Why aren’t these 5 or so holdouts getting absolutely reamed on the national stage for blocking the entire country from getting anything done? The national media should be shaming the constituent districts too for sending these clowns to congress.
Going to work for government never meant getting things exactly your way. It means finding compromises that work for all the people.
MTG, McCarthy, and Jordan have all said the same thing over the past couple of days. They know that they’re supposed to compromise with Democrats. They know that’s how the HoR is supposed to function. They literally just don’t want to. It’s not even the quiet part any more. Compromise is political suicide, and they openly intend to make sure that attempting to work with Democrats on anything will signal the end of your political career.
Compromise = weakness to these people. The mantra of the MAGA wing of the party is now to seize power by any means necessary, including by force.
The HoR, somewhat ironically, was originally designed to handle these things without issue: A group of extremists on either side could be easily stepped on by a larger group of moderates from both parties telling them to have a Coke and a smile and shut the fuck up. But politics in general has long since devolved into an “us vs. them” mentality with two parties who refuse to even acknowledge when the other side might have a point. And this form of “government” absolutely cannot function when there are essentially three parties now with none having a majority.
I know it existed to some degree even before this, but this really started with the Hastert rule, when it was no longer acceptable to pass bills with a bipartisan majority, and instead focusing on pushing through unpopluar Republican bills by force. That was the hard line in the sand and both sides have dug in their heels ever since. Truly bipartisan bills are a relic of the past (And no, I don’t count “all the votes from one side, plus one or two other votes from the representatives of Bumfuck, Nowhere” as bipartisan.) , and the current state of Congress is a direct result of that.
MTG, McCarthy, and Jordan have all said the same thing over the past couple of days. They know that they’re supposed to compromise with Democrats. They know that’s how the HoR is supposed to function. They literally just don’t want to. It’s not even the quiet part any more. Compromise is political suicide, and they openly intend to make sure that attempting to work with Democrats on anything will signal the end of your political career.
Compromise = weakness to these people. The mantra of the MAGA wing of the party is now to seize power by any means necessary, including by force.
The HoR, somewhat ironically, was originally designed to handle these things without issue: A group of extremists on either side could be easily stepped on by a larger group of moderates from both parties telling them to have a Coke and a smile and shut the fuck up. But politics in general has long since devolved into an “us vs. them” mentality with two parties who refuse to even acknowledge when the other side might have a point. And this form of “government” absolutely cannot function when there are essentially three parties now with none having a majority.
I know it existed to some degree even before this, but this really started with the Hastert rule, when it was no longer acceptable to pass bills with a bipartisan majority, and instead focusing on pushing through unpopluar Republican bills by force. That was the hard line in the sand and both sides have dug in their heels ever since. Truly bipartisan bills are a relic of the past (And no, I don’t count “all the votes from one side, plus one or two other votes from the representatives of Bumfuck, Nowhere” as bipartisan.) , and the current state of Congress is a direct result of that.