Lessons learned and to be learned

Salon‘s senior writer Marcotte yesterday wrote:

McCarthy debacle comes with a lesson: There’s a downside to being a party of fascist trolls
Calling Republican renegades “ultraconservative” doesn’t cut it: This clown show is a symptom of the big F

It’s been entertaining, in a dark sort of way, watching the mainstream media try to explain what is fueling the conflict between Rep. Kevin McCarthy, the House Republicans’ supposed leader, and the 20 or so members of his own caucus who are preventing him from becoming House speaker. The New York Times called the anti-McCarthy faction “ultraconservative” and the Washington Post noted that most are full-on election deniers. Not only are these euphemisms for what they actually are — a bunch of fascists — it also falsely implies that the disagreement is ideological. It’s not. McCarthy is in full agreement with the anti-democratic views of this group. He was among the 147 House Republicans who voted to overturn the 2020 election in the immediate aftermath of the Capitol attack. While McCarthy was initially cranky about the violence of Jan. 6, 2021, he has done everything in his power to shield the powerful conspirators who incited it, including Donald Trump himself, from any accountability. 

There’s no real daylight between the foaming-at-the-mouth fascists and McCarthy, much less other GOP leaders like Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York, a shameless coup booster and reborn Trump loyalist, and Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana, who once described himself as “David Duke without the baggage.” Recognizing this, some political observers have started describing the fight as “personal,” as if the anti-Kevins just don’t like the guy. But that’s not plausible either, since the common factor uniting the 20 or 21 holdouts is not personality type but the fact that they come from safe seats in deep-red districts. These folks are far more worried about losing a primary to someone who runs on a more-fascist-than-thou platform than about losing to a Democrat.

[…]

So if this godawful mess is not personal or ideological, then what is it? Ultimately, it’s not about Kevin McCarthy at all. It’s about the Republican Party’s self-conception in its exciting new fascist iteration (which was forged under Donald Trump but doesn’t really have much to do with him either). Fascism needs to be understood less as an ideological movement and more as a movement devoted to the worship of power for its own sake, and also a dramatic aesthetic of constant warfare and performative purification of an ever-narrower conception of the body politic. 

Those are big words, and I apologize, but here’s a simpler way to put it: Fascists are a bunch of trolls who are never satisfied. They must always prove their power by ganging up on someone who’s been cast as an “outsider.” As the Atlantic’s Adam Serwer famously observed, “The cruelty is the point.” Most of the time, the targets are racial and sexual minorities, liberals or immigrants. But sometimes, that restless need to constantly bully someone manifests in purification rituals, where a once-trusted or even beloved insider is deemed an outsider who must be ritually purged. It’s just Kevin McCarthy’s turn in the proverbial barrel, though he almost certainly hasn’t helped his cause by constantly debasing himself before the hardliners. He’s marked himself as a weenie, and that just makes his tormentors enjoy watching him suffer even more. 

[continues]

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Author: patd

“But I don’t want to go among mad people," Alice remarked. "Oh, you can’t help that," said the Cat: "we’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad." "How do you know I’m mad?" said Alice. "You must be," said the Cat, "or you wouldn’t have come here.” ― Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

37 thoughts on “Lessons learned and to be learned”

  1. after a few more paragraphs Marcotte concludes:

