(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . The Problem in the House, and It’s Evident Solution (Op/Ed in My Very Red Area) [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-10-10 This piece will run shortly in newspapers in my very red congressional district (VA-06). ************************** If we’re going to have a reasonably functional House of Representatives, something has got to give. The elements that generate the present dysfunctionality are these: The Republicans have a very small majority. There are more than enough “MAGA” or “extreme” Republicans to prevent the other Republicans from getting the necessary majority-of-the-House by themselves. It is politically risky for Republicans to be seen working with Democrats because the Republican world has so thoroughly demonized Democrats that Republicans who treat the despised Democrats as legitimate are at risk of losing their seats. Thus, until something gives, there is no way for the House to get done what needs to be done. Fortunately, when the chips have been down, the element that’s been swept aside has been the un-American idea that it is heresy to find ways of working with the “Other Side” to get done what must be done. Republicans joining with Democrats is how the nation avoided defaulting on our national credit. The same with avoiding a government shutdown: it required some Republicans joining with virtually all the Democrats to keep the government operating, sparing millions of Americans one sort of hardship or another. Now, it looks like getting a new Speaker of the House will likely require the same kind of solution. How else can America get a Speaker, with a coalition behind him, who can help the House to accomplish at least what’s necessary? As with the threatened default and government shutdown, there would seem no solution found solely within the Republican world. It seems likely that Steve Scalise and Jim Jordan will block each other from getting to 217 (with the two vacancies), and neither seems likely to concede to the other. If such a deadlock occurs, I would hope that enough Republicans would see this as an opportunity to give the nation the functional House the nation needs: i.e. to create a bi-partisan majority that can accomplish those good things for the nation on which the sane and constructive can agree. A deal needs to be negotiated on which at least 217 Republicans and Democrats agree, beginning with the election of a Speaker prepared to lead the kind of bi-partisan coalition that already has proved necessary to preserving “the full faith and credit of the United States,” and to keeping the government open (when a shutdown would be a pointless self-inflicted wound to the nation). (One crucial immediate issue on which this Coalition of the Constructive must act is aid to Ukraine. What Liz Cheney has called the “pro-Putin wing of the Republican Party” makes it necessary for pro-Democracy Republicans and pro-Democracy Democrats to maintain the flow of aid going to Ukrain -- where important American interests and values are at stake, and where the United States is getting a huge bargain for the mere 3% of our defense budget we’re paying.) From the beginning of this Congress, constructive House Republicans could have prevented this whole Kevin McCarthy debacle. When ambitious Kevin was making himself hostage to the craziest members of the Republican caucus, other Republicans could have approached the Democrats and either compelled McCarthy to stop handing the like of Matt Gaetz control of the House or corralled some combination of 218 Republicans and Democrats to elect someone to lead the House in working constructively. Ten months later, they have that opportunity again. How many Republicans are sane, constructive, and patriotic enough to do what the nation needs, because a bi-partisan coalition appears to be the only way that the House of Representatives can do its indispensablbe constitutional job? It should be a no-brainer to do that, except: the Republican world has so demonized the Democrats for so long that the Republican base may be incapable of seeing any coalition with Democrats as being anything other than a deal with the devil. (The likes of Limbaugh, Gingrich, Rove, and rightwing media have spent years making “Democrat” and “liberal” the equivalent of “evil.”) The consequence of that long-term demonization is that joining forces with Democrats – even if that’s clearly what the nation needs – would likely be politically risky for Republicans. The more Republicans enter into such a coalition, the more power the Republicans would have in it. But the very minimum number that would suffice is five. They, plus the 212 Democrats – if the Democrats stay united – could take control of the House. Surely there should be that many. (But maybe not. It’s like Abraham negotiating with God about whether there are enough good men in Sodom that God should spare the city the destruction God has proposed to wreak upon it.) Because of the deep divisions in the Republican caucus in the House, either we get a bi-partisan majority of the sane and constructive of both parties, or we are stuck with a House of Representatives that can’t do its important job. So, what Americans should hope for in this situation is enough political courage from constructive Republicans that they’ll take risks to enable the House to take care of necessary business, and [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/10/10/2198529/-The-Problem-in-the-House-and-It-s-Evident-Solution-Op-Ed-in-My-Very-Red-Area?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=trending&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/