Jim Jordan’s humiliating defeat isn’t worth celebrating in the classic film modern times Charlie Chaplain tried to impress a woman by roller skating while blindfolded again and again the unwitting chaplain skates perilously close to a cavernous hole only by happen stance does he avoid a fatal plunge keep this image in mind if you’re
Tempted to send up a cheer or a sigh of relief that Jim Jordan has for now been denied the speakership of the house if it’s a cause for celebration it should be decidedly muted because it’s another example of just how close America has repeatedly come to an allout political
Catastrophe it’s also a reminder that the more close calls there are the more likely it is that at some point the worst will indeed happen what we have witnessed over the past few days is less the Triumph of a sensible Centrist conservative institutionally loyal contingent of house members and more the
Unsettling fact that 200 lawmakers were willing to place outsize power in the hands of an insurrectionist who as Liz Cheney noted was closer to Donald Trump’s effort to overturn the 2020 election than any other house member yes the squishes held firm and kudos to them for defying the worst of their
Reputations but what should have been a blatantly disqualifying record was largely treated as either irrelevant or a mark of loyalty to the dominant figure in the Republican party but perhaps we should not be surprised that near willingness to install Jordan two heartbeats from the Oval Office is just
The latest example of a perilously close call that would have put our political system in serious Jeopardy in 20120 a shift of 44,000 votes in three states would have resulted in an electoral tie throwing the presidential race into the House of Representatives where the Arcane roles would have very likely led
To a trump reelection Des despite his clear popular vote loss on January 6th a majority of House Republicans voted against certifying President Joe Biden’s election win and within a few days or weeks the base of the GOP and a thumping majority of its elected officials had come to terms with Trump’s efforts to
Overturn the election and remain in power by whatever means might work but for the courage of local GOP officials in state legislatures and agencies that effort might well have succeeded the 2022 midterms did not produce a red wave and some of the more zealous election deniers Cary Lake in
Arizona Doug mastriano in Pennsylvania were defeated but hundreds of election deniers won or were return to seats in state legislatures and the US House just as significant Trump loyalists have won posts on campusing boards as election registrars as County officials with significant power to to judge the validity of votes while new federal
Legislation makes it harder for Congress to reject certified electoral votes the picture back at the Grassroots is different the potential for suppressing or rejecting valid votes may now be greater than it was in 2020 all of this takes place in a political universe that would have seemed beyond belief little more than a
Decade ago a presidential candidate indicted for multiple felonies and found liable for sexual abuse and of having defrauded Banks and insurers would not be the overwhelming favorite to win his party’s nomination let alone having an even or better chance of winning the White House if current polls can be
Believed a major political party would not have embraced fun house fantasies of electoral fraud or joined in efforts to harass local prosecutors for pursuing credible criminal and civil cases nor would it have come this close to choosing a speaker of the house who willingly put our core political iCal
Premise the willingness to accept a peaceful transfer of power at risk if Jordan isn’t ultimately able to seize power another trumpist is still likely to be handed the speaker gavel whenever this embarrassing chaos comes to an end a new push to empower Representative Patrick McKenry as acting speaker has
Already run a ground amid a conservative backlash anything resembling bipartisan governments or dealmaking with Democrats would not do Charlie Chaplain was never in any real danger it was a Triumph of special effects the abyss we have repeatedly come close to is No Illusion at all and we cannot keep nearing that Abyss
Without the real risk that sooner or later we will slip over the edge
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