    Well, the strategy of sowing internal discord among Republicans is working pretty well so far. A lot of the GOP’s most egregious nuts lost their elections. Those who made it across the finish line are currently in the process of blowing their party up. Democrats are wise to continue refusing to bail Republicans out of their own mess. Even though Kevin McCarthy is the fascist crowd’s newest piñata, that doesn’t mean it’s good for Democrats or democracy if he secures the speaker’s gavel. He has no interest in governing. The plan, if we want to call it that, was to ignore legislation and appoint lots of House committees to spread conspiracy theories about Joe Biden and other political foes. McCarthy was also expected to use threats about the debt ceiling and a possible government shutdown in a pointless and destructive effort to force cuts in Social Security and Medicare. By far the best thing for democracy is if the Republicans simply implode and their nefarious schemes never come to fruition. 
    Frankly, I think that’s why Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell just did a friendly bipartisan event with Biden in Kentucky, highlighting the benefits of infrastructure spending. Not long ago, McConnell would have done everything in his power to keep a Democratic president from getting credit for a popular program. He may now be starting to see the downside to this nihilistic approach to politics, which threatens to consume his entire party.
    It’s more than likely, however, that the Kentucky event will only sow more intra-party discord, further enraging the burn-it-all-down types and turning them even more forcefully against GOP leadership. Republicans may control the House, but they can’t control their own worst impulses. Meanwhile, Dark Brandon and the Democrats continue to flip the politics of fascist trolling back in the GOP’s face. Democracy is still at risk, make no mistake. But it now seems possible that its enemies may tear their own house down before they get the chance to destroy ours.

  2. Stephen offers a theory about why Kevin McCarthy continues to subject himself to losing floor votes in his fight to become Speaker, and the Republican party wants you to think all this chaos is actually refreshing.

  5. Someone has stirred the honey wagon and wafts of “things are changing, maybe today. . .” swirl around it.  No matter what it is about, McCarthy has already lost – even if he is elected to the gavel. 
     
    The best thing is we have existed through is history of idiots trying to destroy America, first two years ago and the second during this week.  I am not sure of the resolution of this.  I do wish I could live another twenty or forty more years just so I could revel youngsters about the time the russians almost destroyed America.

  6. https://www.nbcdfw.com/investigations/against-all-enemies-how-to-watch-nbc-5-investigates-new-streaming-series/3162233/

    “Former Oath Keeper Has Trained Texas Law Enforcement From More Than 80 Departments”

    “New NBC 5 streaming series “Against All Enemies” reveals how a law enforcement movement claiming sheriffs are more powerful than the FBI and the president has mushroomed in Texas.”

    “An NBC 5 investigation reveals a former leader of the far-right Oath Keepers has been able to attract Texas sheriffs and police officers from more than 80 law enforcement agencies to training sessions held across the state.”

    “Mack, who founded the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association (CSPOA), maintains that the U.S. Constitution gives local law enforcement officers powers to block federal officials, and even powers to personally determine whether laws are constitutional.”
     
     

    The cancer present in Congress is also growing elsewhere.

  8. Fun fact: 
    Bill Dana (José Jimenez) wrote one script for Norman Lear’s “All in the Family”.  It was the one where Sammy Davis was the guest star. 

  9. Just noodling here – but from WaPo

    If there are votes through the weekend, several Republican members may be absent. Earlier this week, Wes Hunt (Texas) welcomed the birth of his son, Willie Parish Hunt. He has returned to Texas. Republican Kevin Hern (Okla.) may attend the funeral of his mother on Saturday.

    If the number of votes for named candidates is 423 on any ballot and Jeffries still has 212 he would be elected speaker.

  10. Let’s set an over/under for McCarthy for today’s ballots.  I’m thinking 204 would be a good number.  
     
    To start it off I’ll bet $1 on UNDER

  11. So Gaetz moved from Dumbass to Gym.  I’m beginning to think all he really cares about is standing at that lectern.

  12. 3 of the first 5 dissenters have voted for McCarthy. He may actually break the 204 OVER threshold this time.

  14. McCarthy loses again – 5 dissenters voted for Hern or Gym. That’s 5 flips to McCarthy of the 10 dissenters who’ve voted so far. 

    Looks like Kev is pulling about half the dissenters over. He might even get as may votes this round as Hakeem, which would still leave him 5 shy.

  17. McCarthy is now at the inchworm stage- picked up one vote of the 7 against him in the 12th, with one – Rosendale – still outstanding.

