GOP Rep's Resolution Would Ban Historically Pro-Slavery Groups from House, Including Democratic Party

Texas Republican Rep. Louie Gohmert introduced a resolution this past week calling for Congress to ban from participation in the House of Representatives any political organization or party that has ever held a public position in support of either slavery or the Confederacy.

He specifically pointed to the Democratic Party’s historic positions on slavery and racial issues in a speech on the House floor Thursday.

After citing the removal of portraits of former House speakers who were once part of the Confederacy from the Capitol in June, Gohmert turned the conversation to Democrats, whose previous party platforms supported slavery, Jim Crow laws and the Ku Klux Klan.

The men in the portraits, Robert M.T. Hunter from Virginia, Howell Cobb from Georgia, James L. Orr from South Carolina and Charles F. Crisp from Georgia, were all Democrats.

“There is no room in the hallowed halls of Congress or in any place of honor for memorializing men who embody the violent bigotry and grotesque racism of the Confederacy,” Pelosi said at the time, NBC News reported.

Gohmert stated that Democrats, similarly, should be “barred from participation in the House of Representatives” over their party’s previous positions on slavery and racial inequality.

“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,” he said.

Gohmert later posted a number of facts about the Democratic Party:

Gohmert also released a statement on his website calling on Democrats to either rebrand the party or to be exiled from Congress.

“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,” he said.

“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,” he argued.

“That is the standard to which they are holding everyone else, so the name change needs to occur,” Gohmert concluded.