03/06/2025
Al Greenâs Disgraceful Outburst: A Constitutionalistâs Take on Democratsâ Descent into Chaos
HOUSTON, TX â On Tuesday, March 4, 2025, the hallowed halls of Congress bore witness to a spectacle that would make the Founding Fathers recoil in disgust. Representative Al Green (D-TX), the long-serving voice of Texasâ 9th District south of Houston, turned President Donald Trumpâs joint address into a personal soapbox, erupting in a tantrum that ended with his forcible removal from the chamber. Two days later, on Thursday, March 6, the House delivered a rare and deserved censure, with a 224-198 vote that saw ten Democrats break ranks to join Republicans in condemning Greenâs antics. What followed was a screaming match on the House floorâa fitting capstone to the Democratsâ descent into petulant disorder.
Greenâs outburst was no spontaneous act of passion. It was a calculated middle finger to decorum, tradition, and the very principles that undergird our constitutional republic. As President Trump spoke of his electoral mandateâa mandate secured by the American people in November 2024âGreen leapt to his feet, brandishing his cane like a prop in some low-budget melodrama. âYou have no mandate!â he bellowed, his voice cutting through the chamber as he railed against Trumpâs supposed plans to âcut Medicaid.â House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), a man tasked with maintaining order in an increasingly fractious body, issued stern warnings. Green ignored them. The Sergeant at Arms was summoned, and the 77-year-old congressman was escorted out to a chorus of Republican cheersâand, tellingly, Democratic silence.
This wasnât Greenâs first rodeo. The veteran lawmaker, whoâs clung to his seat since 2005, has a history of grandstanding that stretches back to his early pushes to impeach Trump in 2017. A self-styled âcivil rights advocate,â Greenâs resume boasts arrests for protests outside embassies and a decade-long stint leading Houstonâs NAACP chapter. But Tuesdayâs stunt wasnât noble dissentâit was a cheap shot at a president addressing a joint session, a moment meant to reflect the unity of our governing institutions. Instead, Green gave us a glimpse of the Democratsâ true face in 2025: unhinged, undisciplined, and utterly incapable of rising above their partisan bile.
The Houseâs censure vote on Thursday was a necessary rebuke, though it barely scratches the surface of whatâs wrong with Green and his ilk. The resolution, spearheaded by Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-WA), passed with bipartisan supportâa rarity in these polarized times. Two members voted âpresent,â one of them Green himself, who couldnât even muster the dignity to stand by his own disruption. Speaker Johnson read the censure aloud as Green, surrounded by fellow Democrats, launched into a rendition of âWe Shall Overcomeââa civil rights anthem cheapened by its use as a prop in this circus. What followed was pure chaos: a screaming match between Democrats and Republicans that turned the House floor into a scene more befitting a barroom brawl than the peopleâs chamber.
Letâs not mince words: Greenâs behavior, and the Democratsâ tacit endorsement of it, is an affront to the Constitution itself. Article I vests Congress with the power to govern, not to grandstand. The House isnât a stage for personal vendettas or theatrical protestsâitâs a place where representatives are duty-bound to uphold order and reason, even in disagreement. Greenâs refusal to heed Johnsonâs calls to sit down wasnât just a breach of decorum; it was a rejection of the very framework that keeps our republic from sliding into mob rule. And the Democratsâ responseâsinging hymns while the chamber dissolved into anarchyâonly underscores their contempt for that framework.
The broader context makes this episode even more galling. Trumpâs address came five months after a decisive electoral victory, one that handed Republicans the House, the Senate, and the popular voteâa trifecta not seen in decades. Democrats, still licking their wounds, had been urged by their leadership to show restraint during the speech. Green ignored that directive, as did others who walked out or heckled in quieter tones. Reps. Maxwell Frost (FL), Jasmine Crockett (TX), and a handful of others staged their own mini-rebellions, but Greenâs was the loudestâand the most shameful. This wasnât resistance; it was a tantrum from a party thatâs lost its moorings.
Conservatives, of course, arenât surprised. Greenâs track recordâimpeachment crusades, cane-waving histrionicsâreads like a playbook for the modern Left: when you canât win at the ballot box, disrupt the process. But whatâs truly abhorrent is how this behavior erodes the trust Americans place in their institutions. The House isnât a sandbox for overgrown children; itâs a bulwark of liberty, a place where the peopleâs will is meant to be hashed out with grit and grace. Green and his Democratic cheerleaders forgot thatâor, worse, they donât care.
The censure itself is a slap on the wristâa symbolic condemnation with no real teeth. But itâs a start. Ten Democrats crossing the aisle to support it signals that even some in their ranks are fed up with the clown show. For constitutionalists, though, the stakes are higher than party lines. Weâre watching a slow-motion assault on the norms that keep our government functional. If Greenâs outburst goes down as just another blip in the news cycle, weâre one step closer to a Congress where shouting matches replace debate, and the rule of law bows to the rule of the loudest.
Texasâ 9th District deserves better than Al Green. So does the nation. On March 4, he didnât just embarrass himselfâhe embarrassed the republic. And on March 6, when the House rightly censured him, the Democratsâ screaming response proved theyâre more interested in theater than governance. The Constitution demands more. We should, too.
** This post first appeared in the Texas Liberty Journal.
