With Trump putting all his weight behind them Margaret Sullivan with a sobering take on the Speaker debacle: The process was appalling, and the outcome even more so, as Republicans in the House of Representatives finally found someone they could more or less agree on. That agreement, though, may be more accurately described as simple exhaustion after three weeks of embarrassing misfires. And who is it they have managed to elect speaker of the US House, the person in line to lead the nation just after the president and vice-president? It’s Mike Johnson of Louisiana who, as one example of his profound unsuitability, brags that he doesn’t believe that human beings cause the climate crisis, though his home state has been ravaged by it. He is against abortion, voted against aid to Ukraine and stridently opposes LGBTQ+ rights. Perhaps most notably, Johnson had a leading role in trying to overturn he 2020 election. That means that the official second in line to the presidency “violated his oath to the constitution and tried to disenfranchise four states”, as the writer Marcy Wheeler neatly put it.
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That’s because he’s never actually participated in one This piece by David Pepper is illuminating: A few years ago, now-Speaker Mike Johnson said we do not live in a democracy. "You know, we don't live in a democracy" but a "biblical" republic. That's what Mike Johnson said in a 2016 interview as he explained his views on the U.S. government. That's what the new Republican House speaker, who tried to overturn the will of the voters in 2020, believes. pic.twitter.com/AEwQXwutpl — Ashton Pittman (@ashtonpittman) October 26, 2023 As I wrote several months ago, it’s a common right-wing refrain. Share Johnson turns out to offer the perfect example of how in today’s gerrymandered world, people can ride to the highest levels of power without facing a real election their entire careers. Which means they can be complete extremists and never face accountability for it. It also means that not only do they not know democracy, they actually come to fear it. Not just because they have never experienced it, but because it poses the biggest risk to their grasp on power.
Bored? Who has time to be bored? Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi left her post with a historic legacy of accomplishment. There is much there to admire. I wish she’d go back to San Francisco. Or at least leave Congress. She could take Steny Hoyer, Dick Durbin, and Chuck Schumer with her for the good of her party. (Let Republicans clean their own houses.) Political life in this country is dominated by a gerontocracy that is stunting its growth. Local Democrats are forever lamenting the lack of young blood in their ranks. But look around at the dominance of wrinkles at most any meeting. It’s not a particularly inviting environment for people under 50. And with the oldsters tending to stay in positions of power well beyond their “best by” dates, the young have nowhere to go. Why bother wasting the time? The Washington Post reports that the trend extends beyond politics: Yet even beyond Washington, a geriatric elite also controls many other aspects of an aging society, to such an extent that in some professions there are deep concerns about how those roles will be filled in decades to come.
Different worldviews, shaped by a different understanding of history I was on the Majority Report last Friday and in discussing the Israel War with Sam and Emma I made the point that one of the divides on this issue is generational and it’s for a lot of reasons. Older people like myself were raised in the direct shadow of WWII and “Never Again” is etched on our brains. The war was an everyday part of popular culture, our parents talked about it as if it was yesterday (which it was, to them) and the Holocaust was something immediate and horrifying. (I went to see “The Sorrow and the PIty” twice!) All that is ancient history to today’s young people who are far more influenced by our culture’s belated recognition of white colonialism and racist violence writ large as their historical touchstone, perhaps made more immediate to them by the actions of the United States after 9/11. It’s a different worldview shaped by different historical experiences. Both are valid ways to see this current situation and it’s hard to argue either way.
Just chaos and culture war. That’s about it. Philip Bump digs down a little to find out what really animates them. And it’s not surprising: One of the central refrains of Donald Trump’s campaign for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination — a refrain focused, justifiably, on a general election rematch against President Biden — is that the economy was more robust during his tenure in the White House. Trump and his allies make this argument constantly, one that largely focuses on inflation and that almost necessarily includes an asterisk that excepts the months of the coronavirus pandemic. But any person asked to evaluate the central themes of this race would very quickly identify the economy as a central part of Republican support for the former president. As it is, it seems, until a competing priority is presented: the need to “preserve American culture and way of life.” Then, the reality emerges. On Wednesday, PRRI released the results of its annual American Values survey, a look at broad themes in American political and religious thought.
I assume you’ve heard that ABC is reporting that Meadows got an immunity deal with Jack Smith and has told them that he knew the election wasn’t rigged and told Trump that many times (among other things.) If you haven’t seen it, here’s a link to that article. Nobody is sure who may have leaked this or why but I think it’s pretty clear that it wasn’t Trump’s team. He does not sound pleased.
Is how it will go on Boos … “Shut up! Shut up!” … “Next question” when Rep. Mike Johnson is asked about efforts to overturn 2020 presidential election results … pic.twitter.com/H1O0drK6SE — Howard Mortman (@HowardMortman) October 25, 2023 As Stuart Stevens said, Johnson is Jim Jordan with a jacket. Congresswoman Virginia Fox screaming “shut up, shut up” says it all.
File under ‘Sunk-cost fallacy’ Jenna Ellis this week is the fourth Trump attorney to learn the hard way that loyalty to Donald Trump is a fool’s game. David Graham writes in The Atlantic, “Loyalty to Trump is seldom returned, with disastrous results for those who offer it.” Ellis pleaded guilty to a single felony in an Atlanta courtroom and offered a tearful apology: “As an attorney who is also a Christian, I take my responsibilities as a lawyer very seriously and I endeavor to be a person of sound moral and ethical character in all of my dealings,” she said, her voice breaking with emotion. “If I knew then what I know now, I would have declined to represent Donald Trump in these post-election challenges. I look back on this whole experience with deep remorse.” Another former Trump attorney who received jail time in exchange for his years of fealty to Trump testified against him in the New York fraud trial yesterday in Manhattan. Graham observes: If Ellis and Cohen are not in good company, they are at least in big company.
Their plan to gum up the election might as well be coming from the RNC As the saga of the House Speaker’s race continues into week, it’s obvious that this Republican House majority is more dysfunctional than at any time in history. This week was supposed to yield a new crop of candidates, among them at least one or two who could bring about a consensus among the moderates (sic)who hail from Biden districts, the institutionalists who allegedly care about maintaining the US system of government and the nihilists who just want to blow everything up. It’s not going well. There have been a number of shifting demands from these various factions but we now know that the one inviolate criterion is that any new Speaker must be an election denier. Yesterday, their leader Donald Trump made it very clear that he will not allow anyone who has ever crossed him in that way or any other can be allowed to have gavel.