Speakership

[Sean]

While I am genuinely exhausted with the Democrats being the ones expected to jump in and actually govern when the GOP falls into shambles, I am equally exhausted with the increasing Democratic tolerance for letting our country head to the brink before stepping in and doing something about it. Because these aren't "Republican" problems- they're American problems.

Having said that, I get why they didn't step in and save McCarthy. They weren't mad about him going on air and saying they were the ones blocking passage of the CR (I mean, that's not what they were primarily mad about) they were mad at him once again making deals he had no intention of honoring- this time in the form of a standalone Ukraine funding vote he had promised. And the idiot got up on TV and told everyone that he would give the Democrats zero concessions for supporting his bid as Speaker. This is a topic that has been danced around a lot in the media and among his peers, but McCarthy has a reputation for being genuinely stupid. We saw a lot of that on display over the last few days.

And McCarthy's speakership was going to be increasingly unstable and untenable even if he did survive this last round. That, plus the fact that McCarthy has done some genuinely bad things for the country in capitulation to his most extreme flank, it's hard to imagine someone else being worse for Democrats and the country. So I think Democrats figured things could only go up from here, and that they weren't actually going to be sparing the nation this chaos. Simply delaying it.

Of course, then Jim Jordan raised his hand. Oh and we've got to fund the damn government in fewer than 45 days.

So here we are, rushing towards the brink again. And the Democrats are nowhere to be found and won't be until the last minute.

I think it's a lot less complex than that. The play is that if the seat if vacant there's always the possibility that a group of Republicans might crossover and offer the Democrats something or someone worth voting for. It's a calculated risk that the seat won't move further to the right but even if it does there's still the Senate and White House as a backstop.

Is it likely? No. Is it possible? Sure. As giddy as this thread is about a potential speaker Trump I'd say his nomination would make it more likely.

That being said I agree that the game of chicken with a functioning government is getting tiresome.