(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . A full-on MAGA Trump butt-kissing extremist is now Speaker - and it's still the Democrats' fault? [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-10-26 That’s the headline from a column by Jeremy Schulman, a Senior News Editor at Mother Jones. Somehow it keeps coming back around that Democrats are somehow responsible for the dysfunction of the Republican House majority. That it took them weeks to elect a new speaker and that they settled on a guy with no experience that would apply to the job, one who is probably one of the worst choices, is somehow partly the fault of Democrats boggles the mind. Mike Johnson is the new speaker of the House. The conservative Louisiana lawmaker—a man described by the New York Times as the “most important architect” of congressional Republicans’ attempt to throw out Joe Biden’s 2020 victory—is now second-in-line to the presidency. It’s a win for MAGA extremists. A win for Donald Trump. A win for anyone who thinks that elections should be decided by GOP politicians instead of by voters. And House Democrats helped make it possible. I’m still trying to figure out what it is supposed that Democrats could have done differently. I guess Schulman (and so many others) think they should have held their noses and looked the other way to keep McCarthy in power, despite his being unable to keep his promises, his allowing free rein to the worst members of his caucus, his total subservience to Trump, and his attempts to blame GOP failures all on Democrats. This is the hill Democrats were supposed to die on, to prove they are “the adults in the room”? The famous circular firing squad of the Left To quote Aral Vorkosigan, “ "I could take over the universe with this army if I could ever get all their weapons pointed in the same direction.” ― Lois McMaster Bujold, Shards of Honour I give House Democrats a lot of credit for standing together behind Hakim Jeffries and not giving a single vote to any of the House Republicans. It allowed the world to see exactly what kind of chaos has been brewing on the Right, just how extreme they really are once it comes out in the open. Here’s what Charles P. Pierce had to say about the kind of people Republicans send to Congress. It was written ten years ago, but it’s still as true as ever. ...There have been Congresses more dilatory. There have been Congresses more irresponsible, though not many of them. There have been lazier Congresses, more vicious Congresses, and Congresses less capable of seeing forests for trees. But there has never been in a single Congress -- or, more precisely, in a single House of the Congress -- a more lethal combination of political ambition, political stupidity, and political vainglory than exists in this one… ...We have elected the people sitting on hold, waiting for their moment on an evening drive-time radio talk show. We have elected an ungovernable collection of snake-handlers, Bible-bangers, ignorami, bagmen and outright frauds, a collection so ungovernable that it insists the nation be ungovernable, too. We have elected people to govern us who do not believe in government… ...We have elected a national legislature in which Louie Gohmert and Michele Bachmann [Remember them? — xaxnar] have more power than does the Speaker of the House of Representatives, who has been made a piteous spectacle in the eyes of the country and doesn't seem to mind that at all. We have elected a national legislature in which the true power resides in a cabal of vandals, a nihilistic brigade that believes that its opposition to a bill directing millions of new customers to the nation's insurance companies is the equivalent of standing up to the Nazis in 1938, to the bravery of the passengers on Flight 93 on September 11, 2001, and to Mel Gibson's account of the Scottish Wars of Independence in the 13th Century. We have elected a national legislature that looks into the mirror and sees itself already cast in marble… ...This is what they came to Washington to do -- to break the government of the United States. It doesn't matter any more whether they're doing it out of pure crackpot ideology, or at the behest of the various sugar daddies that back their campaigns, or at the instigation of their party's mouthbreathing base. It may be any one of those reasons. It may be all of them. The government of the United States, in the first three words of its founding charter, belongs to all of us, and these people have broken it deliberately... Let’s be very clear about what has happened here. Kevin McCarthy was never anything more than a front man for the people now running the House. They were always in charge. By allowing McCarthy to be deposed, Democrats have ripped away the veil that allowed the press to pretend the dysfunction in Congress was a “both sides” problem or just something limited to a few “ultraconservatives”. (“Ultraconservatives” is a polite press euphemism for the MAGA maniac extremist insurrectionists.) It was summed up nicely by geoschmo: No one on the other side was asking for support from Democrats. No one on the other side was listening to any offers. And no one on the other side who would have accepted any support would have then been able to get a single GOP vote. They wouldn’t have even been given the courtesy of getting told no in a floor vote. Even if you think Jeffries should have backed a “reasonable” GOP designee with nothing in return, no reasonable GOP designee, if such a person exists anymore, was going to get a floor vote. Not if there was any chance they would get a single Democratic vote. That would have been giving up control of the process. Anyone who still has hopes that a ‘reasonable’ set of Republicans might be found who could be worked with should abandon that wishful thinking. There are no reasonable Republicans any more. Every single one of them voted to install Johnson as speaker. All of them have effectively signed on to the MAGA agenda, which is why Matt Gaetz is celebrating. (You can forget about any ethics investigation into his actions now.) It’s why they jeered at reporters who dared question them. They’re in charge and they answer to no one now — except criminal defendant Trump. (And if you think things are any better in the Senate, Tommy Tuberville’s refusal to stop blocking military promotions is one more example that the GOP is now made up of people of people who refuse to obey any rules they don’t like. Self-interest is all they understand.) Democrats have gained one thing from this: only an idiot could at this point in time maintain there is no difference between the two parties. (Unfortunately there’s an awful lot of willful idiots...) Going forward, the Republican agenda will continue to turn on the following items: Total unquestioning obedience to Trump, no matter how crazy he gets, no matter if he ends up convicted of anything. A foreign policy based on whatever hallucinations are rattling around in Trump’s brain — and wherever he sees a chance to cash in and get his ego stroked. Whatever narrative Fox News is pushing at any given moment. Continuing election denial, continuing claims of voting fraud that will be used to make voting harder. Continuing climate denial — while doing what they can to make it worse. A national abortion ban with no exceptions. Continuing tax cuts for the rich and deregulation for corporations. White Christian Nationalism — however they try to disguise it — and tearing down the wall between church and state. Politicizing the judiciary. War on Workers. War on Government War on Education. War on the Environment. Covid denial Killing Obamacare Cuts to Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid. And of course, blaming everything on Democrats The list goes on and on but the short version is the GOP is now the party of permanent culture war . It’s all they have — and all they need apparently. Their base is primed to accept violence to “preserve American culture.” Josh Marshall had some observations on what the Republican Party has become. The Party of Rule-Breaking Trundles Toward Its Inevitable End Point Elect clowns, expect a circus. Eight years ago Will Saletan said, “The GOP is a failed state. Donald Trump is its warlord.” There’s probably no short summary, phrase or aphorism I’ve repeated more times on TPM. Because it’s that good. Today we’re seeing another permutation and illustration of that enduring reality. [Referring to the struggle to elect a speaker — xaxnar] ...This is more basic than a fractured caucus or any of the personalities involved. It is the logical end result of a party and political movement based on rule-breaking, as a central value and mode of operation. When rule-breaking becomes the norm, organizations and polities fall apart … without a strongman. For eight years Donald Trump has been that strongman. It’s Trump’s general indifference to the House Speaker debacle and perhaps focus on his unfolding legal woes that has allowed the chaos to drag on. This is always the relationship between civic democracies and the broken states where strongmen thrive and dominate. Civic democracy operates through an organized competition between different stakeholders in society. It requires a consensus to litigate disagreements through a prescribed set of rules. The breakdown of those rules creates an opening for strongmen who traffic in raw power and sell their ability to impose order. It is both the cause and result of the species of civic and moral degeneracy we see as the mother’s milk of Trumpism... emphasis added I fail to see how Democrats voting to keep McCarthy as speaker would have done anything except delay this inevitable reckoning — if at all. The only difference between having McCarthy as Speaker and Johnson is that now the MAGA maniacs driving this now get to take full credit for the results. Johnson is likely to have no easier a time than McCarthy save for this — all the so-called moderates in the caucus have surrendered and will fall in line. As long as any Republican can still call to vacate the Speakership though, the only thing holding them back from doing it will be the fear it will cost the party 2024 election. For those sitting in safe Red districts, the only thing they fear is not giving their base enough red meat. At a guess, I’d expect a government shutdown is inevitable now. Democrats have a great gift if they dare seize it. It is no longer possible for any rational* person to deny the threat to democracy coming from Republicans, or how extreme they are. Democrats had better find a way to message this to everyone capable of casting a vote between now and the 2024 election and resist like Hell any attempts by the press to keep normalizing GOP behavior. * “Rational” is the kicker. 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