Frank wrote on Jan 12
th, 2023 at 6:46am:
A Republican lesson in democracy’s glorious mess
For a brief few days, congress became a debating chamber rather than the preening chamber Americans are used to
Far from being an embarrassment, the four days it took Republicans to work out who would be the next Speaker of the US House of Representatives provided a glimpse into how parliaments should function.
For a brief few days, congress became a debating chamber rather than the preening chamber Americans are used to, where speeches are crafted for the nightly news and social media rather than in any genuine attempt to convince the other side. The congress no longer was a costly rubber stamp for the secret deliberations of political parties after 20 renegade Republicans demanded substantive changes to congressional rules before they would vote for Kevin McCarthy –
and succeeded.But the mainstream media was incandescent with condemnation, slamming the “chaos”, the “humiliation”, the “extremism”, where in fact there was none. Perhaps many prefer the governance model of the Chinese Communist Party or the old ruling Soviet party where there was no public infighting – and if there was, protagonists soon would be in prison.
For a fleeting moment half the congress became a chamber of individuals, as it was meant to be, rather than a taxpayer-funded battleground stage for two warring political factions.
Far from celebrating party discipline, George Washington, James Madison and other pioneers of the American experiment had warned against the dangers of all-powerful factions, which would ride roughshod over the spirit and letter of the US constitution. In 1787 in The Federalist Papers, Madison, later the fourth US president, railed against the “dangerous vice” of “overbearing majorities” that would kneecap members’ freedom to vote how they saw fit.
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In any case, the 55 pages of rules approved by the new Republican majority are a dramatic improvement on the old ones, which had centralised power in the Speaker’s office. Under the new system members of congress will have at least 72 hours to consider new bills before being required to vote on them, and each bill will need to be related to a single subject.This hardly seems revolutionary until one considers the norm under former Democrat speaker Nancy Pelosi. The last budget bill pushed through congress ran to 4155 pages and $US1.7 trillion ($2.4 trillion) and teemed with boondoggles and waste. Not a single member had a clue what they were voting for, just as the governing party leadership intended.
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Further, individual members will be able to call for a spill vote to depose the Speaker, the way it had been from the 18th century until 2019, when Pelosi had changed the rules to make it much harder. A weakened Speaker or an empowerment of members and the citizens who voted for them?
Adam Creighton
But the grimacing, unmoored, grotesque Slovenian content farmers, pakis, sages, ducks and fathead here saw none of that. They only saw Trump.
Yes, old boy, I see what you mean. To a party that would nominate an unelected, one-term ex-prez as House speaker, that would seem like democracy.
To a party branch-stacked with allegiance, not to any particular platform or values, but to a man who's most recent "big announcement" was the release of online trading cards of himself as an entrepreneur, cowboy, spaceman and laser-eyed superhero, yes. It would seem like democracy.
To a party that espouses causes such as QAnon, the Big Steal, White Nationalism and Great Replacement Theory, just so. It would seem like democracy. But do you know?
To the rest of us, it just shows why the party once known as the GOP is destined to remain the obstructionist, oppositional and ultimately ungovernable leadership cult they've become. Democracy's glorious mess?
Good luck with that, Kevin. Putin and Xi will be having a jolly old chuckle.
We will Make America Great Again, no?
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