The candidate for Speaker who consistently gets the most votes is Hakeem Jeffries. Republicans who are tired of their nonfunctional “party” should be offering their votes or abstentions to Jeffries. And Jeffries should already know what he’s willing to give for those.
Democrats working with “moderate” Republicans to elect a Speaker has never been a possibility because no Republican candidate has shown the slightest interest in getting elected with Democratic votes or abstentions. In fact, they have actively disavowed the very idea of reaching across the aisle. And how are Democrats supposed to even vote for these “less objectionable” candidates, when the only one that’s made it to the floor is Jim Jordan?
If you get terrible options, you have to choose the least bad.
Right now, our options seem to be:
- No Speaker of the House.
- A SotH who’s used his power to attempt to overthrow a US presidential election, and who is beholden to Donald Trump, and who not only shows no remorse for his part in an attempted coup, but actually treats it as a point of pride.
There’s nothing about option 2 that makes it a better choice.
And this has been overt strategy by the Republican caucus. There is a reason that only the far-right nominee actually got a floor vote (even though it was clear that he didn’t have enough support). The party knew there was a chance Democrats could help Scalise or Emmer get over the line to avoid a Donalds or Jeffries, so they made sure that wasn’t a possibility.
This is clearly where it was going to end up - with an election-denying traitor as Speaker. Because that is what the GOP is right now.
Now, you could go back and say that the Democrats should have saved McCarthy and having Johnson as Speaker is objectively worse. But politically-speaking that may not be true. There is an election next year and at least the GOP is now showing very clearly where its priorities are. They can’t hind behind McCarthy and Scalise and the “reasonable ones” and pretend they aren’t the anti-democracy party.
Well, then, why are we even discussing this? Time to batten down the hatches and try to survive the next year+ of non-functional US Government.
We’re discussing it because there are some non-terrible choices out there that Republicans are refusing to entertain, and we need to keep those at the forefront. Maybe some Republicans will eventually give in and entertain those non-terrible choices; or maybe, in 2024, enough voters will remember their refusal to consider them that Republicans are driven from Congress.
Gyrate beat me to it and said it more eloquently than I will. But to answer your question:
Yes. For all the reasons already stated. Remain 100% united and stare them down while they destroy themselves.
…and the country.
Enjoy!
They are not going to not destroy the country. Whatever Democrats do, they’re going to destroy the country. Johnson was part of an attempt to destroy our country. He’s proud of it. Are you seriously suggesting that he would, if speaker, not keep trying to destroy our country?
The country will survive a shut-down.
It’s like you have no idea the game being played and the rules (or lack thereof) of the game.
Do we think the Republicans could successfully lay the (false) blame for the logjam and any shutdown at the feet of the Democrats? I know their base will believe it, but the average voter? And how to fight that? What does the everyday voter think of all of this?
I don’t think anyone is suggesting that the Democrats help Johnson become speaker. There was some talk yesterday of Emmer not being a horrible option as far as Republican speakers go.
Yes, a Democrat is the preferable choice. We don’t get that choice. It’s not going to happen. We’d like a few Republicans to cross the aisle and help elect Jeffries. That’s not going to happen, either. Why should we help them if they won’t help us? Because Democrats care about the country and the people more than the politics, at least i hope they do.
Emmer wasn’t a flaming loony. I could have accepted him as a least-bad option. Johnson is a whackadoodle MAGA election denier who should be defeated as hard as possible. It’s not “help the Republicans elect anyone at all”. For a brief time it was “McHenry isn’t awful, we could live with him for a few months” or “Emmer isn’t as crazy as the rest, if it has to be a Republican he’s not a bad choice”.
Yes, Democrats are the only ones who even consider compromise. I don’t think that’s a horrible thing. I think that’s an adult way to solve disputes. Even when dealing with pig- headed children.
The country will survive a shut-down.
I hope I can. We’re a one- income family, and that income will disappear for the length of a shutdown. I know a lot of people in the same boat. It’s a little more personal when it’s your paycheck that is on the line.
But Tom Emmer dropped out rather than take a vote on the floor where Democrats might have been able to help him. What were Democrats supposed to do?
As someone said a hundred posts and 12 hours ago, the optimal play for the Ds is to induce enough Rs to resign that there’s now a D majority. Then elect Jeffries as Speaker and get on to governing with no participation from the Rs. At all.
And the first thing they do is pass an expansive voting rights act to neuter all the voter suppression efforts nationwide.
That is precisely the reason Democrats should not help a Republican become speaker.
Yes. But compromise must be on the Democrat’s terms, not the Republicans. Republicans have proven they are incapable or unwilling to abide by any of their own promises. A Republican can make an offer to a Democratic would-be Speaker and be confident that promises will be kept. The reverse is not true.
The Republicans don’t even trust other Republicans! Which is why that despite having a majority, they cannot choose one of their own. That leaves choosing a Democrat as Speaker.
The de facto situation is the Republican party has already fractured but no one involved wants to say so. That’s because the “traditional” R’s would lose majority power, and the FC would lose their ability to wag the dog. If anyone is the adult in the room, it’s the Democrats. And they should continue to do what they’ve been doing - vote for Jeffries.
The lesson that must be learned here is that you need to put on your big-boy pants, grow a spine, and do things for the good of the country. No one is going to learn that lesson if they’re bailed out by enough D’s voting present to push someone over the line. And unfortunately, that means there’s going to be pain for everyone. Because that’s the only way things change - through pain. And it sucks to be the adult in the room because you know you’ll have to endure the pain, but you also know the alternative is worse.
Well said. Thank you.
The ability to choose pain as the only available path to gain is in some sense the very definition of adult thinking.
According to Trump, Johnson "is a tremendous congressman, respected by everybody…I haven’t heard one negative comment about him. Everybody likes him. Respected by all…He could be somebody that’s gonna be really spectacular and maybe for many years to come. He’ll be very good, so we’re very happy about that.”
What’s the over/under on how many days it takes before Johnson does something that goes against Trump’s grain and this becomes, “They need to remove this RINO from the speaker’s chair immediately”?
Reba and Denny are married, and want pizza for dinner. Reba also wants to sell the family car, because they need money. Denny wants to keep the current car and buy a second car, because they need to be able to get around better.
COMPROMISE: They get pizza. They talk about the car situation, and decide to do nothing for now, OR to sell the current car and buy two cheaper cars, OR to take on more hours at work (so Reba’s needs are met) and to buy a second, cheap car (so Denny’s needs are met).
SURRENDER: They get pizza. They sell the car and don’t get a new one, because Reba is frankly meaner than Denny and gets her way, and Denny likes to surrender.
EXTORTION: Reba is like, “no pizza for anyone, we’ll starve before I negotiate, if you want us to eat you better let me sell the car!”
Democrats are willing to compromise. They shouldn’t be willing to surrender, and they shouldn’t give in to extortion.
Every pundit I have read says that Johnson has the votes. Floor vote at 9 local time