I posted this this morning:
I’m learning to embrace small developments that offer glimpses of hope for our world. Yesterday, Jordan was finally rejected as speaker. Today, I welcome this… “Aid trucks cross Rafah border, providing first relief to besieged Gaza Strip” https://t.co/zLLMrY6CWq
— Brad Warthen (@BradWarthen) October 21, 2023
No, it’s not much, is it?
The fact that the one of the worst representatives I can think of in the House — a guy whose name has long been one of the first mentioned in connection with the most insane, destructive developments in that dysfunctional body — will not be speaker is hardly an indication that things are going well in our country. We are left with the fact that the overwhelmingly majority of the party that controls the House was willing and even eager to elevate him to that post.
But it does mean the worst has not happened — yet. Even though we were careening in that direction this past week. And it offers a tiny gleam of hope that the GOP will get sufficiently fed up with doing things this way that it will turn to some approach that a reasonable human being might take. What would that be? Well, the most obvious thing that would happen in a sane world is that enough of the GOP would work with Democrats to choose a consensus speaker. That would be the best thing for America, and for the hope that our system used to give the world.
A somewhat more likely scenario would be to simply settle on the interim speaker, Patrick McHenry. I don’t know nearly enough about him to know whether he would be a good speaker, but at least we have few indications so far that he would be a horrible one.
Sadly, that’s where we’ve been in this country since 2016 — trying to avoid the horrible. Remember back in the 2008 presidential contest, when the country was offered a choice between “good” and “better.” And I don’t really care which of them you think was the good, and which the better. We’d have done well with either of them.
A great country should have choices all the time — for president, for speaker, for whatever. But it’s been a while for us.
As for Gaza… No, a truck crossing a border to provide humanitarian aid is not in any way an indication that this crisis is anywhere near over. Quite the contrary… Much blood, much horror, much suffering still seem inevitable. But if there is to be a path toward peace and justice, things like this have to happen. So it’s good to see, after all these days in which nothing good has happened on the ground there.
Yep, these are tiny things, but they need to be welcomed, if we want to move in the right direction on anything…
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Was listening to The Takeout this morning on Sirius 124. That’s CBS White House Correspondent Major Garrett’s political podcast.
Garrett is excellent. Love his in-depth, 1 hour, interviews- he asks some tough, pointed questions sometimes- all over a lunch at a diner somewhere.
He had Colorado’s Ken Buck on.
Buck said he and at least one other Rep directly asked Jim Jordan and Steve Scalise, to their face, if Joe Biden won the election. Neither would answer him. Buck said both offered up various “concerns” but were afraid to give him an answer. Therefore he told both he would not support them.
He said Jim Jordan knew he never had the votes and wouldn’t have the votes. But he forced a floor vote anyway know he couldn’t win.
He said Steve Scalise also knew he never had the votes and that’s why he bowed out before floor votes. He said Steve handled the fact he couldn’t win in a responsible manner.
Buck said he hoped Trump didn’t win the nomination. Said he’d support any other Republican candidate for the nomination that was running.
I’m not sure why you posted that twice, but I only approved one of them…
Probably because the captcha sometimes flakes out.
It should go without saying I am not trying to post the exact same thing twice
I’ll take both of these tiny rays of hope. In both cases, good beat evil.
That the GOP could muster 25 votes against a nincompoop backed by a lunatic is cause for celebration at this point.
That the people of Gaza will get some of the very basic supplies they need to survive is a triumph of decency over the endless cycle of mindless retribution that characterizes that region. And the US helped make it happen.
This time a ripple; next time a wave.
Um … those first few trucks of supplies will provide for roughly 22,000 people for 3 days, maybe. And it did not include fuel vitally needed for hospitals, which are nearing total collapse. Rays of hope do not provide adequate sunshine.
So much for rays of hope. Instead of Jordan we get Mike Johnson who, according to CNN, is “a vocal supporter of former President Donald Trump and was a key congressional figure in the failed efforts to overturn the 2020 election.”
Hang on. I’m about to post something in a minute that offers a ray of hope on that. At least in a satirical sense. Which is more than we’ve gotten so far…