Despite desperate Republicans attempts to invoke Murc’s Law, House Democrats still insist on throwing Republicans an anvil.
I was going to write a big, long piece about the absurdity of blaming Democrats for Republicans’ caucus dysfunction, but thankfully, Amanda Marcotte beat me to it. Instead, I’ll highlight the obvious: for once, as the snarky post title suggests, Democrats decided to not be The Mom and fix everything. Instead, when Republican Daddy fucked up–and the loss of McCarthy’s speakership is entirely on Republicans–Democrats didn’t bail them out.
Actually, Democrats would have bailed them out, but unusually, they had conditions, including the reasonable demand that the rules be amended to forbid one congressman from blowing up the speaker’s position. And McCarthy couldn’t even do that. Given the knuckling under to the insurrectionist Trump–and more than a few Democratic legislators remember how terrified they were of the Republican mob on January 6, 2023–and the ersatz Hunter Biden penis investigations, what did they expect Democrats to do?
Ok, in fairness, they expected Democrats to bail them out–why wouldn’t they in light of past events? Well, this time, Republicans have to be The Mom.
Looking forward to the day when, at long last, a divided nation can investigate Hunter Biden’s penis once again…
mikethemadbiologist
Unfortunately, you (and most other commentators) miss an important piece of history–for over 200 years since the founding of Congress until 2018, each member of the House of Representatives had the power to unilaterally call a privileged motion for the Speaker to vacate. Such a motion usually failed–was not even brought to the floor–due to a combination of defensive maneuvering by the Speaker’s supporters and the practicalities of choosing a new Speaker. Only in the present day is one party so hellbent on breaking the government that they would oust their own Speaker without credible plans for a replacement.