You're absolutely right about them wanting the war. This is already a win for them: the chaos, the obstruction... if they get a speaker of their choosing, they win. If they sabotage the entire process and stop anything from getting done, they win. The nightmare scenario where the house is still fighting over a speaker on the 4th of July is a win for them too. They sincerely believe that the country is already hopelessly compromised and if they can't reshape it from inside, they're perfectly willing to burn it all down.
well said. Dems seem to think this whole busted shit show makes them look good by comparison, much the same way a fractured skull is so much better than malignant glioblastoma, except that... the cancer is still spreading.
Democrats, somewhat ironically, still run on a competency platform that assumes "governments can help solve problems" verses the Reagan era manta of "government is the problem" but this morphed into "government is the enemy."
You can fix or ameliorate a problem; you can only destroy an enemy.
~ "The Freedom Caucus has no interest in governing. No interest in politics or compromise....
For many, many years, people like McCarthy have loudly beaten the drums of war while quietly doing politics, but the *real warriors* are here now."
We call the Republicans "Conservatives", but anymore that description only applies to the more reasonable portion of their party and could easily be applied to most of the Dems as well. They just want to go back to their lucrative cushy jobs where they only need pay cursory attention and send the heavy lifting to their interns.
If the Dems had any sense, they'd make some smart deals and throw some votes K-Mac's way. Have some of their more conservative members in safe districts cross the aisle "in the interest of compromise", but demand McCarthy throw out the concessions he made to the arch conservatives. Very little risk really: nothing of worth is going to happen for the next two years anyway.
I love your analogy of the sheep raising a generation of wolves. The schadenfreude is strong.
While I’d love to see a centrist compromise with Democrats (Fred Upton?), that’s not what I think is most likely. I think the wolves will wring McCarthy for every concession they can, changing the role of Speaker to “clerk of the majority”. Then they will throw there support to Steve Scalise, leaving McCarthy bleeding by the side of the road. The wolves don’t like Scalise any better than McCarthy, except that but the time they are done with McCarthy, he will be a shriveled husk.
I saw a GQP member of the House making a statement earlier this evening 6/5/23. He is a McCarthy supporter. He said they wouldn't unconditionally surrender to the Freedom Caucus. He then said the Caucus should tell them what thier conditions are and they might surrender WITH conditions????? But he then reiterated that the McCarthy wing would NOT surrender unconditionally! So BOOM! I guess? He told them. If the non-Freedom Caucus GQP would work even a tiny bit with the Dems they could make the 20 terrorists irrelevant but they have been holding to the "the libs and Dems want to destroy us" for so long now they can't. Can't means won't sadly.
I think McCarthy wants it bad enough he would sell his soul - - however, the going price for Republican leader's souls is already so dismal that won't get him a mini-bar breakfast; he may indeed have to make deal with the devil (the dems).
I wonder if Liz Cheney could get 8-10 Republicans votes?
It seems possible to have 1) Dems vote to chair McCarthy as SOH 2) everyone agree to suspend seating any of political suicide squad on ANY committees for one year which will make everyone's (including Kevin's) life easier, and 3) provide a means that the Whip and SOH can issue a joint Letter of Admonition if needed, that has some teeth, to effectively mute members that would disrupt the body functioning.
Basically: Everyone tell the neoanarchists to F' off. They have the right to vote against whatever they please, but they cannot hold up the functioning of the US Congress.
The following are just my opinions of course but once again the GQP are showing anyone watching who they are. And at keast 20 of them are political terrorists seeking power over the House and by extension the country. And they really want to hurt Americans. Tgat isnt my opinion. That is what they admit when they want severe spending "austerity" which is GQP code for gutting social programs, gutting govt agencies ability to protect Americans from late stage capitalism and billionaires with the maturity of two year olds. I'm 66 and get railroad retirement benefits which are tied to Social Security benefit levels even though the trust fund is not funded BY any Soc. Sec. $. Freedom Caucus wants to gut those benefits bc they are far too generous (hint: they aren't) while they continue to receive thier Congressional salaries and benefits tgat dearf mine. They want to privatize or just end Medicare/Medicaid under the same logic. I can go down the list: Benefits? Too generous/costly. Food stamps? Ditto. Public Education? You already know by now if you've been paying attention. Do they have ANY plan to modify or replace these programs that MILLIONS of Americans of all ages depend on? Certainly not that they have shared with anyone to my knowledge. Oh of course they may come up with a plan in 2 weeks just as soon as infrastructure week ends. Wanna put some money on prop bet? Check with the odds makers. As soon as they stop laughing that is.
Excellent writeup as always Laura. I've been seeing this as a battle for the soul of the house GOP for a while too. I also observed that the GOP is so laser-focused on creating obstructionist and antigovernmental candidates that when the time finally comes to build some kind of consensus, there isn't really anyone to do it.
McCarthy strikes me as an incredibly weak leader. To the point that while he may get the speaker seat, he won't be effective. The only thing he can do is kick the left really, and he'll do that repeatedly. But like you said, the hardliners are out for blood and war, and McCarthy has caved on basically everything.
