Biggs told the Washington Examiner, “everything in there is factual. And it’s kind of been swept under the rug by our Democrat friends for generations. And they haven’t wanted to face their legacy.”
Segregationist senators and House members through the 1960s, were almost all Democrats. However, it was the ascendant liberal wing of the Democratic Party that pushed through civil rights legislation — with considerable help from Republicans, in the minority in the House and Senate. Most notably the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Gohmert’s resolution comes amid national reconsideration of Confederate monuments and symbols. Mississippi recently initiated a change of its flag to get red of the Confederate insignia. And in the halls of Congress, Republicans and Democrats on July 22 voted overwhelmingly to banish the statues of former Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee and 15 other figures on display inside the U.S. Capitol that are deemed racially insensitive.
Gohmert said of his resolution in a statement: “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.”