  18. Will we have a new SOTH on this anniversary of J6?  What were Kevin and other seditious members doing that day?  

  22. McCarthy trying to bribe 3 of the 6 holdouts.
     
    He’ll be the Speaker under the Sword of Damocles, with the likes of Boebert and Gaetz walking around with scissors.  From Dana Milbank:

    […]

    On Thursday, the day McCarthy failed on an 11th consecutive ballot to secure the speakership, he formally surrendered to the 21 GOP extremists denying him the job. He agreed to allow any member of the House to force a vote at will to “vacate” his speakership — essentially agreeing to be in permanent jeopardy of losing his job. He agreed to put rebels on the Rules Committee, giving them sway over what gets a vote on the House floor, and in key committee leadership posts. He agreed to unlimited amendments to spending bills, inviting two years of mayhem.
     

    Perhaps worst of all, the McCarthy-aligned super PAC, the Conservative Leadership Fund, agreed that it would no longer work against far-right extremists in the vast majority of Republican primaries. Essentially, McCarthy tried to placate the crazies in his caucus by giving up every tool he had to maintain order in the House.
    […]

    And of course, Alexandra:

    The House has been in session for — no one remembers how long. There is still no speaker. Vines have started to grow back in through the walls, bursting through the painting of the Marquis de Lafayette. Absolutely nobody is getting constituent services, anywhere. Something is snuffling about in the underbrush.

    C-SPAN thinks this might be the 839th ballot, but C-SPAN briefly decided it would be more auteur-like to film the entire vote through a fish-eye lens on the grounds that “when there is a speaker, they never let us film through a fish-eye lens”; the network was so excited by this possibility that it became distracted and lost count.

    The clerks are still maintaining order, but just barely. A small Outback Steakhouse faction has formed in one corner of the chamber, lured by the scent of an illicit Bloomin’ Onion, and they are chanting, “NO RULES! JUST RIGHT!” and threatening to drown out the calling of the votes.

    […]

    McCarthy briefly falls asleep during the voting and has a disorienting nightmare that he is slumbering in the House during an infinite series of ballots where he fails to get a majority of votes to be speaker, and when he wakes up to the sound of his own name being called to vote, he says “no” in a timid voice and begins to whimper.

    […]

    It is summer now. There is no air conditioning in the chamber because a speaker has not yet been elected. Everyone is slowly melting. Lawmakers have sharpened their ties into fine points and are using them to forage.
     
    McCarthy insists on another ballot for speaker, but Boebert’s band of hunters decides to leave the chamber to try to hunt the wild hogs that they have heard roam the island. Gaetz seats himself on a big rock promontory and announces that he is king of the island. He levers a boulder off the cliff, and its thunderous crash again wakes McCarthy from his dream. It is all still happening.
     
    The clerk gently asks McCarthy whether he would like to move for another adjournment, but McCarthy waves the offer away. He is confident that on the next ballot, he’ll have it.

     “We don’t need a speaker,” Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) shouts. “Whoever has the conch should be speaker!” But nobody can find a conch.

    And so it goes.

  23. Blue

    That second full moon in a month is a “blue moon”.  Owing to the rarity of a blue moon, the term “blue moon” is used colloquially to mean a rare event, as in the phrase “once in a blue moon”

  24. Courtesy of my Twitter buddy @youthguy07 Carl Jones (well worth following if you like music).

    In a 1973 Doonebury comic, Phred, a SE Asian communist, visits a bombed-out museum in Cambodia. At the time, the U.S. congress was holding hearings on Nixon’s so-called “secret bombings” of that country. Phred asks the museum curator if the museum had been hit by the secret bombings. The man replied that there was nothing secret about them. The bombs were obvious. He had even mentioned them to his wife. But we needed hearings to be sure.

    Aren’t we doing the same thing with J6? The rest of the free world sees all the evidence and asks how we can allow these not-so-secret traitors to remain free, much less have a voice inside our governing bodies. We, the people, don’t get it either. The insurrectionists are traitors. We watched it happen. There was nothing secret about it. I even mentioned it to my wife.

     

  36. On the 15th try, McCarthy has become king of the turds.

    It’s time to start a pool. How long before one of the GQP rips the gavel from his hand? That was the deal he made, right? Just one member is enough to knock him down?

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