Republican Congressman Clay Higgins of Louisiana introduced legislation late last week that, if passed, would require all U.S. Senators and members of Congress to submit to one random drug screening for each term they serve in office.
It’s an odd notion which probably stems more from the general public’s overall dissatisfaction with government than from a genuine desire to ensure that lawmakers aren’t getting buzzed on or off the clock.
But this is not the first time that Republicans have championed the cause of making people piss in cups, nor is it the first time that the Trump-endorsed Higgins has made headlines with pretentious statements or stances.
Higgins told USA Today, “Based upon some of the behavior I’ve seen, I’d be very interested to know what kind of illegal drugs are flowing through the veins of our elected officials in Washington, D.C.”
Under his plan, the highest leaders in the land would be randomly selected at least once during each term to submit to a drug test at their own expense.
If they refuse, Higgins promises to name them and shame them.
If they fail, for any reason or substance, they will be referred to the appropriate ethics committee for further action or consequence.
“Congress shouldn’t get to live by a different set of rules,” says Higgins. “This effort is about maintaining accountability and ensuring sober service to the people.”
Now that all sounds well and good, but is he – are we – really worried about whether Diane Feinstein is doing rails of blow off of Chuck Schumer’s naked hip? Are we so concerned that we are going to make Lindsay Graham sit down to take a piss test?
What’s the real motivation here?
Last year, buried under the daily avalanche of bullshit from the White House, the Republican-led House and Senate easily and quietly passed legislation to make it easier for all states to be able to drug test anyone applying for unemployment benefits.
The few people who did see it all go down cried foul, and called out the hypocrisy of congress imposing rules on the average American that they do not need to adhere to themselves.
This led to a slew of GOP lawmakers damn near whippin’ out their withered willies on live TV to submit all their piss to anyone willing to check it out.
The author of the bill, Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX) immediately got codeine-farts at the idea and stated, “It’s about getting them job ready. None of those elements apply [to members of Congress].”
Democratic Senator from Oregon, Ron Wyden, agreed with Brady…sort of.
Wyden stood on principle, and said at the time, “As a general proposition, I think drug testing is a very flawed policy.”
Before that, in Florida in 2015 creepy ass Republican Governor Rick Scott mandated that all of the state’s welfare applicants and tens of thousands of government state workers to submit to drug tests.
The program went down in flames almost immediately, netting nearly zero results, but not before it wound up costing the Florida taxpayers well over $1.5 million in lawsuits and overages.
Alternatively, that money could have paid for roughly 8,900 days of residential substance-abuse treatment, based on average costs for in-patient treatment in the Sunshine State.
So the general well-being of the average citizen is certainly not their motivation.
No, it’s really even simpler than that. It’s a tactic commonly used by people in positions of power.
In an effort to strip us of more of our sovereignty, they prop up false enemies for us to rally against – poor people, hated politicians – so that we end up arguing for the decaying of our own rights.
Sen. Wyden has it right – in the vast majority of jobs and careers, drug testing is bullshit, period.
And what about this Higgins guy? Let’s take a closer look at him before we get behind his latest headline making stunt.
The freshman Congressman bumbled into office in 2016 after a career in law enforcement and a failed acting career as the “Cajun John Wayne” in some low-budget bayou crime fighting videos.
Here is a video from early 2016, just before he was voted into office. Flanked by law enforcement officers who look like they just fell out of a Call of Duty lootbox, Higgins stares into the camera while wearing body armor and holding a high powered rifle and addresses a local man named Daren Carter, saying “Daren Carter, you think men like these are afraid of an uneducated, 125 pound punk like you, that’s never won a fair fight in your life, and holds your gun sideways? Young man, I’ll meet you on solid ground anytime, anywhere, light or heavy, makes no difference to me. You won’t walk away.”
That puffed up tough talk didn’t end once he became a member of Congress either. In June of 2017, Higgins once again failed to upstage our buffoon president but did turn some heads when he tweeted that the way to deal with any suspected Islamic terrorist is to, “Hunt them, identify them, and kill them. Kill them all. For the sake of all that is good and righteous, kill them all.”
Again, he wasn’t talking about those convicted or found guilty, he’s talking about suspects.
A month later, Higgins was in Auschwitz – yes, that Auschwitz – wandering around the horrific concentration camp and touting Americanism and the strength of our military.
“The world’s a smaller place now than it was in World War II,” spat Higgins, “The United States is more accessible to terror like this, horror like this.”
The video was taken down quickly and replaced another month later by a clip of Higgins sitting on a Harley-Davidson, his shirt sans-sleeves like a real man, doing God’s work and truly making America great again by telling the world that “the NFL has abandoned America”.
This is a man who has voluntarily submitted to drug tests for his entire career. A man who has never tasted the sweet smoke of some OG Kush after a long, hard day. That vanilla, boring existence is good enough for him so it’s going to be good enough for everyone if he has his way.
Drug testing reasoning, methods, and technology – particularly when it comes to cannabis use – are archaic and severely flawed. There is no doubt that there are some incredibly dangerous jobs out there that require intense focus and acuity, but chances are, the people at the helm of those jobs don’t feel like dying or killing anyone either and take their job seriously and perform it soberly.
This isn’t about Congress – they are the distraction.
A petition on MoveOn.org to drug test Congress currently sits at a whopping 315 signatures…
Restricting government cheese, or earned unemployment benefits from someone in need because they took a toke three weeks prior is beyond inhumane and it is high time that we the people stopped supporting or encouraging it at any level.
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