(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Could a #SecretSaneGOPCaucus member deal with Dems to become an anti-MAGA Speaker this summer? [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2024-06-26 [after reading, please voice your opinion on how this all could happen in my poll at the bottom] If ever there is a time for a Republican House member to stand up against Trump and all that he has wrought over the GOP during his twisted reign, it is July 12th, 2024. With a unanimous conviction on all 34 counts, even the timid can say that they gave Trump the benefit of doubt, innocent until proven guilty, until now. But that proof has come. Whatever the sentence revealed on July 11 might be., And despite that fact, the parade of Trump’s lapdogs will continue to echo the “rigged trial” narrative. Yet for the least vocal Republicans, those who see the long game, this moment can be the pivot point. This conviction and sentencing will mean a crucial increase in disdain for Trump among those generally disengaged from politics, reducing Trump’s enthusiastic followers to its rabid core. And that just can’t win anymore. The math won’t work. Furthermore, an empty GOP platform will no longer fly. So it’s time for a back bencher, a name rarely in the news, to go on the offense once Speaker Johnson inevitably offers to kiss the ring of Trump yet again. That man or woman should stand up and call for a vote to oust the Speaker. He or she would need only a handful of like-minded Republicans to insure the extraction because full Democratic support could be insured. Former Clinton administration Labor Secretary Robert Reich proposed a strategy back in January, 2023 that could take full advantage of this dynamic. Back then, it was the start of this term of Congress, and then-Speaker McCarthy was about to go through his first humiliation of failing to be confirmed after more than a dozen votes. And right now there’s a chance not only to remove a flawed man, but to end the threat to party and country of a flawed MAGA philosophy. Imagine being able to clip off the wings of MAGA extremists and completely end their power in the House, perhaps forever. No more of their forcing the Republican Party further out on the limb of mindless extremism. July’s sentencing could signal an impending implosion of the MAGA world, with power firmly in the hands of Democrats throughout Congress and the White House looming. And finally, the filibuster could die a long overdue death in the first week of January. So on July 12, could there be a complete ousting of the power brokers in the GOP? All it would take would be a few members of what I call the #SecretSaneGOPCaucus who don’t mix well with the #SeditionCaucus to bring this gambit to fruition. Reich’s idea back then was to have Dems team up with a reasonable Republican for the speakership then put the full House Democratic Caucus behind the new man — after negotiating terms for that unanimous support. Reich found someone in 2023 that he would like to see ascend to the House Speaker role with the help of all House Dems. Reich said on his Substack feed: There’s an alternative, and I urge House Democrats and the few remaining “moderate” Republicans to take it: Make Ohio’s Republican Rep. David Joyce the Speaker of the House. House Dems and moderate Republicans could come up with the 218 votes to put Joyce over the top. Why Joyce? He’s the new chairman of the Republican Conference Group, a group you probably never heard of (years ago it was called the “Tuesday Group”) because it flies under the radar. It’s a collection of the remaining 40 or so Republican moderates. I say “moderate” only in comparison to the rest of the Republican House. The Conference Group at least wants the government to function. Here is the link to Reich’s full and detailed Substack post: robertreich.substack.com/ … Since then, Joyce may have committed too much to his party’s status quo to consider this chance at turning his party towards a more honorable future. But are there others? The looming reality is that there will be a post-Trump version of the Republican party anyway, and smart politicians will get on board early and stake their claim to that movement. The old MO of relying on billionaire and CEO support may be gone by January when no power remains for the GOP. So the ideological shackles from billionaire puppet masters can be cast aside, and actual moderate Republicans can claim their true perspective. Yet perhaps not completely... Might a bipartisan voice, one that could actually get something negotiated into 2025 legislation, still represent an opportunity for corporate coercion? Both entities could remain in league to minimize the blow of upcoming tax plans. As their era of disproportionate influence on politics wanes, will corporations jump to form this bond while they still can, in this election cycle? What is the point of staying the course as it is for House Republicans? For those that choose to stand on Trump’s lead coattails even now, this is likely to be the recipe for taking one’s career down the drain in Donald’s whirlpool of lies. Many who have hated Trump all along have been waiting for an inflection point, and this is it. This is the time to differentiate themselves from the pack and stand against the absolutism of MAGA. There are millions of former Republicans, now independents, looking for a reason to come back to the party of their birth. Why not plant those seeds before November? And the deal that would need to be made with Dems for any future Speaker could be spun as a reclaiming of true Christian values, not the Swiss cheese version that the old guard and evangelicals cooked up, with gaping holes where The Golden Rule and “Judge not, lest ye be judged” used to be. There are millions that have tired of the naked racism, xenophobia, and misogyny imbedded in the MAGA mindset. This new Speaker would note that the bipartisan approach on six weeks of paid maternal leave, low-cost, government subsidized daycare, and even higher wages would better support the challenges that a new family faces. In essence, the things that Dems required for their support could be spun as newfound commitment to Christian values across the boards. And even if GOP 2.0 gains strength because of this, Dems will applaud the advances in social programs no matter how they came to be. And if this revelatory movement does start before November, think of all the purging of #MAGAlomaniacs that could result in. The short term is that the House will be firmly in Dem hands next session, perhaps with enough of a margin to give impeachment threats to Supreme Court Justices Alito and Thomas some teeth. In this guise, of course, this bargained speakership would be short. But if the result is a Minority Leader who can and will work with Dems, it’s a gambit that can benefit both sides. The full purging of MAGA from the halls of Congress will take a couple more election cycles on the Senate end, but a GOP 2.0 advocate at Minority Leader in 2025 can pick members for congressional committees. The MAGA contingent could be locked out of any power whatsoever. And if the Dems finally pass and sign election and campaign finance reform into law such as a version of the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, the ensuing public not private funding of campaigns will minimize the impact that former CEO and billionaire donors could leverage anyway. The horrors of a second Trump presidency are vast, but most are spelled out plainly in the Project 2025 plan, a 900-page manifesto of how to usurp democracy in the most efficient ways possible. My local Congressman, Jared Huffman, is co-creator of a task force to see how Democrats can preemptively take the teeth out of this authoritarian playbook. Here’s Huffman’s interview with local PBS affiliate KQED: www.kqed.org/…[Please participate in the poll below before listening] Wouldn’t a midway point, a stepping stone for this conversion to GOP 2.0, come best through being repelled by a blatant disregard for the Constitution such as this? That way no direct Trump criticism need by voiced. Standing strongly against all that would be a feather in the cap for a future GOP 2.0 leader. Because going all-in on #RepubloFascism is something that even Fox News may choose to back away from. If they don’t subtly reinvent themselves too, they’re numbers will tank as well. And if all these cards fall just as described, perhaps in the coming years we will celebrate every May 30th as #ReIndependenceDay, the day that Trump was convicted for the first time. We’ll toast the end of #RepubloFascism, and the fact that we didn’t have to impeach Trump a third time to end his diminishing our greatness as a nation. 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