January 7, 2023
I do not usually post political essays...but after watching about 14 hours of congress electing a Republican Speaker of the House, this is an exception...raw and not much edited.
Dangerous, Destabilizing, Detrimental
All played a role in the 14 rounds of choosing a Republican Speaker of the House
The impact of venal behavior by members of the house and the senate put our institution of democracy at risk.
Collegiality? Compromise?
No.
A clown-car masquerading as democracy.
Third world powers have had smoother transitions.
For right wing idealogues, the opportunity to get print and TV air time and preen to their constituents appeared to be their goal. They met the moment.
In the past, debate, disagreement, discussion have been followed by forms of reconciliation that all can live with. Not today.
Country first?
Kicked by the wayside by politicians whose only interest is self interest. Peacemakers were overtaken by chest thumping ideologues eager to feed a ready made audience. The tumult around the election of the speaker of the house set the house on fire.
An open question… Will functional democracy survive?
Where were the voices in the house and the senate who aim to resuscitate the democracy we have known for over 200 years?
Job-seeking speaker of the house, Republican Kevin McCarthy, in his struggle to maintain power , gave away so many concessions to the right wing so called “rebels” that the inherent authority of his office has been diluted to the point of functional impracticality.
All to secure his lifelong dream , a dream for which he has been a sycophant to President Trump and others in order to attain.What will survive after this high stakes political food fight.
I was I witnessing a bunch of adults behaving like an unsupervised group of high school students on a field trip. Kevin McCarthy brought most of this upon himself in his lifelong dream to become speaker of the house. His dream became a nightmare for civility, for democracy, and for the country.
Country first?
How quaint.
We are in political quicksand.
McCarthy’s longtime ambition was nipped at the heels by egomaniacal politicians drunk on the desire to gain time on television and print to nurture their own ill-defined aspirations.
Country first.
How quaint.
Predictions by Ben Franklin…
“It’s a democracy if you can keep it.”
Abraham Lioncoln.
In a January 1838 speech to a group in Springfield, Illinois, Lincoln stated: "At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide."
Perhaps most appropriate at the moment…
In the words of the immortal Pogo, “I have seen the enemy and he is us.”
Here we are.
In his effort to become speaker McCarthy agreed to give away powers that used to make the Speaker’s office authoritative and an axis, for better or worse, around which Congress revolves.
The speaker of the house? More likely a bunker striving to torment Democrats with allegations about Afghanistan and Hunter Biden.
Is that a legislative program?
He has brought this upon himself. His visit to Mar-a-Lago to kiss the ring of Donald Trump in order to secure his path to the house was shameless an affront to the men and women who tried to defend the Capitol from the January 6 marauders who sought to overturn the election.
His act to weasel into the job he coveted rivals Faust’s deal with the devil…giving away his soul for his ambition.
This is about not about Republican and Democrat. This is about power and the cost of grasping it and holding on to it.
Ambition has driven men and women to great heights and great losses.
Will Democracy be a casualty to ambition?
Even odds.
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