Anti-‘cancel culture’ Republicans in hiding after expulsion of Tennessee lawmakers

A few years back Republicans lawmakers railed against “cancel culture” when Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene was removed from two committee assignments.

Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan said, "Everyone has said things they wish they didn't say. Everyone has done things they wish they didn't do. So who's next? Who will the cancel culture attack next?"

Greene, you may remember, had embraced the worst conspiracy theories. She said a plane didn’t hit the Pentagon on Sept. 11. She “liked” a social media post saying House Speaker Nancy Pelosi could be removed with "a bullet to the head." She suggested the massacre at Florida’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in 2018, which killed 17, might be a “false flag.” It goes on.

Republicans rallied to her defense.

Where was the anti-'cancel culture' crowd in Tennessee?

So, where were they when Tennessee Republican lawmakers expelled two Democrats simply for protesting in favor of gun control in the aftermath of a deadly school shooting in Nashville?

Where is Arizona’s Rep. Andy Biggs, who once went on a long, long tirade against “cancel culture” in a speech before the House, saying in part, “Cancel culture is eroding the very foundation of who we are as an American people. Rowan Atkinson, the star of the British TV series ‘Maigret,’ said that it is like a medieval mob coming to burn witches. That is what the cancel culture is all about.

“How about taking an analogy from George Orwell's ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four’ novel where they take history and they throw it into the chute. They revise history constantly, and you can't even control what you think anymore, Mr. Speaker. That is what cancel culture is becoming.”

Great news for guns!: Tennessee Republicans expel two Black Democratic lawmakers

Where is former President Donald Trump? In a speech he once claimed that cancel culture is “driving people from their jobs, shaming dissenters and demanding total submission from anyone who disagrees,” is “the very definition of totalitarianism.”

Should only one type of person be cancelled?

Where is the Republican National Committee? At one point the GOP group issued a resolution stating: “Freedom of speech is trampled on daily with the notions of ‘political correctness,’ the plan to eliminate so-called ‘hate speech,’ and the promotion of a ‘cancel culture,’ which has grown into erasing of history, encouraging lawlessness, muting citizens, and violating free exchange of ideas, thoughts, and speech.”

A plan for Trump: President Biden should pardon Trump. It's the right thing to do.

Where are the talking heads on Fox? They’ve all complained about cancel culture. They obsessed on it so much that, eventually, the closest thing to a new angle they could come up with was for Fox contributor Tomi Lahren to urge conservatives to “start canceling the companies that engage in 'cancel culture.' ”

Or is it simply because, in this case, the expelled lawmakers are Democrats?

And young.

And Black.

EJ Montini is a news columnist at The Arizona Republic/azcentral.com, where this column was first published. Follow him on Twitter: @ejmontini

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Republicans hide after expelling the Tennesee three from statehouse.