Another Illustration of the Transformation of the Republican Party

Last week, Congress voted to hold Steve Bannon in contempt for defying the subpoena issued by the select committee investigating the January 6th insurrection. The last time this happened was almost forty years ago, and the vote was unanimous. Every member of both parties understood that if a witness can defy a subpoena to testify or hand over documents that are material and relevant to an investigation, Congress’s oversight function, an important feature of our Constitutional system of government, would be crippled. In Bannon’s case, all but nine House Republicans voted against holding him in contempt, illustrating, once again, the transformation of the Republican Party into an assemblage of unprincipled, authoritarian, truth-denying opportunists.