ANALYSIS: Why the House Speaker Drama Should Scare You

[jpak]

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/analysis-house-speaker-drama-scare/story?id=34374085

It will go down as one of the supreme ironies of this era in politics that the same forces that empowered Republicans to near-record gains in Congress consumed the very people tapped to lead those majorities.

The question now is what additional damage these forces will do, at a perilous time for the Republican Party and even American democracy.

A House that can’t elect a leader can hardly be expected to fund the government and raise the debt limit, much less deal with crises that aren’t self-inflicted. Governing in the year before a presidential election is hard enough when the governing bodies have leaders actually in place.

The tea party movement -– borne out of a backlash to President Obama, and fomented by a powerful anger and frustration at politics in general -– has now taken out a House speaker and two would-be House speakers, in Eric Cantor and Kevin McCarthy. That feat is more impressive for the fact that these are Republicans taking down other Republicans.

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[villager]

1. What's anyone expecting their political convention to be like, at this point?

How on Earth are they going to pick a candidate, if they can't even pick a speaker?

[Yavin4]

5. "What's anyone expecting their political convention to be like, at this point?"

See below:

[villager]

6. Well it *is* a Rogue's Gallery!

[no_hypocrisy]

2. They aren't republicans. They are renegades.

[flamingdem]

3. Never thought I'd be anxiously hoping

Boehner would stick around a while!

[rbrnmw]

4. Honestly not laughing

It's pretty scary to think about. The Government will most likely shutdown in December for who knows how long.

[SoCalMusicLover]

7. But At Least You're On The Right Side

there isn't much the Democrats can do except sit back and watch what unfolds.

Personally, I think a shutdown is the best thing that could happen to the Democratic Party. If it is borne out of chaos on the repub side, and they can't even gather enough agreement to elect a new speaker, it just makes their party look that much worse to the casual observer. It's the casual observer who will decide the next election. Not the loyal party members who will vote for the party's nominee regardless of who it is.

I think best thing we can do is stand ground on the Planned Parenthood issue, and wait to see if the other side can get it together in time to avoid a shutdown, one which they will be blamed for by a majority of Americans, and probably even a few from their own party.

[jeff47]

10. Uh, no. It will be a terrible thing for the Democratic party.

Killing the economy just before Christmas and into Q1 is very bad for the incumbent party when it comes to the general election. People will feel that the economy is "on the wrong track" in November, because our perceptions of the economy lag behind the statistics.

A "Wrong track" economy is a big boost for the opposition party when trying to win the White House. Even if the Republican Congress caused it.

[toddwv]

11. Yeah...

But then the Republicans can gloat about how Obama ruined the economy when the numbers come out... just like last year.

The worst thing is that some, though definitely not the majority, actually believe it.

[SoCalMusicLover]

12. Well, Perhaps That's Their Plan

By your theory, they would be wise to let the shutdown happen, to tank the economy and place all the blame on President Obama.

There's not much the Democrats can do about that though. We're in the Minority in both houses, and can't get ANYWHERE on our own.

If the American public is too stupid to realize that.....and certainly there are a large number of STUPID Americans out there, then the Democrats may have a problem resulting from a shutdown that is appearing more likely to happen.

[moondust]

8. Let's hope that voters are learning.

Though it's hard to be optimistic given the gerrymandering and voter suppression that have led to this absurd state of affairs.

I think California uses some kind of computer model for redistricting that prevents gerrymandering. Something like that should probably be done nationwide at the federal level.

[jeff47]

9. And keep in mind, fucking over the economy in Q1 is great for the Republican nominee

in the presidential election. A good Q1 or Q2 gives a boost to the incumbent party at election time, because it takes a while for people's opinions on the economy to change.

The fucking with the debt limit or shutting down the government would make a bad Q1, possibly Q2. That helps whoever the Republicans pick to run for the White House.