So yesterday I reported that Joe McCarthy was voted out, but I didn't have a strong opinion on the subject, and after feeling it out over the last day, I've decided to discuss it further.
My interpretation as an ex conservative
As you guys know, I used to be a conservative, I even voted for the tea party in 2010, but then quickly regret it through 2011 as the brinksmanship was just...no to me. As well as the extremist policies and thinking through the logical effects of what happened. Yeah, voting for the tea party taught me that the tea party's ideals suck.
However, I still know what it's like to be a small government conservative and think in terms of budget cuts, so I would like to give some thoughts on that.
If I were actually still a small government conservative, I would HATE Joe McCarthy's governing. I would be right there with Matt Gaetz. While I look at the end results now as a liberal who wants....BIG government in terms of pure monetary dollars, like, literal socdem spending levels, and I laugh at the end results and how much damage control Joe Biden and the democrats have done in defense of our safety net, if I were a republican, I would be like JOE, WTF ARE YOU DOING?! THEY'RE PLAYING YOU.
So...at least some of Matt Gaetz's populist takes would appeal to me, although I do think he oversold the case for getting rid of mccarthy and he has govrned in decent ways too.
So...I would support what Gaetz did in principle if I were a conservative...
But as a liberal...
I just find it hilarious. Anyway I didnt know exactly why the dems voted to oust him at the time, but it was mainly because they were still pushing for Hakim Jeffries and felt no compulsion toward bailing out McCarthy, especially with him talking crap on democrats. So they just let it happen, and Matt Gaetz's stunt actually ended up playing in dem hands. The GOP civil war is here and I'm ready for it.
But I'm a left populist, how do I feel about this stuff if it happened on the left?
I mean, we've had arguments about this on the left. We had Jimmy Dore, we had force the vote, and a lot of the most hard line populist leftists will bash AOC and the like for not just standing up to Pelosi and how she would force votes on some issues even if it doesn't do anything.
I was fairly mixed on that. And I have to admit that if pressuring the left doesnt get us anywhere, why do it? There's virtue signalling, but when your actions end up potentially undermining a house majority and playing into the hands of your opponent, you should think twice on that.
And before people mention my third party votes, well, that's different. The dems have a habit of putting their finger on the scale and then telling us we have to vote for their crappy corporate candidates or else, and...I can't stand that crap.
But Joe McCarthy, he was trying. Dems in congress, a lot of them tried. Even Joe Biden tried. I admit, we didn't pass much with dem majorities in everything, but our majorities were slim and most stuff was held up by a handful of corporate democrats. Even mainstream blue no matter who biden bro libs were pissed over that.
But yeah, if the dems dont try, yeah, I could see drastic action being taken. Random dems just holding the speakership hostage in exchange for concessions, whatever. But the dems are trying, they are doing things. It might not be everything I want, but the point of political pressure...is to pressure politicians. We want X Y Z, support X Y Z or we dont support you.
I went apecrap on the dems in 2016 and 2020 and didnt vote for them because they didn't wanna do ANYTHING. They gave me the finger and held the system hostage. But if Biden is actually trying to pass some things, well, that's different, and I'm going to support him and congressional dems for it. You're never gonna get everything you want in politics, but as long as a good faith effort is put forward, I'm fine with stifling my concerns on important crap like that.
Some dems dont get the memo though. I know jimmy dore wanted to do crazy crap like Matt Gaetz did with force the vote. I know that some leftists will show up at random AOC meetings and scream at her about stuff.
And yeah. Leverage is good, but the point of leverage is to get a seat at the table. It's not gonna automatically get you everything you want, and if you're held up by the other party and random moderate senators, well, put the blame on THEM. Not the party as a whole, not the speaker, not the president.
Also, Matt Gaetz was apparently blaming McCarthy for crap not passing even though it didnt pass because of the senate and Biden. Which is...dumb. he called it "failure theater". And let me say this. I LOVE failure theater. Like, if you have one branch of government, or half a branch in the GOP's case, and you try to do something and are checked by other branches, that's a PR win. Because you can then say "hey, i tried, but these guys stopped me, blame them".
Again, I feel like dems are often too unwilling to take risks. They wont do failure theater because whats the point? I see it as good politics. I want my dem politicians to do things. ANd if they fail, I want there to be a public record of WHY it failed and WHO to blame. Because that signals to voters "hey, if you want nice things, this is who is stopping that, maybe you should run candidates against these guys." And it WORKS.
But...the voters need to know who to blame. When the dems fail to try, it makes the party itself look complicit. Like, look, they wouldnt even try, they're part of the problem. And that's...precisely why I often attack the democrats. because THEY WON'T EVEN TRY.
But if they try, and get a record of saying "look, we tried to pass this, it was held up for this reason", then that tells us where the roadblocks are. And honestly, only idiots should blame the whole party.
Of course, I know some will. Populist leftists like Jimmy Dore, WOTB, etc., will do that. And that's stupid. You're stupid. Stop being stupid (intentional DBZA reference).
So yeah. Would I support someone on the dem's side doing this? Under current circumstances, NO. If the dems were as rigidly anti progressive as they were in 2016, you could make a case for it. Like, let's face it. This was basically the last resort for populists to do. It's an attempt to condemn a corrupt party for not doing anything. But otherwise, no. And if someone like AOC or ilhan omar forced this vote and it ended with the GOP repealing the speaker, I probably would see it as cringe. Because it weakens us.
The only reason to do this is if you just wanna watch the world burn. It's a rebuke of party leadership, and if you really hate the party leadership so much you'd let the entire party go down temporarily in order to punish it, I can respect that. But I would say that it is only a last resort, and it actually has risks.
How republicans are reacting
Most of them seem pissed. I know some are like YEAH YOU DESERVED IT because again, they hare mccarthy that much for not delivering the impossible and they wanna watch the world burn for it. But a lot of republicans are just pointing to how the dems were able to maintain their leadership under similar circumstances and how the GOP screwed up and embarrassed themselves...and both are kinda right.
As I said, I have kinda mixed views on it. I wouldnt want the dems to do such a thing if they end up retaking the house. And again, for me, such behavior would only be acceptable if the dems were so reluctant to push anything remotely progressive that you might as well have republicans in charge. But right now, both parties are not the same, the dems ARE doing cool things, so no.
Donald Trump for speaker?
Some republicans are calling for donald trump to be speaker of the house. I have to cringe at this.
1) He's not in the house, so can he be speaker?
2) The dude should not be in charge of the same building he incited an insurrection against and
3) If he did, how would that affect his run for president?
Not gonna lie, this sounds like a really dumb idea. But that's republicans for you.
Conclusion
And yeah, that's my more extended thoughts on this. I still feel mixed if the roles were reversed, but both ex conservative me and now liberal me both like this. Ex conservative me because i actually did care about spending cuts for a while and believe mccarthy didnt do a great job on that front for conservatives, but as a liberal, I'm just embracing the chaos. it would be hilarious if hakim jeffries became speaker while the GOP has a majority. I dont even like that guy much, as we discussed previously, huge corporate dem, but hey, without a better candidate, and given the dems don't even have a majority, all hail future speaker of the house Hakim Jeffries. If the GOP wants their own speaker, they gotta get their crap together for it.
No comments:
Post a Comment