I devoted the 40 minutes necessary to listen to the conversation embedded above between Washington Post columnist Henry Olsen and Heritage CEO Kevin Roberts today and for the life of me I can’t recognize today’s Republican Party or, indeed, the United States more generally in the GOP and America they describe in their conversation. Consider it through the prism of the spectacle of picking a new Speaker that we have been held hostage to for the last five days. What did that tell us? I think it told us that there is a very small number of Republicans who will do pretty much anything to get their way and, fortunately or unfortunately, they don’t have a clear idea of what “their way” is.
I also don’t see “MAGA Republicans” or “MAGA adjacent” in quite the way they do, either. I think that there was a faction of the population, many of them generally negative about politics who liked Trump because he was petty and combative. Basically, they’re mad as hell and they’re not going to take it any more. Am I wrong about that?
No, Howard Beale lives. It would explain the appeal of the various firebrands in the House on both sides despite their failure to deliver but do stick it to who/whatever.
Hmmm on rethink, Pelosi was able to get her firebrands under control while in the Senate Sanders was sidelined by the leadership there.
“I think that there was a faction of the population, many of them generally negative about politics who liked Trump because he was petty and combative.”
Duh! (If only those were the only 2 negative things about him, which they also liked.)
Steve
First, I didn’t see the 15 rounds of votes to pick a new speaker as “being held hostage.†The time, rather, was being used to voice conflicting opinions on how the House used it power – giving it all to the speaker, or dividing it up between members representing the people’s views. The minority members (20), because of the GOP’s slim majority used this as a chance to redirect the House back to what it had been in earlier times – a collection of voices making choices for the country not of one centralized voice, mainly that of a powerful Speaker.
Consequently, the “concessions†given by McCarthy, for the most part, leveled the playing field in the House, where debate was restored, more time to read bills was mandated, a better eye on fiscal management prevailed, a Church Commission is in the wings in order to temper the out of control FBI/CIA’s abuse of power, and more diverse members to have seats in the Rules Committee.
Basically, I thought the majority of changes were for the good. Thus, the delay in finally naming the Speaker had merit.
https://thehill.com/opinion/judiciary/3803600-the-55th-speaker-kevin-mccarthy-is-no-nancy-pelosi-and-thats-a-good-thing/
Lol
When the Times or the Post. Any of the TV networks. NPR or the Atlantic are your usual citations.
Well.