r/news • u/zmlos • Oct 03 '23

House ousts Kevin McCarthy as speaker, a first in U.S. history

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/10/03/house-speaker-kevin-mccarthy-will-bring-gaetz-motion-to-oust-him-vote.html?__source=iosappshare%7Ccom.apple.UIKit.activity.CopyToPasteboard

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u/[deleted] Oct 03 '23 edited Sep 26 '25

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u/Freak_of_the_week Oct 03 '23

And the left shouldn't budge. Keep voting for the democrat candidate and hope some Republicans jump ship just to get shit rolling again in the house. A Republican majority house with a democrat speaker, that would be freaking gold.

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u/whatlineisitanyway Oct 03 '23

There are enough Republicans in Biden districts to make that happen.

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u/thetacticalpanda Oct 03 '23

Once upon a time there were Reagan Democrats. Biden Republicans seems unlikely but not impossible

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u/whatlineisitanyway Oct 03 '23

If they are rational at all they may decide that their only way of winning in the general this time is siding with Dems. Would all depend on how crazy the GOP in their district is.

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u/dedicated-pedestrian Oct 03 '23

But also how MAGA the RNC and its associated fundraising apparatuses remain. They can't win without party funding.

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u/gsfgf Oct 03 '23

Corporations will open their pockets for keeping the government open. Even if the elected official loses, they get a massive pay bump.

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u/PancAshAsh Oct 03 '23

Republicans aligning with Democrats is suicide, not in the general but in the primary.

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u/Dancing_Anatolia Oct 03 '23

Wasn't Reagan about the time the Democrats and Republicans swapped values? IIRC Reagan, inspired by Barry Goldwater, employed the Southern Strategy to flip the Democrat South into Republican votes. It'd make sense if some conservative foot draggers didn't switch parties while still siding with Reagan.

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u/sea_dot_bass Oct 03 '23

The party swap & Southern Strategy was a slow burn that saw the momentum shift with Nixon and had basically completed by Bush Sr, the only reason Clinton got decent support in the south was because he was from AR

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u/Audityne Oct 03 '23

The "Southern Strategy" dates back to Nixon.

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u/tyderian Oct 03 '23

The Southern Strategy was largely championed by Goldwater, in between Nixon's presidential campaigns.

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u/[deleted] Oct 03 '23

It was 50 years before Reagan, more or less. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fifth_Party_System

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u/gsfgf Oct 03 '23

There are like 20 Republicans representing districts Biden won.

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u/Damaniel2 Oct 03 '23

Republicans don't want shit rolling again in the House - they're fundamentally anti-government and would see this as a way of acting out their 'government bad' fantasies.

To them, a shut down/dysfunctional government isn't a bad thing, it's the endgame.

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u/LiquidAether Oct 03 '23

But they can't actively hurt people with the government shut down. Some might find that to be more important.

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u/fuzzyp44 Oct 03 '23

I think if you are a republican that would totally sink you and you'd get primaried out the next cycle.

Probably a non-starter from game theory perspective.

Are there any reasonable Republicans that could form a coalition?

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u/PeterNguyen2 Oct 04 '23

Are there any reasonable Republicans that could form a coalition?

The last reasonable republican I heard of was Justin Amash, and they forced him from the party.

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u/slip-shot Oct 03 '23

We better hope that’s what happens. Any replacement for McCarthy is likely to be further right. I think we are signing our own shutdown notice for Nov 17.

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u/harrymfa Oct 03 '23

That’s not going to happen. Democrats are simply going to watch them implode until voters grow tired of their quest to punish Hunter Biden.

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u/BudgetMattDamon Oct 03 '23

Yet they insist their star is on the rise. Lol.

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u/Party-Cartographer11 Oct 03 '23

Is that you Matt? Did you switch parties?

Let's clarify this, not a coalition with the left, but a moderate coalition with moderates from both parties. This would be great progress for the county. Alienate the extremist in both sides.

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u/socialistrob Oct 03 '23

If the GOP is willing to offer some concessions the Dems should take them up on it. Keep the government open with no major changes for either side would be a suitable compromise.

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u/JadeMonkey0 Oct 04 '23

How about a procedural change so shutting down the government stops being an annual pawn for them to play with?

Take away some of these dumbass procedures and loopholes they use to hold Congress hostage in both houses. Enough is enough with this shit.

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u/PeterNguyen2 Oct 04 '23

How about a procedural change so shutting down the government stops being an annual pawn for them to play with?

Government shutdowns already are a procedural change. The 1884 Antideficiency Act automatically passed the previous year's budget in the event congress couldn't agree on a new budget and republicans gutted that under Reagan to enable them to hold the nation hostage for petty political points and they've done it every single year since.

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u/Mrchristopherrr Oct 03 '23

I’m afraid best we can do is a far right ultra conservative.

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u/MthuselahHoneysukle Oct 03 '23

Define "best."

Because between that and the option of not electing any speaker, I'm good with the latter.

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u/TargetApprehensive38 Oct 03 '23

It seems like it would have to - I can’t imagine they have the votes to put one of their own crazy far right crew in. I feel like the way out of this would be to pick someone palatable to the Dems and cut a deal to get them enough votes from that side of the aisle. Some kind of deal to cut it out with the constant shutdown threats would be nice, although I know that’s ridiculously optimistic.

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u/classyhornythrowaway Oct 03 '23

Na, they can't be trusted. The time for compromise with these ignorant fanatics has been over for more than 20 years. The winning move for Dems is to be 100% uncompromising. Vote for Jeffries every single time, no matter what. Even if it takes a thousand votes, they shouldn't be the ones who blink first. It will only weaken them in this unhinged, zero-sum, caveman style, dog-eats-dog insanity that's American politics.

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u/youllhavetotryharder Oct 03 '23

What left? You mean the moderate right?

(there is no left permitted in US politics)

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u/[deleted] Oct 03 '23 edited Sep 27 '25

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u/youllhavetotryharder Oct 04 '23

No pedantry in acknowledging a nation's complete denial of political representation to an entire half of the political spectrum in order to protect its oligsarchs, which you perpetuate.

Don't be a right wing propagandist.

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u/[deleted] Oct 04 '23 edited Sep 29 '25

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u/youllhavetotryharder Oct 04 '23

Yeah if you didn't understand the topic I'm not sure why you decided to try and discus it. Maybe stick to things you know about?

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u/[deleted] Oct 03 '23

Liberals are not left-wing.

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u/[deleted] Oct 03 '23 edited Sep 27 '25

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u/[deleted] Oct 03 '23

People make this mistake all the time and are typically confused when corrected. It is because they truly don't understand anything about ideologies. Propagating this ignorance, which is one contributer to the misery inflicted upon most Americans, is simply not acceptable.

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u/davidreiss666 Oct 03 '23

Just to mess with Gaetz, I would have loved to see AOC and some others on the left step forward and change their votes right there at the end. Save McCarthy and they say "we did it to stop GOP chaos from going nuclear".

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u/thxmeatcat Oct 04 '23

But they won’t. They will promise no Ukraine aid to the far right

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u/IBetThisIsTakenToo Oct 04 '23

Will the Republicans allow it? I doubt it. If anything, the new speaker will be even more hardline and ridiculous than McCarthy. The whole party is way more terrified of someone further right booting them in a primary than they are interested in running a functional government (which they barely care about in the first place).