One of the midterm congressional races that didn’t attract much media attention took place in California’s 42nd district, representing the area around Long Beach. The reason for the lack of attention was that the Democrat in the race, Robert Garcia, was expected to win in a blowout. (Which he did, by a 68/31 margin.) Garcia and his family emigrated to the United States from Peru when he was five years old and he previously served as the Mayor of Long Beach. Assuming the Republicans ever get their act together and elect a Speaker, Garcia will be sworn in for his first term in Congress, but there will be something unusual about the ceremony. He plans to be sworn in while placing his hand on four documents, none of which are a bible. But one of them will be a comic book estimated to be valued at more than five million dollars. (The Blaze)

A Democrat who was elected to U.S. Congress in 2020 will be sworn in on various documents, including a copy of the first “Superman” comic book, which is worth about $5.3 million.

A journalist spotted the classic comic book among the many religious books and other documents over which members of Congress had chosen to take their oaths.

When the journalist inquired about the identity of the member, a congressional aide refused to say.

The mystery was solved when Robert Garcia, a Democrat from Long Beach, California, tweeted that he was the person who would be sworn in on the comic book.

Garcia wasn’t trying to hide what he was doing. He took to Twitter to proudly display the comic book in question along with his plans for it.

Will be proudly sworn-in to Congress on the U.S. Constitution. Underneath the Constitution will be 3 items that mean a lot to me personally. A photo of my parents who I lost to covid, my citizenship certificate & an original Superman #1 from the @librarycongress. 🇺🇸😊 pic.twitter.com/YGW43OLsIp

— Robert Garcia (@RobertGarcia) January 3, 2023

Taking the oath while placing your hand on the Constitution is fine, of course. Similarly, there’s nothing wrong with including a photo of his deceased parents and his proof of legal citizenship. But… a comic book? Seriously?

You might be wondering where someone of his age and background came up with enough cash to have a $5 million Superman comic. Don’t worry. It’s not his. He borrowed it from the Library of Congress. I wasn’t aware that the Library of Congress contained rare comics, but it’s technically a “book” so I suppose that makes sense. But did they send any security personnel along with the borrowed comic? That would be pretty tempting for any thieves in the area, or so I would imagine.

The main reason I wanted to highlight this story for you, though, was the unsubtle message that this decision by Garcia appears to deliver. When a member is sworn in, they are pledging a solemn oath to support and defend the Constitution and the country. Such oaths have traditionally been taken while placing one hand on a bible to underscore the sincerity of the promise being made, though that’s not mandatory. If Garcia doesn’t want to be seen with his hand on a bible, that’s his call.

But replacing the bible with a comic book just makes a mockery of the entire ceremony. This decision seems to underscore the unserious nature of far too many of the people that we’re sending to Washington to conduct the nation’s business. And the results of such unseriousness show up all too often, and I’m not just talking about the failure to elect a Speaker. Massive, bloated spending bills and a national debt of more than 30 trillion dollars are placing future generations of Americans in peril. A lack of proper oversight of the executive branch, along with a failure to keep the nation’s citizens safe and our borders secure are additional crimes. The last thing we need is new members making even more of a mockery out of the process. Sadly, the joke is on us, and it’s not funny in the least.