House Republicans haven’t been terribly successful at many things this year. They struggled to keep the government open and to keep the United States from defaulting on its debt. They’ve even struggled at times on basic votes to keep the chamber functioning. But they have been very good at one thing: regicide.

On Friday, Republicans dethroned Jim Jordan as their designated Speaker, making him the third party leader to be ousted this month. First, there was Kevin McCarthy, who required 15 different ballots to even be elected Speaker and was removed from office by a right-wing rebellion at the beginning of October. Then, after a majority of Republicans voted to make McCarthy’s No. 2, Steve Scalise, his successor, a number of Republicans announced that they, too, would torpedo his candidacy and back Jordan instead. Finally, once Republicans finally turned to Jordan as their candidate, the largest rebellion yet blocked him from becoming Speaker. After losing three successive votes on the floor, the firebrand lost an internal vote to keep his position as Speaker designate on Friday.

  • OpenStars@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    They’ve even struggled at times on basic votes to keep the chamber functioning.

    You seem to be assuming that proper functioning was their goal. They were sent there to tear it all down, which is precisely what they did. Never forget that they play by an entirely different set of rules.

    • seaQueue@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Not to mention all of their dysfunction and obstruction is just a smoke screen so the wealthy can continue extracting wealth from our economy and offshoring it. Republicans are in government to ensure that the status quo does not change unless it’s for the benefit of the ultra wealthy or fundamentally religious.

      The Republican end game is to turn the USA into something resembling Mexico or India where the wealthy can do whatever they like at our expense.

      • OpenStars@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        Except that many who support it do not know that is the goal. They think it’s about morality somehow, like abortion=murder but somehow school shootings are meh, whatever.

        Religion getting involved in politics doesn’t always lead to a bad outcome - e.g. that’s how slaves were freed in the UK - but it sure does create a pipeline where people can be fed whatever misinformation, anti-vax, anti-science, anti-facts, etc. Ironically Jesus Himself says things like “don’t put heavy burdens onto others without offering to help them”, “workers deserve their (living) wages,… that very same day that they work even so don’t withhold it for days just bc it is convenient for you - they also have needs and you must be considerate of them”, and my personal favorite, “test EVERYTHING against what you KNOW to be true” i.e. be skeptical, but unfortunately Christians aren’t listening to Jesus anymore so much as whatever they are fed from the pulpit.:-(

        • trafficnab@lemmy.ca
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          1 year ago

          Religion isn’t bad itself, it just either breeds or is an indicator of highly gullible people, giving fash types an easy target

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          1 year ago

          That is what both Hamas and also Israel are doing right now, and somewhat the Republican party in the less literal sense. So… I hope it does not come to that! Although it’s weird to think of siding with Jesus against the church, to be whipping the people who have corrupted its original message of “love your neighbor”.

    • mojofrododojo@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      oops can’t fund school lunches or ukraine defense if there’s no functioning house, whooops! oh no, who could have seen this coming (cues howler monkey greene)

    • frezik@midwest.social
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      1 year ago

      They didn’t care before, but now they have a new conflict in Israel. They tied the government’s shoelaces together at just the moment they needed it to function so they can help kill brown people and get their god to start the rapture (who is apparently too helpless to do it himself).