Nightly Nuance - February 16, 2021

Hello, my friends. Today, I'm attempting to answer a question from Christine about censures. I think "censure" must have been on a word-of-the-day calendar in the late fall because it is a true fad among state and local parties right now, especially on the Republican side of the aisle. 

On one hand, censures can be understood as simply a public wrist slapping, intended to provoke shame and discomfort with no real consequences attached to them. On the other, I think they call into serious question what we're trying to do in governance and political parties and how we most effectively do it. 

"Censures" are not recognized in the Constitution, laws, or rules of Congress. Congress makes all kinds of non-binding comments through majority-approved motions, and that's how censures are handled. The House conducts a formal vote to censure a member, and then it requires the member to "stand at the well of the House chamber" to listen to the Speaker read the resolution. The Senate also uses censures to provoke "a powerful psychological effect on a member and his/her relationships in the Senate."  

Congress has used censures relatively sparingly. President Jackson, 9 senators, and 23 representatives have been censured in our history. 

State parties, on the other hand, pass out censures like candy through simple majority votes. It mostly doesn't matter at all. Senator Lindsay Graham has been censured by a local party for voting "wrongly" on the economy. Democrats in Detroit recently censured a state representative for her positive statements to President Trump about hydroxychloroquine and his handling of Covid-19. My personal favorite Senator Kyrsten Sinema skates on thin ice with her party for voting with Republicans on occasion. (This link is an editorial with which I 100% disagree. It also has some interesting background and arguments in it.). 

Political parties don't have many tools, and censures are one. Still, there are folks (rightly, I think) reflecting on the downsides of censures. 

All of this, to me, gets to the question of what we're actually trying to do with parties and politics, a question that is fleshed out a bit in this Ezra Klein op-ed that Sarah is really excited about.  

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