Hawaii U.S. Rep. Ed Case has put a target on his back among some fellow Democrats for his moderate course in this most immoderate political time.
Case has mostly voted with his party on key issues such as last month’s Republican continuing resolution to drastically reshape federal spending, but drew fire for joining Republicans on hot-button measures requiring proof of citizenship to vote and censuring a Democratic lawmaker for heckling Donald Trump during his State of the State speech.
On the latter, Case was among only 10 House Democrats to vote with Republicans to censure 77-year-old Texas Rep. Al Green for shouting his disagreement as Trump spoke.
Case said he approved rebuking his colleague “not because I disagree with what he said, but because we must respect the institution.”
It drew questions about his priorities for worrying about decorum when our problems go deeper than one indecorous geezer literally shaking his cane at another indecorous geezer.
Case was criticized for playing into a Republican double standard after they refused similar sanction against their own Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene for disrupting Joe Biden’s speech.
Case displayed similar one-dimensional thinking as one of only four Democrats to vote for a Republican bill requiring first-time voters to show proof of citizenship in addition to residence.
“Noncitizen voting is illegal, and we should all know that noncitizens are not voting,” he said.
Seems simple, but it isn’t; the bill feeds into a false Republican narrative of widespread voter fraud by noncitizens when there have been few documented instances of noncitizens trying to vote.
This “solution” to a nonexistent problem makes it more of a hassle for all citizens to vote when the goal should be to make voting easier.
Online and election-day registration drives that have proved popular and secure will become difficult with the need to show birth certificates or passports, and women could have problems if their married names don’t match names on their birth certificates.
The measure, still facing Senate consideration, would suppress voting while doing little to improve security.
Case is aligned with the moderate Problem Solvers Caucus, which promotes worthy values of bipartisanship and compromise, but these are increasingly less achievable as politics polarize.
Many Democrats have made clear they want more fight against Trump from their elected officials, as seen in the massive turnouts for Sen. Bernie Sanders’ rallies with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
The Hawaii Democratic Party pointedly supported Green after Case voted to censure him.
“These are not normal times,” said party Chair Derek Turbin. “We must stand together in solidarity for the Democratic values we believe in.”
There are rumblings of a primary challenge against Case among liberals, but there’s no clear candidate and Case appears solid with his base of voters who share his taste for moderation.
He and other moderate congressional Democrats see themselves as bridges who can engage — at least on some issues — the few remaining MAGA- leery Republicans.
But they can’t keep antagonizing colleagues on their own side of the aisle without consequence unless they start actually producing significant bipartisan gains.
It’s not compromise if the give is all one way.
Reach David Shapiro at volcanicash@gmail.com.
