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"Don't f--- with moms": 9 GOPers join all Dems to sink Speaker Johnson's anti-proxy voting push [1]
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Date: 2025-04-01
The GOP wants women to have babies — but does not want new mothers to have a voice in Congress. For evidence, look to Speaker Johnson and the House Freedom Caucus. They fought a measure that would have allowed proxy voting by parents of newborns for 14 weeks after birth. The proxy would be another representative — i.e., another duly elected official in the same legislative body.
Johnson and his fellow bully-boys (including some sister-hating conservative women) needed the GOP to hang together to defeat the measure. But nine Republicans joined all 213 Democrats to derail the misogynists in what the American people can hope is the beginning of a revolt against lockstep authoritarianism in Congress's lower House.
Proxy voting seems a small ask. The average woman has 1.6 children . So, for 4 months out of a legislative career, someone else would cast their vote. Besides, how many women would likely need to vote by proxy?
Of the 125 female Representatives, 43 are 50 years old and younger. And I imagine many of those have already had as many children as they will ever have.
Being Congress, the attempt to deny new mothers their vote — or require them to abandon a newborn or bring the baby to Congress — was convoluted. The reader can CLICK HERE for a useful summation from The Guardian (no paywall). Here are some highlights:
An attempt by Republican leaders to stop new parents from voting by proxy sparked a bipartisan mutiny in the House of Representatives on Tuesday, during which a small group of GOP lawmakers joined with all Democrats to obstruct a key procedural motion and paralyze the chamber.
This apostasy was notable because:
The revolt was the first legislative setback Republicans have faced since Donald Trump returned to the White House with the GOP holding a slim majority in Congress's lower chamber. It also delayed consideration of House speaker Mike Johnson's legislative agenda for the week, which included a bill to stop federal judges from issuing nationwide injunctions – as several have done for Trump's executive orders – and to require proof of citizenship to vote.
And the leaders of the movement that shot Johnson down were:
Fueling the split was an attempt by Republican Anna Paulina Luna and Democrat Brittany Pettersen to force consideration of a measure allowing new parents to temporarily designate someone else to vote in their place. House leaders attempted an unusual parliamentary tactic to prevent the proposal from going forward, but were blocked by the votes of all 213 Democrats and nine Republicans.
Luna is as right-wing as it gets:
She has called herself a "pro-life extremist."
She thinks Putin should have Ukraine (or at least has consistently voted against sending aid to Ukraine).
She believes the 2020 election was rigged.
She has been described as "DC's Next 2A Warrior."
She imagines there is "radical left-wing gender theory being pushed on our kids" in schools.
She cannot make up her mind whether she is Hispanic or not.
However, she quit the Republican extremist Freedom Conference after they stuck with Johnson. And after today's rejection of the Johnson anti-proxy plan, she said:
"I think that today is a pretty historical day for the entire conference. It's showing that the body has decided that parents deserve a voice in Washington." (We should note that new fathers would also be allowed to vote by proxy).
Rep. Brittany Pettersen, who gave birth in January and brought her baby to the floor Tuesday — and who was the lead author of the bill and has been working closely with Luna — was more earthy.
"Speaker Johnson pulled out all the stops, and people continue to stand with us. We're changing the way that Congress works, making sure that moms and parents have a voice, and I'm just so proud to be a part of this. Asked what her message is to the speaker, Pettersen replied: "We said, 'Don't fuck with moms.'"
After Speaker Johnson got the bad news, he dismissed Congress for the rest of the week. Ergo, the vote on the bill will not be until next week at the earliest. This delay will allow Johnson to call his owner for instructions and ask Trump to work the phones.
However, even Trump will realize that anti-motherhood is not a good look. Besides, he will be dealing with the horror of his so-called' Liberation Day' tariff rollout on Wednesday. And the whole Party will hopefully have to try to explain the dismal GOP results in Tuesday's elections for a Wisconsin judgeship and two open House seats in Florida.
Johnson's defeat was an enforced error for the GOP. I doubt they care much about proxy voting. However, the concept only exists in the US House because Nancy Pelosi allowed it during COVID. And a conservative can never support a liberal idea — no matter how sane it is.
Johnson tried to pretend his anti-proxy voting push was not anti-woman. He said:
"We want to make it as easy as possible for young parents to be able to participate in the process. But proxy voting, in my view, is unconstitutional."
This inflexibility is a new position for this miserable hypocrite. He frequently voted by proxy when he was a lowly backbencher during COVID. He must have thought it was constitutional then. Others trotted out the "slippery slope" argument. They claimed that if you allowed new mothers to proxy vote, then soon everyone would be doing it for any reason.
Conservatives used the same specious reasoning against gay marriage. Before that got SCOTUS's sanction, right-wing bigots warned same-sex matrimony would lead to unions between adults and children, people and their pets, and even nuptials celebrating a man marrying his lawnmower. So far, we've dodged all those bullets. (Imagine that.)
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