The morons currently actively trying to destroy the country can be removed from office - recall.
Unfortunately, such things cost serious money.
Would it be, at least theoretically, possible to recall enough of these jerks to, if not change the majority party, at least get enough rational members of the GOP that Boehner can act without fear of losing the Speakership?
The beauty of crowdsource is that anyone can contribute.
Or has already been stopped?
Would it be worth a shot?
And why hasn’t Obama’s web whizzes already targeting them?
If it could be done, they presumably could only be recalled by the voters who put them in office to begin with. The Tea Party types did the best in some very conservative districts - precisely the districts where they would be very unlikely to be successfully recalled.
Otherwise we are left with the one option that is constitutional - expulsion. The House or Senate can, by a 2/3 vote of its members, expel a member. Neither party has a sufficient majority to make that happen. To expel a member over a political disagreement would invite voter wrath. Expulsion has only been used in dealing with serious misconduct.
Even if they were, the reason these guys are refusing to bend (even the supposed moderates) is because they’d be savaged in the primary elections as weak against Obama-Nazi-Facist-Socialism.
So what’s the point of recalling them? You think the people in the 78% Romney vote district are going to throw out the Tea Party loon and elect some guy who says he wants to work with Democrats and find a middle ground to solve our problems?
That’s really the issue here; the Tea Party candidates are popular in their own districts, which are very conservative. Without recall elections, the only way to get them out is to vote them out, which would require a change of constituency or a major change of heart on the part of that constituency.
Jerry, how would you react if the Democratic Senate refused to pass a budget unless it contained a assault weapons ban and a bill to mandate universal background checks for firearm purchases. Would this holding of the government hostage to further their ideological agenda be an acceptable strategy? How about a carbon tax?
I don’t get why people like you support this tactic… It is only going to backfire when (not if, but when) the Democrats hold the house.
I, personally, don’t think that the ACA is that good of a law and if someone actually came up with a alternative it is likely they could get my support. This is what the Republicans need to do: come up with an alternative, sell it it to the public, negotiate with the opposition, and pass it. Or, alternatively, they can sell it to We the People, get a majority in the Senate, the house and the Presidency and pass it over the objections of the opposition. This is what our country was built on, government by We the People, not We the conservative 30% minority of the people. Tyranny of the minority.
They have no other ideas to put forward, because the ACA, in many parts, was it. It’s not even as far left as Obama and the Democrats would’ve liked, so we’re already at a point of compromise.
Fact is, when you take a pledge to obstruct any and all things coming from the POTUS, it becomes a terrible catch-22 when he and the party naively yield to one of your own ideas.
An interesting thing about all this nonsense is that the approval rating on Congress in in the pits (less than 10% as of yesterday, according to one news broadcast I heard). However, we all know that if an election were held tomorrow, probably around 95% of the present incumbents would be returned to office.
I think this is a perfect example of the truth of one of H.L. Mencken’s more famous sayings.
“The theory of modern American democracy is that the common man knows what he wants, and deserves to get it good and hard.”
The only way to keep these loons out is at the primary election level - they are well-funded and have figured out that the gerrymandered districts which ensure that whoever/whatever ends up on the November election with the word “Republican” by its name will be elected - automatically.
So, by getting their candidates on the ballot, they win.
That gerrymandering makes the November result foregone; the real fight is at the primary level - and those can be bought MUCH cheaper than can a general election.
If I believed the US population had a memory greater than that of an earthworm, I’d at least take confort in knowing that the success of the Tea Party would result in several changes in redistricting, recall, budget process and all the other defects in the Constitution and various laws by which they have gotten us to this point of insanity.
The people who framed the system never imagined that people wanting to destroy the economy would not only get elected, but be hailed as heroes.
The reason we have Tea Party congressmen is because we have Tea Party voters. As long as they infest the electorate and as long as there are districts that would vote for a wet dog turd that was in the shape of an R, there will be batshit crazy Teabagger congressmen.