You're absolutely right about them wanting the war. This is already a win for them: the chaos, the obstruction... if they get a speaker of their choosing, they win. If they sabotage the entire process and stop anything from getting done, they win. The nightmare scenario where the house is still fighting over a speaker on the 4th of July is a win for them too. They sincerely believe that the country is already hopelessly compromised and if they can't reshape it from inside, they're perfectly willing to burn it all down.
well said. Dems seem to think this whole busted shit show makes them look good by comparison, much the same way a fractured skull is so much better than malignant glioblastoma, except that... the cancer is still spreading.
Democrats, somewhat ironically, still run on a competency platform that assumes "governments can help solve problems" verses the Reagan era manta of "government is the problem" but this morphed into "government is the enemy."
You can fix or ameliorate a problem; you can only destroy an enemy.
~ "The Freedom Caucus has no interest in governing. No interest in politics or compromise....
For many, many years, people like McCarthy have loudly beaten the drums of war while quietly doing politics, but the *real warriors* are here now."
We call the Republicans "Conservatives", but anymore that description only applies to the more reasonable portion of their party and could easily be applied to most of the Dems as well. They just want to go back to their lucrative cushy jobs where they only need pay cursory attention and send the heavy lifting to their interns.
If the Dems had any sense, they'd make some smart deals and throw some votes K-Mac's way. Have some of their more conservative members in safe districts cross the aisle "in the interest of compromise", but demand McCarthy throw out the concessions he made to the arch conservatives. Very little risk really: nothing of worth is going to happen for the next two years anyway.
I love your analogy of the sheep raising a generation of wolves. The schadenfreude is strong.
While I’d love to see a centrist compromise with Democrats (Fred Upton?), that’s not what I think is most likely. I think the wolves will wring McCarthy for every concession they can, changing the role of Speaker to “clerk of the majority”. Then they will throw there support to Steve Scalise, leaving McCarthy bleeding by the side of the road. The wolves don’t like Scalise any better than McCarthy, except that but the time they are done with McCarthy, he will be a shriveled husk.
That was really good, and very well written. Thank you!
Quality writing.
Hard to find good craftsmanship in putting together these types of observations.
Gawdess, I do love your writing so very much. This is absolutely the best take on Kevin and his own personal hell that I have read so far.
I saw a GQP member of the House making a statement earlier this evening 6/5/23. He is a McCarthy supporter. He said they wouldn't unconditionally surrender to the Freedom Caucus. He then said the Caucus should tell them what thier conditions are and they might surrender WITH conditions????? But he then reiterated that the McCarthy wing would NOT surrender unconditionally! So BOOM! I guess? He told them. If the non-Freedom Caucus GQP would work even a tiny bit with the Dems they could make the 20 terrorists irrelevant but they have been holding to the "the libs and Dems want to destroy us" for so long now they can't. Can't means won't sadly.
I think McCarthy wants it bad enough he would sell his soul - - however, the going price for Republican leader's souls is already so dismal that won't get him a mini-bar breakfast; he may indeed have to make deal with the devil (the dems).
I wonder if Liz Cheney could get 8-10 Republicans votes?
It seems possible to have 1) Dems vote to chair McCarthy as SOH 2) everyone agree to suspend seating any of political suicide squad on ANY committees for one year which will make everyone's (including Kevin's) life easier, and 3) provide a means that the Whip and SOH can issue a joint Letter of Admonition if needed, that has some teeth, to effectively mute members that would disrupt the body functioning.
Basically: Everyone tell the neoanarchists to F' off. They have the right to vote against whatever they please, but they cannot hold up the functioning of the US Congress.
The following are just my opinions of course but once again the GQP are showing anyone watching who they are. And at keast 20 of them are political terrorists seeking power over the House and by extension the country. And they really want to hurt Americans. Tgat isnt my opinion. That is what they admit when they want severe spending "austerity" which is GQP code for gutting social programs, gutting govt agencies ability to protect Americans from late stage capitalism and billionaires with the maturity of two year olds. I'm 66 and get railroad retirement benefits which are tied to Social Security benefit levels even though the trust fund is not funded BY any Soc. Sec. $. Freedom Caucus wants to gut those benefits bc they are far too generous (hint: they aren't) while they continue to receive thier Congressional salaries and benefits tgat dearf mine. They want to privatize or just end Medicare/Medicaid under the same logic. I can go down the list: Benefits? Too generous/costly. Food stamps? Ditto. Public Education? You already know by now if you've been paying attention. Do they have ANY plan to modify or replace these programs that MILLIONS of Americans of all ages depend on? Certainly not that they have shared with anyone to my knowledge. Oh of course they may come up with a plan in 2 weeks just as soon as infrastructure week ends. Wanna put some money on prop bet? Check with the odds makers. As soon as they stop laughing that is.
Excellent writeup as always Laura. I've been seeing this as a battle for the soul of the house GOP for a while too. I also observed that the GOP is so laser-focused on creating obstructionist and antigovernmental candidates that when the time finally comes to build some kind of consensus, there isn't really anyone to do it.
McCarthy strikes me as an incredibly weak leader. To the point that while he may get the speaker seat, he won't be effective. The only thing he can do is kick the left really, and he'll do that repeatedly. But like you said, the hardliners are out for blood and war, and McCarthy has caved on basically everything.
Me, reading this article aloud: "...establishment Republican RINOs torpedoed perfectly good candidates by not believing in them hard enough."
My wife: "Do you believe in fairies? Say quick that you believe! If you believe, clap your hands!"
It was meant to be VA benefits on tgat first one on the list. I typed it and saw it on the screen. Honest.
no one wins civil wars