Midway through the debt ceiling crisis, the House GOP’s Freedom Caucus is now out of the loop – and not at all happy, as Politico notes:
Conservative angst over the debt deal is threatening to trigger Kevin McCarthy’s biggest fear — a push to oust him from the speakership.
Rep. Dan Bishop (R-N.C.) on Tuesday became the first House conservative to explicitly state he is considering a push to strip McCarthy of the gavel over his recent deal with President Joe Biden.
“Absolutely,” Bishop told POLITICO in an interview, when asked about using the tool to force out a sitting speaker. “It is inescapable to me. It has to be done.” …
… Rep. Ken Buck, who raised the issue on a private call with House Freedom Caucus members on Tuesday. Buck asked the group’s chair, Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.), whether any of his fellow members were planning to trigger what’s known as a motion to vacate, the Colorado Republican recalled in an interview Tuesday.
On the call, Buck claimed that McCarthy’s deal violated his promise to conservatives during the January speaker fight, when he promised to return Congress to pre-pandemic spending levels. Perry’s response, according to Buck, was: “Let’s see, it’s premature.”
This behavior should be perplexing to even casual politics watchers, much less the citizen who, despite identifying with Democrats or Republicans, is uninterested in the entire process. Surely all of the conservative angst on display must mean something terrible is happening.
Right?
No.
Remember that today’s Republican Party is no longer built on a respect for competency and experience. No, those who attend party primaries, and in those Districts willing to elect these Reps, the conservative Republicans disdain those who might be competent, those who are experienced.
And that means compromise, even recognition of traditional American political practices, is a denigrated, not respected, attribute of a politician.
Instead, these folks are elected on their performances. They hop up and down on modern conservative issues such as abortion, fiscal responsibility, taxes, gun control, and, because they have nothing else in their quivers of value, they compete on extremism. Now they’re in Congress and have no idea how to conduct the public’s business as humble servants. Instead, what got them elected will be how they conduct themselves.
So now they’re publicly dismayed. A compromise happened. It’s terrible. It’s a disaster. Quick, guys, put on your tuxedos, it’s bloody time to perform.
That’s today Republican Party.
The Freedom Caucus is nothing more than a recasting of the 1850s Know Nothing party. Same tactics; same rhetoric. And same general degrading of the political process. The only difference is, the Know Nothings were at least in favor of some social reforms, where the Freedom Caucus wants to totally roll back to the bad old days so they can do whatever they want with no consequences (…well, as long as they’re rich and white).