The suspense is building. Roll Call reports that Kevin McCarthy has given away the farm but still hasn’t secured the Speaker’s gavel. The vote is less now about 24 hours away.
A proposed House rules package Republicans released late Sunday includes a few olive branches from Kevin McCarthy to Freedom Caucus members who have yet to commit to supporting him for speaker.
The gestures from McCarthy include proposals to reduce to five the number of Republicans it would take to force a vote on ousting the speaker, create a select Judiciary subcommittee to centralize investigations into the executive branch, limit bills to a single subject and make it harder to waive the germaneness rule for amendments.
But those proposals did not appear to be enough to win over many members who have opposed making him speaker.
In one sense, McCarthy has already lost because making it so easy to oust the Speaker makes it impossible for him to do his job. Even if he somehow secures the gavel on Tuesday, he won’t be able to keep it. He’ll either get bounced by right-wing radicals for paying America’s debts and funding its agencies or he’ll get bounced by the vast majority of the House for refusing to do those things and causing a global depression.
The same problem will face any other Republican Speaker who relies on support from the far right for their majority. This is why we may actually see a bipartisan majority caucus emerge in the House. It could happen preemptively, to avoid obvious looming catastrophes, but it will more likely come down the line in response to catastrophe. There is a ton on the line, and it will be quite the show.
First up is finding out if McCarthy will get a shot at the outset or if everything will be instantly thrown into confusion after he fails on the first ballot. I’m definitely interested to see what happens, and it’s not the kind of thing that’s easy to forecast. We may be in rare historical waters by late afternoon tomorrow.
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At some level, the war has finally come home for fascism, and now the battles are being fought solely within the confines of the Confederate carcass that we used to call the Republican party.
This looks like the logical endpoint for the ideological purity purges that dominated from 1994 – 2006. While there have been multiple elections since then, each of those have featured very rightwing to nihilistically right wing options cheered on by that confederacy, and the propaganda machines on television and radio (and podcasting in the contemporary sense).
These crazy sons of gun’s could absolutely hold the line tomorrow. If they aren’t, hats off for the masterclass in negotiations. But then, I suppose if these folks had real skills as strategists, the Republican party would have had an electoral approach that made sense for the moment, and allowed for a large enough cushion to prevent this lunacy in the first place.
Authoritarian Fascists vs Constitutional Fascists. It’s hard to pick a side to root for, but all I know is that the Republican Party must be destroyed before any kind of Progressivism/Democratic Socialism has a chance to grow.
So, here’s to hoping both groups of fascists destroy the other so completely that the Republican Party will have essentially committed suicide. It sure would be a great thing for the country. At least we could start working on the various issues that are intensifying the collapse, instead of just ignoring them and pretending things are fine.
The foundation of the narrative position that only the Democratic Party is responsible for political outcomes (Merc’s Law) really is rooted in the simply shocking way that the Republican Party is able to vote in the most vile and unconscionable unity in both chambers, with only a minimal amount of members being freed up occasionally (especially in the Senate) when expedient.
So what happens if and when that vile conformity turns on itself? I think Booman has to be viewed as correct that McCarthy has already lost, and best case scenario for them is that Steve Scalese or some other true believer quickly strikes some kind of deal just to get through the week, but at the same time, it is sure starting to look like a thread that, if pulled, could unravel the entire fabric of the Republican Party since they don’t appear to have an actual line they hold to, and if the 5 – 20 Authoritarian/Constitutional Fascists are successful in blocking succession tomorrow it’s going to be pandemonium.
Separate of how scary these people are to our country and world, you have to marvel at the cosmic failure of the Republican Party to even get near a situation where there is basically no upside reward of any kind, and the down side risk is an endless abyss. It’s the tell that they are the true heirs of the Confederate States.
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