Two firsts happened yesterday. A black lesbian was sworn in as Senator from California, despite a dubious connection to the state. A Speaker of the House of Representatives was ousted by eight MAGA insurgents of his own party, with the cooperation of the Democrats, leaving the House incapable of acting unless and until a new Speaker is chosen.
There is a story that a woman asked Benjamin Franklin following the Constitutional Convention of 1787 what form of government was chosen, a republic or a monarchy. Franklin is said to have replied, “A Republic, if you can keep it.” Can we?
On both ends of the political spectrum, the focus is to gain hegemony over the government. Contrary to what many believe, this didn’t start with the election of Trump, as Congress was largely dysfunctional well before him. Trump would be better seen as the warning, the lesson of what dysfunctional government brings rather than its cause.
To the extent electing Joe Biden was seen as the path to return to normality, to moderation rather than extremism, it hasn’t worked. He’s too moderate for the left and too left for the moderate and the right. He’s played to his party’s most radical fringe presumably in the hope of appeasing them, but they are not to be appeased. In the process, he failed the middle, the moderate Democrats and independents.
With no speaker, the House cannot function. There will be no money for the border, for Ukraine, for a continuing resolution when the money runs dry, for an investigation into Hunter Biden or to pay for the military (or the “losers” and “suckers” as Trump, who was able to avoid military service, calls them).
Kevin McCarthy has decided not to run again for Speaker, which is likely a wise move on his part. The name currently being bandied about is House Republican Majority Leader Steve Scalise, who was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, blood cancer, in August and is undergoing treatment. Why he would take the job knowing that he serves at the pleasure of Matt Gaetz is unclear, but even if he does, the dynamic in the House no longer suggests that anything can be accomplished without the explicit approval of the insurgents.
Ironically, Trump was critical of McCarthy’s ouster, although Gaetz appeared to suggest he was serving as Trump’s proxy in moving to vacate. Perhaps Gaetz misunderstood, or perhaps Trump can’t tell the same story twice. Who knows?
This is one of these rare opportunities that arise organically in the midst of chaos for a leader to emerge who will represent a cooperative moderate view that will bring together the men and women of good faith who reject the extremists of the right and left and decide that we are at a crossroads where we can either devolve further into partisan warfare where there will be no winners or losers, or we can seek consensus that will thrill neither right nor left but best serve a pluralistic society that, for the most part, is capable of finding middle ground that the majority of Americans can accept and live with.
But at the moment, that doesn’t seem very likely. Most will choose to blame and grieve. Few will take the chance to try to be better, to move forward with integrity and the belief that succumbing to the extremists on either side will not work and is not what the majority of Americans want. For one extreme to “win,” the other must “lose,” as there is no middle ground between them anymore. And if either extreme wins, the losers will be the majority of Americans who are neither slaves to ideology nor sycophants of a vulgar lying narcissistic ignoramus who doesn’t care to be seen in the company of wounded warriors because they don’t make him look good.
We will anyone step up and be the leader American needs? Can we keep it?
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Most teenagers know that turning up the base too high will blow out your speaker.
Honestly I think many people.voted for Trump because he was an outsider who might fix the very problems you described.
His vague drain the swampisms seemed as though he might be able to upset the apple cart and shake things up.
We know now how ridiculous that idea was, but continuing to vote for the same type of politicians results in the same issues getting worse.
A radically different kind of politician is a good idea…just not ANY radically different one.
And for the record, turns out Trump was radically the same not different, but with no ability not to be evil in a discrete and subtle manner like a normal politician.
To answer the question, we will likely be able to keep our republic, DESPITE our politicians gross incompetence and eveil.
Although the Speaker need not be a current member of the House, I am not expecting to get the call.
It occurs to me that what Eddie Munster has actually done here is to nullify the influence of his clan of batshit crazies, in that he has effectively incapacitated the chamber in which they sit. Now the administration is free to pen-and-phone away, subject only to the constraints of opposing lawfare.
I get why this didn’t happen. But had seven of the 208 Democrats not voted against the Speaker, he would still be the Speaker of the House. That’s less than four percent.
Tribalism empowers the fringe element of the tribe. When the tribe is more important that the institution, it is no wonder that the institution eventually burns down.
There are 222 Republican seats in the house. 218 is a majority. If 5 Republicans voted for a Democratic speaker of the house we wouldn’t have this problem. Damn tribalism!
Hakeem Jeffries’ call was that selection of the Speaker is the prerogative of the majority party, and that Democratic particpation would increase rancor, not reduce it. The Dems can’t fix the Republican disfunction.
I think there’s a song about that:
Dysfunction Junction,
Heads are shrunken,
Hookin’ up turds and crazies and losses. . .
Or something like that.
He’s right and wrong. Without a speaker, the House can’t do the things that need to get done, such as pass the budget CR or fund Ukraine. While the Dems aren’t responsible for Republican dysfunction, they still have responsibilities as representatives.
It is the extremists in every movement that drive the movement. They are the ones with the fire in their bellies, to triumph. The left has been working this way for a long time and has gotten a lot of what they want. Now the Republican crazies are doing the same thing, pushing the extremes over anything that is pragmatic. It is not good.
And we have no idea who us really in charge in the White House.
I’m trying to picture Jim Jordan as speaker of the House, and whether the Democrats are going to be happier than with McCarthy.
“middle ground that the majority of Americans can accept” sounds great, but that view is unrepresented in the House. The uniparty has been captured by its donors and is radically out of step with the American people. This disruption of business as usual is a good thing. If nothing else, it may slow down the torrent of taxpayer dollars flowing into one of the most corrupt countries in the world.
Since this seems like a Tuesday kind of question I will dare to sling some poo.
Will a “leader” step up? Sure. Will he/she/they/them/it make any difference? Given the age of our experiment, the surging balkanization of our society, and a reasonably detailed reading of world history and judeo christian scripture I’m going with “no”.
I am hopeful that once the dissolution and bloodletting are over we might become something as least as functional as Italy.
And now we hear that some Congressman from Texas is planning to nominate Donald J. Trump to be the next Speaker….
What must we look like to the rest of the world?
This too shall pass, as painful as it is in the moment. We are mostly likely going to muddle thru, …as the Brits like to say.. Many of us live lives of quiet desperation, no thanx to the judiciary which leaves a lot to be desired. Or is that “off-topic “?
Finally, it’s not easy being sleazy! One thing is certain: tRump’s image will NEVER appear on any Amerikan currency, and you can take that to the Federal Reserve Bank. Soft landing? We’re in a recession, but they won’t tell us till it’s over. Trust it.
Maybe a three- dollar bill, worth two at the grocery store?