Topsy-Turvy
Back in 1932, humorist Will Rogers famously said, “I am not a member of any organized political party — I am a Democrat.”
In 1966, Ronald Reagan created what he called the 11th Commandment for Republicans: “Thou shalt not speak ill of any fellow Republican.”
My, how the political world has changed.
(By the way, just to add to this -- what Will Rogers also said in 1932 was, “Democrats never agree on anything, that’s why they’re Democrats. If they agreed with each other, they’d be Republicans.”)
Yesterday, every Democrat in the House of Representatives stuck together and voted to remove Kevin McCarthy as Speaker of the House. And enough House Republicans voted to kick him out to make McCarthy the first Speaker in U.S. history ever to be voted out of his position. After only nine months. On the positive side, he outlasted Anthony Scaramucci’s tenure as Trump’s Communications Director by 8-1/2 months.
The political world in Washington has gone upside-down.
But then, who would have imagined that the Republican Party, the party of Lincoln who freed the slaves and saved the union, the flag-waving, “American love it or leave,” and “Better dead than Red” party would become full-fascist and support trying to overthrow democracy?
(Actually, you might have had a better chance winning that bet during the past 50 years than the one about Democrats being united and Republicans eating their young.)
There was a lot of reporting on the news about how shocking this result was yesterday. And while anything happening for the first time in the 247 years of U.S. history is “shocking,” this really wasn’t. Ever since Republicans took an amazing 15 ballots to simply elect McCarthy the Speaker – and that was only settled when he agreed to an unprecedented rule whereby any one member of Congress alone could call for his job to be vacated – it was near-impossible to not see this coming. This was the opposite of shocking, it was almost pre-ordained. Given how captive the GOP has become to its right-wing religious base, yesterday’s action was the perfect symbolism, being pretty much Biblical in its pre-destination. And then, just for good measure, add in that McCarthy broke his word on his budget deal with President Biden -- and also authorized an impeachment hearing based on zero evidence to appease his extreme-right chaos caucus. And he thought Democrats should work with him?? This wasn’t a train wreck waiting to happen, this was actively watching an inevitable train wreck happening in excruciating slow-motion for nine months.
If there was any humor in the outcome, it has to have come from roastmaster Kevin McCarthy himself. That’s when he held a press conference after the vote and, among other things, claimed about how his ouster was accomplished by disgruntled Republicans who voted with Democrats to remove a Republican Speaker. This was something, he said, that shouldn’t be possible, “I don’t think this rule is good,” he insisted, “I don’t believe you should have this rule.”
For the record, “the rule” was one that he himself negotiated. So that he could be Speaker. For nine months.
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