All that is true. And since Boehner’s and Ryan’s time, the GOP has nurtured within its ranks a group of people who out-Tea Party the Tea Party in their contempt for the concept of “government.”
The 20 voting against McCarthy (as of today) are 100% fine with the House members never being sworn in and the House never being gaveled into existence as a functioning body. Which is what will happen if there is no Speaker.
This is a situation never before seen in the USA. Despite similar periods of upheaval over the centuries, in all those other examples the parties involved actually did want the House to exist.
I don’t think that it was just that they ran out of time, it’s that with the Freedom Caucus, conspicuous dysfunction is the point. They represent right wing America’s ID. Their constituents didn’t elect them to govern they elected them to fling shit.
That was actually who I was going to suggest earlier when I suggested the Dems nominate an anti-Trump R. I figured she would be too toxic to get enough R crossovers. All the objections to my earlier suggestion apply to Cheney as well.
She would certainly try to put a damper on some of the more ridiculous antics being proposed by the wacko wing.
But you see, that’s it. From their delusional point of view, the problem is that its unpopular because OF COURSE “what all Real Americans™ want Congress to do is the things WE want.” If only Congress would just implement the Loon Caucus’ Real American™ Agenda, the institution would be widely beloved.
The way they see it, NO Republican voter elected their Representative primarily to represent their district well and responsibly steward the budget, they ALL were elected to send Hunter to jail. build the wall and make Joe fail.
… because if we don’t do that then OMG the Socialists are about to take us over and make DC and Puerto Rico states (*)
(* no joke: Lindsey Graham tweeted that compromising with Jeffries win would mean supporting the Democratic agenda and made those the top two bullet ponts:
Let’s play a game of excluded middle. Here’s the possible outcomes that I’ve come up with. What other potential outcomes are missing from this list?
The Never Kevin’s give up and McCarthy wins.
Enough Democrats either stay home / vote present and McCarthy wins.
The Never Kevin’s and the rest of the Republicans agree on a different Republican member. Steve Scalise seems to be the most frequently mentioned, but possibly someone else.
Democrats come together with at least 6 Republicans to elect a compromise candidate.
The Never Kevin’s convince most of the other Republicans to support Jim Jordan.
Enough of the Never Kevin’s stay home / vote present and Jeffries wins.
We end up without a Speaker for the next 2 years.
I ranked them in order of what seems likely to me at this point, but I tend to be wrong on these things as demonstrated by my prediction a few hours ago.
Of course. I had to laugh during the Trump impeachment debate (the first one, I think) whenever a Republican stood up and said that it was divisive. My reply, to an empty room, was “it’d be less divisive if you vote with Democrats to impeach him.”
Even courageous politicians are selective in their courage. Liz Cheney representing the people of Wyoming is nothing like Liz Cheney representing centrists.
I predict they will get themselves out of this mess. And they will do it this month by electing a GOP speaker who successfully bottles up halfway progressive bills like a dreamer route to citizenship.
One test, that will take 12 months or so to measure, is whether the GOP speaker is so weak that Democrats, allying with 4 or 5 GOP moderates, can bring one or more bills to the floor with discharge petitions. If even one bill passes and is signed by Biden, this year, by a discharge petition, then I will concede they are in a bit of a mess, and if there are two bills signed into law that way, I’ll admit they are in a big mess.
That’s two more discharge petitions than there have been failed leadership votes, so I really don’t think you can point to the past quarter century as an indication of what’s gong to happen going forward.
It seems to me that 5 or 6 most moderate Republicans hold as mich power as thr 5 or 6 most radical. And there are some Republicans who won traditionally Democratic seats, and who could use a reputation for bipartisanship next November. But of course they have to get through a primary.
Well sure, but the moderates want to actually govern and do things for the country. While the radical ones want to posture, obstruct and get their name mentioned a lot. Which one of these is easier to do?
So McConnell…pardon me, McCarthy had fewer Republican votes on the third vote than he did on the first one, which he also lost?
OK folks, look out! We got us a badass here.
