A Coalition of the Willing

Will Republicans and Democrats come together to elect a speaker?

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136
(via Getty Images)

I posture as a cynic, yet I’m constantly embarrassed by my own naivete.

When Hamas attacked Israel last weekend, I thought the leadership crisis in the House would resolve itself quickly. With the risk of regional war in the Middle East rising and a new government funding deadline approaching, the cost of legislative paralysis had suddenly become prohibitive. “The time for performative nonsense has passed,” Jim Geraghty declared on Thursday morning at National Review. House Republicans, I thought, would agree.

They did not. In this party, the time for performative nonsense is never past.

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  1. Avatar photo
    Ben Connelly

    I appreciate the fact that you refuse to refer to the MAGA wing as “more conservative” or “ultraconservative.” They’re just populists. Every populist movement in American history that wasn’t flavored with racism or antisemitism has been considered a left-wing phenomenon.

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  2. FreddySez

    As a conservative who enjoyed The West Wing, I never let the show's inherent leftism bother me. It was baked in, and it was fiction.

    And anyhow, the "Sorkin-esque dream" the show embodied wasn't really "what if the Left had its way?" Rather, it was "what if smart people acted according to what they honestly believed to be in the country's best interest?"

    Even defined the way I've done here, the Sorkin-esque dream is unrealistic... usually. But we all know what Churchill said about Americans' propensity to do the right thing "after they have exhausted all other options."

    Well, haven't we?

    Let's get ol' Aaron on speed dial and make this happen. I'll pop the corn.

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  3. Dougrhon

    The majority of the Republicans continue to try to form a coalition with the MAGA cult. They don't realize STILL that the MAGA coalition are not Republicans. They are their own party. The problem for the Republicans is that without the MAGA minority the party does not have a majority at all. It is better to not be a majority and to work temporarily with moderate Democrats than to pretend to have a majority that cannot operate at all. The Republicans should expell the MAGA non Republicans from the party and the caucus even if this gives temporary control to the Democrats. It is the only way forward. But they won't because they cannot see past the next election.

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  4. Pishposh

    If wishes were horses beggars would ride. If birdies were elephants we wouldn't be alive.

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  5. Phillyex1

    Democrats already had a speaker that would compromise with them in McCarthy and they let him get ousted. Why would I trust them to support a different “centrist”? The BEST thing that could happen is for Jordan to lose the floor vote and the republicans finally nominating somebody reasonable, but why would I expect any reason from the House if Trump?

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  6. Nemmerle924

    Imagine the difference in a House with 230 solid GOP votes. This nonsense would never happen. This dysfunction is all a manifestation of a too-narrow majority.

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  7. Bubba

    Recognize that the GOP does not have a working majority in the house.

    Nominate Liz Cheney for speaker.

    Share power with the Dems along the lines of recent 50-50 senates.

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  8. Avatar photo
    Soniak21

    It's intriguing, and certainly the result Team Gaetz deserves. But I won't really believe it until I see it. Even for moderates, the political culture is so intensely tribal that I suspect they'll (accurately) fear retribution too much to pull this off. But I hope I'm wrong. It would be delicious.

    I'm curious that you don't really mention who the consensus pick would be. Are we just assuming it's Hakeem Jeffries... and does that really make sense? With Republicans still in the majority, isn't it more likely that the R members of such a coalition would insist on nominating a (moderate) Republican as a hard-and-fast condition of even entertaining this concept? And in today's GOP... who the heck IS that person?

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  9. Tommaj60

    The few remaining sane Republicans could switch parties and become moderate Democrats. More moderates on the left would weaken the lefts’ and rights’ crazies.
    A new moderate majority might impeach the whole basket of deplorables: Trump, two Biden’s, Hillary, Gaetz, Mace, Green, the Squad, et al.
    End organize crime —disband the DOJ and Fed Bureaucracies.
    Then fund a government by,for, and of the people.

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    1. Bubba

      I have to think there are a few republicans from swing districts that could switch in exchange for attractive chairmanships.

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    2. Hikingguy

      "End organized crime-disband the DOJ and Fed bureaucracies." Right. I say if we want to go after organized crime, take down the orange shitgibbon first.

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    3. Avatar photo
      Gbr0wn

      Yeah, and sentient broccoli could come zinging across the galaxy and mow our lawns for free (h/t Dave Berry). That said, I agree that would be fantastic. At this point I wouldn't spit on Matt Gaetz if he was on fire

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  10. Rossknode

    The far right is all for destroying the government and shutting it down because it sees "government" as the problem. Whereas the far left would never think about these tactics because they see "government" as the solution.

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