Don’t forget the hundreds of thousands of people in his congressional district. Despite their existence, he clearly has a constituency of one.
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Gaetz misunderstood the meaning of one man, one vote. He thinks he is the man and he gets the vote.
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I’ve got a radical suggestion.
How about if the Republicans chose a non-crazy candidate and then sidelined the lunatics by working with the Democrats to produce compromise legislation that was actually beneficial to the people of the United States? I mean, instead of allowing themselves to be held hostage by an angry minority (mis)representing some small fraction of the nation, they could find points of agreement with a faction that represents around 50% of the population, and try to pass practical, effective legislation.
OK, no, no, that’s clearly not going to happen. Sorry for even bringing it up.
One thing that is going to happen is that the ‘mainstream’ Republicans are going to do everything in their power to screw Gaetz (*). That slow-burning Ethics Committee investigation is going to start right up again. I’ll laugh if Gaetz’s little power-play results in all his dirty laundry being dragged out into the open. I’ll laugh even harder if it turns out to trigger some kind of effective conservative backlash against all the psychos currently calling the shots, the Tangerine Tyrant included.
(*) Another first for the history books: the first time so many people have wanted to fuck Gaetz without him having to Venmo them money first.
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The Republicans have never cared much about actual governing, but they have now gotten to the point where they won’t even tolerate the mere appearance of governing even as a charade.
Their Fox-addled voters sent them to Washington to burn the whole country down and they’re not going to let nonsense like “appropriations bills” get in the way.
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There is the same problem in the UK: if the parties in the House of Commons worked together for the common good then the marginal lunatic voices would get drowned out but the pressure these days is to frame everything as a test of ‘loyalty’.
Gaetz ‘won’ with the help of 7 other nihilists in a house of over 400.
I question the logic of the Democrats too; who do they think will be (s)elected who is better than McCarthy…?
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For example:
Technically they aren’t nihilists, they may want to destroy most government institutions but you can safely bet that the cops and military will remain.
Call them fascists because that’s what they are. If that word makes you uncomfortable then right-wing populist means the same thing. Just don’t call them conservative, they abandoned that ideology in 2016 at the latest.
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Probably, but kinda difficult if he’s going to be in and out of court for the next few months.
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I called them ‘nihilists’ intentionally as they appear to have absolutely no plan other than day-by-day obstruction and destruction of the US’ democratic processes.
After Jan 6th and Trump’s graceless comments about General Milley this week, my suspicion is that the police and military will want little to do with them.
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Same here. McCarthy is a dumb, weak-willed guy who basically just wanted the shiny title. Any mayhem and destruction he caused with it was an afterthought driven by others in his party rather than his goal in and of itself (as it was with Gingrich and his ilk). As bad as he was, we’ve seen worse in this office from the GOP and we’re likely to see it again.
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They do have plans. Horrifying plans copying the worst points in history. Florida didn’t become a no-go area for me because nihilists were in charge. They knew what they were doing.
When people are talking about a possible trans genocide it isn’t hypebole.
Nihilists wouldn’t plan a genocide because that would mean believing in something.
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MAGA Caucus (standing on rickety bridge): Look at this rickety bridge! It’s awful! We need to tear down this rickety bridge!!
Democrats: Here, hold my anvil.
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Well, first of all, the Democrats aren’t going to do that. They just aren’t. And I don’t think they should. They are taking the stance that this is entirely a problem within the Republican Party and it’s the Republican Party that needs to figure this out. Jeffries and Pelosi both said in the last couple of days that it’s always been up to the majority party to choose the speaker and they see no reason for that to change. Sure, the Democrats could step in and work with the slightly less extreme portion of the GOP (there are no moderates in that party), and maybe that might help do things like avoid a government shutdown in 45 days, but I don’t think they should. Republicans have created this mess entirely on their own. It’s time they either clean it up, or get punished for it at the polls like they should. I understand the sentiment that “well somebody has to be the adult in the room” but at some point, Democrats have to stop being doormats on this stuff. They’re always the ones who have to step up and be the adult in the room, and the entire country is suffering because of it. No, this time, the Democratic Party needs to stand firm and say, “This is on you, Republicans. This is all on you. Whatever happens as a result of this is all on you.”
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Aaaand it gets more insane:
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Kevin actually thought that castrating himself to get the position was a GOOD idea. Guess he don’t think that now.
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Plus it’s explicitly against their own rules. (Not that these guys care about following rules)
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According to the recently renamed January 2023 Speaker of the United States House of Representatives election Wikipedia page, Trump did receive one vote in each of the seventh, eighth, and eleventh ballots from Matt Gaetz.
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We better fucking hope not…
David Duke without the baggage
No, they can’t, because they’ve all been basically been neutralized by the party. Romney is out and they primaried Cheney… lots of others have just refused to say anything or have retired. they are in FULL CONTROL of the party right now. Anyone who tries to moderate (like, reaching out to the Democrats to get shit done) gets smacked down by the far right of the wing, since they have a lock on a loud part of the base loyal to Trump.
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Gaetz also voted in favor of the 118th House Conference Rules, which don’t allow criminally indicted people to serve in House leadership. So that may get in the way of future attempts to make Trump the Speaker.
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there is an irony in this that mccarthy was ousted for working with democrats, and yet gaetz couldn’t have ousted him without the democratic vote
( thankfully /s gaetz and company have no morals and no compunctions, or it’d be some sort of oust-ception in the house )
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