Dishonor roll

Yahoo News has helpfully provided a list of the Republican members of the United States House of Representatives who endorsed the Texas lawsuit seeking to invalidate millions of validly cast ballots in other states in order to snatch the presidency away from Joe Biden, contrary to the spirit (and, judging by Team Trump's dismal court record, also the law) of the United States.   

The list is sorted by state, so we can quickly check to see whether our local representatives are among these profiles in courage and patriotism (not!).   

Many news outlets are reporting that 126 House members endorsed the lawsuit.  I counted the names in the Yahoo News story and came up with 117, so the list apparently isn't complete.  If you know of any missing names, please call them out in the comments.

The Yahoo News list includes three of the four leaders of the Republican Caucus: Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, Republican Whip Steve Scalise, and Republican Policy Committee Chairman Gary Palmer.  Only Conference Chairman Liz Cheney doesn't appear on the list.  This is worth noting because the GOP is only a few seats away from achieving a majority in the House, and the president's party usually loses ground in the House in the first mid-term elections of a president's term in office.  It is possible that one of these four could be Speaker of the House in a couple of years.  Speaking as a voter and an American citizen, I can't endorse any Republican whose name appears on this dishonor roll for any House leadership position.

My view is straightforward: one of the reasons I identify as conservative is because I believe there is much that is good and admirable about our republican democratic system.  I expect the nation's major conservative party to work to conserve and defend those good and admirable elements.  What we are witnessing is some (but not all) of the GOP leadership working instead to undermine these elements.  They have disgraced themselves and the party.

What to do about these elected representatives who have chosen to endorse the president's infamous post-election strategy?  At least one Democratic congressman is calling for them not to be seated in the House.  That strikes me as the wrong approach: it would deprive those districts of the men and women their voters elected, which in effect is not very different, on a more local scale, than what the Texas lawsuit sought to accomplish nationally.  It is the GOP which needs to figure out what to do about those listed on the dishonor roll.  My suggestion is: remove them from leadership positions.  And consider primarying them with conservative candidates who actually stand for conservative principles.