Dear America,
I'm afraid that the Democratic Party made a bad mistake by failing to thwart the ouster of Kevin McCarthy from the house speakership. It's not that he is good for anyone, including the country, but consider the reactionaries who are in line to replace him. Yes, McCarthy is cut from the same cloth as predecessors like John Boehner. He'll say anything that favors Republican politics and/or undermines that of the Democrats. It doesn't need to be true for it to fall from his mouth, just as was the case with Boehner. I remember Boehner talking about how there were 50 job creation bills pending in The Senate after passing out of The House, so I looked them up. There were perhaps 5 that had anything to do with economic policy. The rest were bills dreamed up by Republicans to impress constituents or vilify Democrats, and none of them were of any significance, not just for job creation but for anything. In fact as to most of them, I couldn't even find a remote connection to jobs and the economy, but those fifty bills were a stock component of every statement he made for weeks. Paul Ryan embroidered the facts too, but his excuse wasn't sheer dishonesty or partisanship. He was just full of Reagan Kool-aid and he couldn't see beyond the blindly plutocratic propaganda. And then there's McCarthy, who's too blinded by party affiliation to see the forest for the trees. Like Boehner, he'll say anything to advance the Republican agenda without even considering whether that agenda has merit. None of those three was good for us, America, but the harm they could do was constrained somewhat by civility and probably the fear of being involuntarily committed. But Jordan and Scalise? They are both dangerously committed to the reactionary cause...and Trump.
During the Democratic impeachment inquiry, Jordan was on the committee, and I believe he was the senior Republican. He latched on to some line about Trump, which I unfortunately don't remember even though it almost lifted me out of my chair each time I heard it, and he would repeat it whenever he saw the need to make a point of any kind, and he would say it with such unctuous sanctimony that even he couldn't help smirking. And now as he runs the impeachment committee against Joe Biden he has raised sanctimony to a dark-art form. He is fond of positing as truths questions that he wants to ask and calumnies that his fellow Republicans want to convince Americans to believe. I have come to the point at which I almost don't mind dishonesty because you can respond with truth. But the intellectual dishonesty of people like Jordan defies response. Jordan and the other Republicans don't even ask the witnesses before them questions. They just rant on with what they think are reasons to be suspicious while adducing no evidence to support their innuendos, and Jordan facilitates their efforts as if he is on a sacred quest. He's one successor prospect. Then there's Scalise.
He's the representative who got shot at baseball practice while preparing for the annual congressional inter-party game. He was seriously wounded and became something of a hero to all just for surviving. Now he is the number two Republican in The House, and he is as intellectually dishonest as Jordan, and as shameless as well. Scalise will cast any aspersion against his Party's political adversaries as he can make up on the bases of some perceived misstep by the Democrats and attribute it to villainy. He invokes a putative dichotomy between good...that is Republicans...and evil, and you know who he thinks the evil is. And all the while he praises Donald Trump without even a hint of self-awareness that he is being a hypocrite. He is as devious as Jordan is, but more dangerous because he actually seems to believe the tripe he spews.
So as between McCarthy and his two likeliest successors, there is a clear distinction with regard to the jeopardy that our democracy is about to be put in. The difference is between real malefactors in Jordan and Scalise and merely an oafish and transparent political operative, which is what McCarthy was, and will always be. The Democrats will not be able to turn their backs on either Jordan or Scalise because they are both armed. I would have preferred haplessly misguided myself.
Your friend,
Mike
I'm afraid that the Democratic Party made a bad mistake by failing to thwart the ouster of Kevin McCarthy from the house speakership. It's not that he is good for anyone, including the country, but consider the reactionaries who are in line to replace him. Yes, McCarthy is cut from the same cloth as predecessors like John Boehner. He'll say anything that favors Republican politics and/or undermines that of the Democrats. It doesn't need to be true for it to fall from his mouth, just as was the case with Boehner. I remember Boehner talking about how there were 50 job creation bills pending in The Senate after passing out of The House, so I looked them up. There were perhaps 5 that had anything to do with economic policy. The rest were bills dreamed up by Republicans to impress constituents or vilify Democrats, and none of them were of any significance, not just for job creation but for anything. In fact as to most of them, I couldn't even find a remote connection to jobs and the economy, but those fifty bills were a stock component of every statement he made for weeks. Paul Ryan embroidered the facts too, but his excuse wasn't sheer dishonesty or partisanship. He was just full of Reagan Kool-aid and he couldn't see beyond the blindly plutocratic propaganda. And then there's McCarthy, who's too blinded by party affiliation to see the forest for the trees. Like Boehner, he'll say anything to advance the Republican agenda without even considering whether that agenda has merit. None of those three was good for us, America, but the harm they could do was constrained somewhat by civility and probably the fear of being involuntarily committed. But Jordan and Scalise? They are both dangerously committed to the reactionary cause...and Trump.
During the Democratic impeachment inquiry, Jordan was on the committee, and I believe he was the senior Republican. He latched on to some line about Trump, which I unfortunately don't remember even though it almost lifted me out of my chair each time I heard it, and he would repeat it whenever he saw the need to make a point of any kind, and he would say it with such unctuous sanctimony that even he couldn't help smirking. And now as he runs the impeachment committee against Joe Biden he has raised sanctimony to a dark-art form. He is fond of positing as truths questions that he wants to ask and calumnies that his fellow Republicans want to convince Americans to believe. I have come to the point at which I almost don't mind dishonesty because you can respond with truth. But the intellectual dishonesty of people like Jordan defies response. Jordan and the other Republicans don't even ask the witnesses before them questions. They just rant on with what they think are reasons to be suspicious while adducing no evidence to support their innuendos, and Jordan facilitates their efforts as if he is on a sacred quest. He's one successor prospect. Then there's Scalise.
He's the representative who got shot at baseball practice while preparing for the annual congressional inter-party game. He was seriously wounded and became something of a hero to all just for surviving. Now he is the number two Republican in The House, and he is as intellectually dishonest as Jordan, and as shameless as well. Scalise will cast any aspersion against his Party's political adversaries as he can make up on the bases of some perceived misstep by the Democrats and attribute it to villainy. He invokes a putative dichotomy between good...that is Republicans...and evil, and you know who he thinks the evil is. And all the while he praises Donald Trump without even a hint of self-awareness that he is being a hypocrite. He is as devious as Jordan is, but more dangerous because he actually seems to believe the tripe he spews.
So as between McCarthy and his two likeliest successors, there is a clear distinction with regard to the jeopardy that our democracy is about to be put in. The difference is between real malefactors in Jordan and Scalise and merely an oafish and transparent political operative, which is what McCarthy was, and will always be. The Democrats will not be able to turn their backs on either Jordan or Scalise because they are both armed. I would have preferred haplessly misguided myself.
Your friend,
Mike
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