And Sometimes Democracy Dies in Broad Daylight

 

     If you look at the final vote tally for yesterday's Speaker vote, Mike Johnson squeaked by virtually without a single vote to spare. The final tally was 218-215. But it could've been very different.

     Because, you see, there are delegates from US territories (American Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and the District of Columbia) and, for over a century, these delegates have been forbidden from voting for House Speaker or any legislation. Virgin Islands Delegate Stacey Plaskett had a problem with that, saying,

     “And Mr. Speaker, this body and this nation has a territories and a colonies problem. What was supposed to be temporary has now effectively become permanent. We must do something about this problem so that these 4 million Americans … But I have a voice!”

      At least, she did until that moment when the asshole who was holding the gavel at that moment cut off her microphone. 

     These rules have been long-entrenched for decades, over a century, actually. And, ironically, the federal government treats US territories just as the British government had the colonies back in the 18th century. They're essentially afforded all the perks and privileges of being House members... except when it comes to voting. It's essentially taxation without representation, which was a big hairy deal to the colonists and Founding Fathers in the 18th century.

     Republicans want delegates to vote less than ever because #1, they tend to skew Democratic, like Plaskett, who was one of the nine impeachment managers for the second impeachment of the largest one man crime wave in galactic history. #2, Republicans currently have the slimmest majority in modern US history. When Trump poaches two Republicans from the House after the 20th, Johnson won't even have an actual majority. It'll get shrunk to 216-215 (218 is an actual majority in the 435 seat House).

     There are five delegates representing the District of Columbia, the Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. A resident commissioner represents Puerto Rico. Plaskett's tirade on the floor of the House yesterday was doomed to failure but success wasn't the point. The point was to bring attention to this incredibly undemocratic function.and to have it entered into the Congressional Record.

     But the undemocratic nature of House Republicans doesn't stop with just delegates not being allowed to vote. At the end of the 118th Congress, Republicans rammed through a raft of new rules that they wouldn't have been able to enact in the 119th.

     House Republicans recently passed some decidedly antidemocratic rules changes. As far as rules changes go, it's a typical wishlist of self-serving Republican interests. Among them: "Eliminating the House’s Diversity and Inclusion office, authorizing subpoenas of officials connected to the investigation of the Biden family’s finances, and requiring congressional financial audits of potentially inflationary legislation."

     But the one rule change that got everyone's attention was the one that made it much harder to oust the House Speaker. What the new rule stipulates is nothing short of one party rule: Whereas before, with Matt Gaetz's insistence two years ago, when it only took one member of Congress to challenge the Speaker's authority and force a snap vote to elect a new Speaker (it used to be four prior to that), the new rules state that only members of the majority party can introduce a challenge and that it has to have eight co-sponsors.

     That's about as undemocratic as you can possibly get. If the Democrats were in charge and their Rules Committee had enacted the same rules changes, Republicans would be screaming their pointy heads off. Don't be fooled by the fact that Johnson got reelected Speaker yesterday on just the second ballot (compare that to the 15 ballots needed to elect Kevin McCarthy two years ago by, again, the slimmest of margins). This is nakedly a circling of the wagons to protect Mike Johnson because they know he's the weakest Speaker in modern history with the very weakest of mandates.

     Also, let's not forget how many Republican defections there were during the 118th Congress. By April last year alone, the GOP lost a whopping 23 members of its own caucus through early retirement, getting expelled from Congress, retiring from public office or running for the US Senate.

     Even considering the normal ebb and flow of politics, that's a lot of defections between just January 3rd and April 22nd of a single Congress. Does anyone really think there won't be any defections in the GOP ranks during this Congress? Look what had already happened between the end of the 118th Congress and the beginning of the 119th:

     81 year-old Virginia Foxx fell down the steps of the Capitol just yesterday and nearly broke her nose. Another 81 year-old Republican, Kay Granger, suddenly turned up in a nursing home being treated for dementia. (The odd thing about that was that no one was asking any questions about her whereabouts considering she hadn't cast a vote in the House since July 24th last year.). In fact, this is what MSN wrote: "According to the Daily Mail, reports stated that Granger had been placed in the facility after being found wandering and confused in her district."

     Two words come to mind: Term and limits.

     Plus, one other reason why there were so many Republican defections in the 118th Congress was a morbidly high attrition rate. Many Republicans left Congress because they were simply disgusted with the "governance" of their party and its inability to get anything done, starting with an omnibus spending bill. I don't see that trend magically reversing just because Johnson literally doesn't have a vote to spare. I mean, you don't have to be a university-trained mathematician to crunch the numbers and see that it's literally almost to the point where all it would take to flip the House is for one Republican to turn coat and switch parties.

     And, let's face it, the only reason that the assclowns of the GOP have had the majority is because of stupid Republican voters and gerrymandering.

     But knowing how virtually nonexistent their mandate is, Republicans moved the goalposts yet again to benefit themselves and their party. They know how weak Johnson is. They know there are at least 10 Republicans who will move to oust him the very next time he reaches across the aisle to pass a stopgap spending bill with Democrats (the next deadline is March 14, so beware the Ides of March). And they simply don't want a repeat of the debacle of when Gaetz and seven of his cohorts ousted McCarthy. And they even shamelessly boxed out Democrats as if they didn't exist just to protect Johnson, which is to say to protect Trump.

     Until delegates are allowed to vote, the election of the Speaker will always be one of the most undemocratic functions in our government. But it's hardly the only example of Republican contempt for democracy.