Republican Representative Jim Jordan has made a career out of stoking ire in the ranks of both parties. But his latest stunt is so ridiculous it strains the very rolling capacity of the human eyeball, and the internet is dragging him for it.
Jordan is demanding a congressional hearing—at a cost of millions of tax payer dollars—on so-called "cancel culture."
Jordan announced his demand in a letter Monday to House Judiciary Committee Chair, Democratic Representative Jerry Nadler.
Never mind that America is in the throes of a raging pandemic that has killed more than 17,000 people in Jordan's home state of Ohio. Pay no attention to the ensuing economic fallout that has left millions without work or access to basic necessities.
Disregard the raging domestic terrorism crisis that resulted in a coup attempt at the U.S. Capitol less than two months ago. What weighs most heavily on Jordan's mind is conservatives getting yelled at on Twitter.
The letter arrived just after he gave a public speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) that was broadcast across the internet and on television news. Jordan, who attempted to overturn the 2020 election earlier this year, decried in his letter what he called "a dangerous trend toward silencing and censoring certain political speech."
As he floridly put it:
"Cancel culture's long-term consequences to our democracy and our constitutional framework are serious and substantial."
He also decried the social media "censorship" of former Republican President Donald Trump, who was also among the speakers at CPAC whose words were broadcast live across the internet and on television news.
Missing from Jordan's letter was any acknowledgement that social media platforms have the right to deny service to anyone they choose because they are corporations and not arms of the United States government.
He also made no mention of the list of people conservatives themselves have "canceled" in recent years, from left-wing activists like Colin Kaepernick and TV comedian Samantha Bee, to anti-Trump Republicans like former Fox News journalist Jonah Goldberg and Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman, who was fired for testifying in Trump's first impeachment.
On Twitter, many found Jordan's letter ridiculous and infuriating.
Jordan has been an instrumental part of the efforts to overturn the results of last November's election because of thoroughly debunked claims of fraud. That election—where the decisive contests of the election were overseen almost exclusively by Republican officials—has been called the "most secure in American history."
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