Sure, but do they want to be the ones who handed the keys to the crazies when they had a chance to hang on to them?
That’s why I’m saying this is part of a bigger schism- clearly the mainline Republicans don’t want any part of this howler-monkey nonsense anymore, but they don’t have a clear way to actually sideline them and go on, as proven by the ridiculous number of speaker votes.
What the howler monkey faction is doing is basically legislative extortion. Do what we say, or we’ll block you. Which gives the mainline GOP types a choice- give in and effectively show that they can be forced by the far right of their own party, or start dealing with someone else, i.e. Democrats. They can’t get enough INTERNAL party votes to outmuscle the howler monkeys, so they have a choice to make.
The howler monkeys understand America better than most: get on tv, get famous, get rich. Competency has little to do with anything; grilling Hunter Biden about his sexual activities keeps the money coming in for decades.
Surprise, surprise. Inflation, fentanyl, and border crisis, coming right out of the gate. If the drinking game participants aren’t under the table by now, I guess they will be by the end of this speech.
This seems to be the crux of it - a lot of people still think the Republicans are interested in effective governance and/or only the next few months.
Any cooperation with the Democrats is the end to their careers in politics come the next election and any potential post-Congressional career on TV or the speaking circuit. That’s a shame, but that’s where things stand right now.
So, they can continue trying to play the game or they can commit political suicide by either working with the Dems or by capitulating. So, they play the game, thereby kicking the can down the road and hoping they don’t have to make an unpalatable choice.
Is fentanyl something that’s being pushed on Fox? I’m only vaguely aware of it being an issue anyone is up in arms about, yet it’s getting a lot of play in Congress this week.
I believe fentanyl is one of the bestest Republican tropes these days, and that the illegals Biden is welcoming into the country are bringing loads of it with them, to distribute to American teenagers.
I can’t speak about Fox, but I do look in on a right-wing message board from time to time. They are absolutely convinced that “open borders” means that those swarming into the US illegally are bringing all the Chinese-made fentanyl, which has given us the fentanyl and opioid crises.
Close the borders, and you shut off the supply of fentanyl, solving the problem. That’s how they see it.
Who was the Republican who missed the last vote? There were 431 votes out of 434 electees. Buck has a medical excuse, Trone was the Democrat, so there’s one Rep who was out.
Five bucks says McCarthy, (if) after winning the Speakership, starts crowing about his mandate from the party, and how this is how Democracy works, blah, blah, blah…
Something that gets lost in how much of a circus the entire party (really the entire government and system of governance) is: given what their goals are, these lunatics are several standard deviations above the norm in terms of being effective at their jobs as representatives. This is a tour de force of leveraging power. It’s just being done by maniacs, for the absolute worst reasons.