2y ago

Republicans back to square one as Speaker crisis deepens

www.bbc.co.uk

By Anthony Zurcher North America correspondent

Republicans are back to square one. It's a game of congressional snakes and ladders, where every space on the board is a serpent.

More than two weeks after a handful of House conservatives ousted Kevin McCarthy from the speaker's chair, the party is still looking for a someone who can successfully reach the top of the board.

No one yet has even come close.

...

29 comments

Republicans couldn't govern their way out of a paper bag.
- not with out setting the bag on fire, and then blowing it up with.
  
  Then blaming it on the other party
- Because they have no interest in governing, they want to rule. They want a rigid hierarchy with a strong white man at the top who rules by decree. They want to be able to do whatever they want while dictating how everyone else lives their life. Religion is the primary driver of this type of thinking, thus the reason it's a cancer to modern society.
- It tricked them! You try not to get tricked by a paper bag!
- The Party couldn't govern their way out of a paper bag.
  FTFY
Just pick someone who isn't completely fucking insane. And then vote for him. Problem solved.
- Yes, but these are the republicans you're talking about.
- *Problem identified.
- The problem is that the far right members of Congress, almost by definition, will only accept someone who is fucking insane, and republicans need at least a few of their votes to elect a new speaker without democrats.
Why are all of trump’s friends a bunch of losers?
- Misery loves company
- Prerequisite
Tonight's news: The Republican Party burns itself to the ground.
Me: 🍿
- You realize they're going to take the rest of the country with them if they can't get their shit together, right? The debt ceiling deal they made earlier only kicked the can for like six(?) weeks, and I half expect them to spend that entire time on Speaker infighting.
  
  Sure, but I want the Republican Party to suffer for what they have done to this country over the past 6-7 years. In my naive little mind, they will eventually correct their course for the betterment of the country.
- Republicans: dumpster fire.
  Me: 🔥 🍡 🍡
We need to take to the streets if we don’t have a functional federal government by the end of next week. We’re paying taxes to these clowns, yet not even the bare minimum is getting accomplished.
They need 4 votes or 20 abstentions. Working with democrats should be easy.
🤡
They should just change the rules that you can not remove a speaker but only replace him (Constructive vote of no confidence).
- That gives the new Speaker candidate an unfair advantage, though, because there is no way to express disapproval in the current Speaker without endorsing the other guy. There would have been no leverage for Democrats to endorse Jeffries over whatever schmo Republicans nominate. And throughout this process, Democrats absolutely need to be able to say "We want our guy to be Speaker"!
  
  They would be able to do so in the initial election of the speaker. They could also file a (pointless) motion for Jeffries to replace McCarthy. On Gaetz's "Jordan should replace McCarthy" motion they would just abstain.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
More than two weeks after a handful of House conservatives ousted Kevin McCarthy from the speaker's chair, the party is still looking for a someone who can successfully reach the top of the board.
His week-long quest to win the top job in the House ended up as futile as his party's first pick, Steve Scalise, who threw in the towel before any ballots had been cast.
He co-founded the House Freedom Caucus, which has used political brinksmanship - under threat of government shutdowns and even a national default on the debt - to bend centrist and establishment Republicans farther to the right.
He is embraced by a conservative media ecosystem anchored by Fox News evening talk-show hosts like Sean Hannity.
"The most popular Republican in the United States Congress was just knifed by a secret ballot," Congressman Matt Gaetz, whose objection to Mr McCarthy started this whole crises, told reporters on Friday.
When one candidate ultimately emerges from closed-door Republican meetings as the pick of the party, the slow grind to get to 217 votes - and the speaker's gavel - begins again.
The original article contains 534 words, the summary contains 184 words. Saved 66%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
I feel like it's important to remember that this does nothing to change the beliefs of the lunatic right. The fact that they can't govern or even decide on a leader and are breaking a part of the government is NOT a negative.
For many of their constituency, it either doesn't matter or is a an implicit (or explicit) positive. The House could simply never elect a leader, cause the inevitable catastrophic consequences that would follow, and it would simply reaffirm their allegiance and belief structure.
Think about that. That's the thing that makes me truly worried we are actually seeing a full breakdown of American democracy: that for many, several of whom are members of the House, the full breakdown Is. The. Point.

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