this post was submitted on 14 Nov 2023
334 points (98.3% liked)

politics

19072 readers
3809 users here now

Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!

Rules:

  1. Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.

Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.

Example:

  1. Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
  2. Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
  3. No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
  4. Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
  5. No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.

That's all the rules!

Civic Links

Register To Vote

Citizenship Resource Center

Congressional Awards Program

Federal Government Agencies

Library of Congress Legislative Resources

The White House

U.S. House of Representatives

U.S. Senate

Partnered Communities:

News

World News

Business News

Political Discussion

Ask Politics

Military News

Global Politics

Moderate Politics

Progressive Politics

UK Politics

Canadian Politics

Australian Politics

New Zealand Politics

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

Have you noticed the rush of House Republicans calling it quits in the last few weeks?

Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.) announced his exit Nov. 1. He explained that to be a member of the Republican House majority means putting up with  the “many Republican leaders [who] are lying to America, claiming that the 2020 election was stolen.”

Buck is predicting that even more House Republicans will leave “in the near future.”

The day before Buck said good-bye, House Appropriations Chair Kay Granger (R-Texas) also quit. Granger had been a leader among House Republicans who prevented the far-right, election-denying Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) from becoming Speaker of the House.

Also in October, Rep. Debbie Lesko (R-Ariz.) said she was quitting. “Right now, Washington, D.C. is broken,” she said. “It is hard to get anything done.”

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 217 points 1 year ago (21 children)

This isn't a victory. They will just be replaced with Trumpites.

[–] [email protected] 86 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Trumpite replacement candidates have been losing close congressional seats to Democratic challengers so this may open up some pathways to retaking a majority.

[–] [email protected] 46 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

It's a risk though. Many people vote party line. It will depend a lot on what district or state the seat is in.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago

I'm not saying get complacent, but looking at the all the elections from 2020 on, it's less of a risk & more of a pattern.

[–] [email protected] 30 points 1 year ago

Exactly. The ones that are closer to being moderate (there are currently no moderate Republicans in the house) are leaving. They're less crazy in general, so not only are there fewer Republicans to push back against the MAGA crowd, it leaves spots open to be filled by even crazier Republicans.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yeah, I feel like the sinking ship is a "sane Republican party". We're just going to see more Boebert's, MTG's, and Jim Jordan's in Congress now, which will lead to even more dysfunction and gridlock.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The fact that there's even a debate to be had about whether it's a victory just shows how fucked up our system of government is—in this case, our electoral processes. Government policies in a democracy should be highly predictable based on what's popular with the voting-age public, but instead, the policy effects of something as minor as some people retiring are so unpredictable we may as well be trying to read the future in chicken entrails.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I think part of that reason is due to the fact that half of Congress has an arbitrarily capped headcount and we're no longer able to represent the popular opinions of the constituency. Last I checked, we should have something like 3x the representatives in the house that we have currently.

We also need to ditch the electoral college. There's no reason to have it any longer. We won a civil war that forced the South to start evolving beyond chattel slavery to prop up their economy, there's no need to continue with that farce.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (3 children)

The numbers I've seen are that if the House wasn't capped it would have around 10,000 members.

I agree with your points but I don't think they go far enough. Approval voting (or RCV) and proportional representation are needed.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

Oh for sure, I've advocated for that for several years. Here in multinomah county, Oregon USA, we went with a version of RCV and our next election will be run that way. There's a lot of detractors, and while I personally would have preferred STAR voting, I think almost anything is better than FPTP.

You're right, I was off by a factor of 10 or so on the rep count.

load more comments (2 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (16 replies)
[–] [email protected] 91 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Nice. Instead of staying to fight for America, they turn tail and run like the yellow bellied cunts they are.

[–] [email protected] 84 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

How many years did they spend sweeping the ground ahead of Trump and his cronies to support them and bring us to where we are today - only to act like they are taking some principled stand in quitting now?

They made this bed.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago

What else you expect? If they legitimately try to govern or talk sensibly, they get primaried. The GOP is so completely broken, there's no point trying to hang in there.

[–] [email protected] 79 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (13 children)

"right now Washington DC is broken"

Oh Debbie, it's not Washington honey. It's one specific party that happens to reside currently.

[–] [email protected] 33 points 1 year ago

Both can be true at the same time. The system itself is broken, and the fact that it allows fascists to gain so much traction is a symptom of that brokenness.

load more comments (12 replies)
[–] [email protected] 59 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Easier to quit than actually try to fix what you broke in the first place.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 year ago

why put themselves at risk confronting the problems in the party, when they can just leave, with their money and influence, and let the crazies run the nuthouse

[–] [email protected] 50 points 1 year ago (1 children)

So the bastards are quitting the machine they built after it got out of hand and are leaving it to be run by crazy bastards.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

Yeah, but they'll be safe, because they were a Republican once, right? Right‽

[–] [email protected] 44 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Assholes rather flee than work with Democrats. Fucking trash

[–] [email protected] 34 points 1 year ago

More importantly, flee rather than fight the crazy

[–] [email protected] 38 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Rule: They are not allowed to become Democrats.

load more comments (4 replies)
[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The Moderates and old guard are leaving to be replaced by extreme right wing types.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

There really aren't any moderates.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

The moderates are the Democrats (on average). The majority of the Republican party supports treason so any that call themselves Republicans fall into that label as well.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago

I for one don’t think they are choosing to leave. I think they are being forced to leave. The GQP is holding Kompromat over their heads, and because they didn’t support Qult45 are being forced out, less all the evidences against them all come to light.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago

Fuck ‘em.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago

Now this is the Great Replacement theory I'm interested in. Soon, the right will only be Trump and his luddites.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago

Every Republican still in the House next year will be forced to run for reelection while possibly supporting a convicted felon at the head the GOP ticket. They will also have to say they believe the lie that the 2020 election was stolen. 

Anyone want to bet against that happening exactly that way?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

If they aren’t voting blue, they’re doing fuckall.

load more comments (2 replies)
load more comments
view more: next ›