"Clown car."
People at MSNBC are gleeful. People at Fox and the Wall Street Journal are frustrated and ashamed.
I'm not laughing.
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| Newsweek photo illustration |
There is a better GOP than the one I see on TV today. We need there to be one. America has a two party system, and power oscillates back and forth between the two parties. Democrats should resign themselves. Republicans are going to be in power about half the time. My 30-year career as a Financial Advisor, where I followed stock and bond markets closely, lightened my attitude about political wins and losses. Stock prices rise and fall. One learns not to overreact. Markets are finding an equilibrium. Nothing lasts. Excesses correct themselves eventually.
Kevin McCarthy is an unusually pure example of the D.C. swamp. He isn't driven by policy goals the way former GOP Speaker Paul Ryan was. Lobbyists liked him. He is a political market bellwether. He seeks the sweet spot. Under some circumstances that would be the ideal candidate for House Speaker. The problem is that the current circumstance is impossible for anyone. Republicans created what former Speaker John Boehner called a "crazytown" where the incentives for many people in the officeholder-media-pundit world is to be disruptive. Republicans nurtured a charismatic populist demagogue, and that empowered Trump's copycats. They are cheered for saying they want to burn down the GOP along with the federal government. They say the government is the enemy, ridden with Deep State tyrants who rig elections. The Wall Street Journal and the GOP donor class are trying to get control of the whirlwind they funded. They wanted Democrats, trade unions, and business regulators to be smashed, but not the banks, the Federal Reserve, the Justice Department, and the government itself. They want to get the GOP back on track of cutting marginal tax rates. The copycats learned too well that the elites that read the Wall Street Journal--Democrats and Republicans both--are the enemy.
This is a problem for the country and for Democrats, not just for the GOP. I have reconciled myself to the reality that Republicans and Democrats will share power. Political activists who seek victory misunderstand the process. The arc of history bending toward justice creates backlashes. Revolutions create counter-revolutions. It is better for everyone if Republicans are good at governing. The intransigent-20 currently holding things up are getting concessions from McCarthy. They are using leverage to move the party toward more-crazy. Defund the FBI! Defund the IRS! End Civil Service!
In the short term they are dangerous. In the longer view, they sow the seeds of their own backlash. Trump looks unhinged. The copycats are on TV right now, and they look like cranks. We will go through a bad patch.The suffering creates the pressure to fix what went wrong.
Meanwhile, there is another GOP, not the one on TV this week. It is less visible, but present, like a watermark on paper. Mitch McConnell and Joe Biden and the governors of Ohio and Kentucky are celebrating the repair of a bridge over the Ohio River. A majority of people in America are tired of the clown show.
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4 comments:
Today Christians celebrate the Epiphany, or the coming of the Magi. It’s also the anniversary of the Jan. 6 coup attempt.
The dictionary definition of an epiphany is “a sudden, intuitive perception of or insight into the reality or essential meaning of something.” On Jan. 6, we got a sudden insight into the reality of the Republican Party, which has been trending increasingly anti-democratic since Newt Gingrich put out his Contract on America. Its current chaos is just a symptom.
During the 2016 Republican primary, Rick Perry accurately described Trump as “a cancer on conservatism.” It’s metastasized and no, it isn't funny. It's just stupid.
Every now and then, the American two-party system disintegrates and reorganizes itself. The last time it happened, the Whig Party disappeared, and the Republican Party was born. Something like that may be in the process of happening now. The Republican Party has a chance to expel its radical fringe and absorb a segment of moderate Democrats. I think it’s less likely, but conceivably the Democrats could possibly do something similar.
Our foreign enemies are loving every minute of this. It looks like we can't govern ourselves. Old school Republicans brought the GQP to the dance. When you lay down with dogs you get fleas.
Looks like McCarthy will become speaker of the house on the 14 th try, but don’t expect much beyond obstructing government out of the House of Representatives. Expect a government shutdown when it comes to funding unless the radical faction loses power. It won’t be pretty. Thankfully the senate is in more responsible hands.
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