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Muslims don't belong in American society.

Pluralism is a lie.
Representative Andy Ogles (R-Tennessee)

Cue Democratic "outrage" and Republican silence.

Representative Ogles isn't the first House Republican to make such statements on social media.

Few, if any, Congressional Republicans reacted publicly to any of the posts.

But Congressional Democrats were quick to denounce it.
Tennessee GOP Rep says Muslims 'don't belong in American society'

Okay... and?

This sort of thing strikes me as pandering from both sides of the aisle. It may as well be a script. Republican lawmaker from some overwhelmingly White, Christian part of the country makes a disparaging statement about Moslems. Democrats denounce the statement and call for resignations or some punishment. Republicans, who have no Moslem members in Congress, simply say nothing. The people who care among the voters for the two groups are happy with how their side responded. Nothing changes.

What I don't know is how many people care. There was an attempt by American Moslems to lean on the Democrats by staying home back in 2024, mainly over dissatisfaction with how the party was dealing with the fighting between Israel and Hamas. I'm not sure that it worked as well as they would have hoped, mainly because they had nothing to offer Republicans other than not voting for Democrats, and it's pretty clear that the GOP had no real need for Moslem support. So they've become convenient targets for members off the Freedom Caucus who feel a need to show their constituents that Congress shares their prejudices.

Meanwhile, Democrats get to show themselves as making a lot of noise about it, but they never accomplish anything. They simply don't have the votes, and the districts held by members of the Freedom Caucus are Red enough that they wouldn't vote for Democrats to save their lives, let alone in support of a more pluralistic society. So Democratic denunciations come across mainly as virtue signalling.

Honestly, it's all an exercise in virtue signalling... only the standards of "virtue" are different.

The media helps, by portraying all of this as newsworthy on the national stage. It allows everyone to be performative in front of larger audiences, but it enlightens no-one. It's hard to imagine anyone who wasn't aware of how all of this works at this point. Still, people have to be allowed to put points on the board, even if no-one's actually watching the game.