Is This Any Way To Pick A Leader?
There are two schools of thought when it comes to the demonstration we saw on the house floor last week.
The first is, you go behind closed doors and choose your leader.
By the time it comes to the floor vote you’ve made your choice. Then you vote a party line.
The second is, democracy is an open forum and you’re supposed to bang heads, discuss issues and disagree.
So what was last week?
A combination of both.
One of the Rebel Twenty (Andy Biggs) ran against Speaker McCarthy in the Republican closed door meeting and lost 133-81.
That didn’t settle it for the twenty who decided to buck the party. They decided to go to the floor to demand changes they wanted.
A few years ago the newly elected Democratic “Squad Members” made public statements that it was time for a “generational change” in the Democratic Party leadership team. They wanted Pelosi, Hoyer and team replaced.
Behind closed doors they were defeated and came out and voted for Pelosi to stay, with the promise she would leave the post in four years.
The Republican Twenty, part of the “Freedom Caucus,” decided they wanted a different tact.
The question is this.
Do you prefer straight party endorsement like we have had, or open fights over the issues?
One issue I like that they fought for was a guaranteed 72 hours before any vote by congressional members to pass a bill. Shouldn’t they know what they are voting for?
The $1.7 trillion bill passed a few weeks ago was available for 24 hours. No one read it or knew all that was in it.
One thing that I think is way too open for any fringe or egoistical member to use is the single (one) person ability to recall the speaker.
What is the purpose of that?
So now any Andy Biggs or AOC can see something in some bill they don’t like and demand the speaker be removed. You know what that means? We would be back to last week where the whole house has to vote again. Do we think any Democrat will break ranks? They’ve been successful in passing their programs by voting as one. Thus, we are back to the fiasco we witnessed?
That is as poor an idea as I could conceive. It lends itself to chaos.
So opening the bills for review, making debate real, demanding we pay attention to the deficit is all positive to me. Impeaching the speaker because 1 of 435 members has a motive is incomprehensible.
Was it all an embarrassment? Parts of the personalization of personalities was, but the debate and issues itself were not. It was democracy, American Democracy.
If you don’t think that’s true, then try it in Russia, China, Iran and elsewhere in the world. In those places if you are on the National Soccer Team and don’t sing the Athem before a game you are subject to death.