Election of a speaker for the US House of Representatives

I woke up this morning to seeing the following online BBC news headline: “Kevin McCarthy elected US House Speaker after 15 rounds of voting” but was not surprised that enough detractors had been persuaded to vote for Kevin McCarthy, for him to occupy the influential position of speaker of the US House of Representatives. Check out here for video footage of when “Rep. Kevin McCarthy Becomes Speaker of the House”.

Those who follow my forays into the blogosphere will note, besides my interest in things to do with Christianity, especially when it comes to what is and is not authentic, that I am also interested in and follow what goes on in politics, despite claiming, with good reason, I am a political neutral, although some may discern, with justification, I am a right leaning, anti-globalist, libertarian with an interest in social justice. Moreover, I am more interested in US politics than UK. Besides what happens in the US affects the world, UK politics is too close to home and is even more depressing. An example, despite right now preferring (just) Conservative to Labour, is Prime minister Rishi Sunak’s empty 2023 New Year message.  

For those who don’t know, the main qualification to be a speaker in the UK Parliament is to be seen to be a competent, neutral chair that has the respect of their peers and all political parties, whose views on what is discussed has little bearing on proceedings, with there being an unwritten rule to alternate speakers between Labour and Conservative. That is not the case in the US Congress, where the Speaker has far more power, including prioritising the business of the House. As far as the small number (around 20 to begin with) of McCarthy’s Republican colleagues who voted against him were concerned, he would more likely do deals with the Democrats and not go after draining the swamp, much of which has become a lot more evident given the strength of popularist political support.

The protest had been led by Matt Gaetz, even though many MAGA Republicans sided with McCarthy. The fact there has been such a hiatus over choice of speaker this time round (15 rounds with different speaker alternatives, including Trump, put forward), given that for the past 100 or so years, the majority Party (be it Democrat or Republican) have agreed on their preference, who then gets voted in first time, suggests there is a mood afoot to tackle the rot in the US Legislature, I have alluded to in my blogs, and do better than someone, like McCarthy, who will likely maintain the status quo

The BBC, to be fair, has been covering the story of what is being seen, fairly well. Not to be fair, is its portrayal of the small anti McCarthy camp as right wing extremists, even leaning toward domestic terrorists, and failing to dig deep as to reasons for this discontent. Reasons are many, but one needs to go to Alternative media to find them (see below) or, like me, follow the record of McCarthy, a known Trump opposer, Democrat appeaser, Ukraine nonsense subscriber, and MAGA Republican derailer.

 

1. Trump For Speaker EXPLODES as McCarthy Becomes DESPERATE!!!
2. We FACE many battles together, WATERGATE X 1000, AMAZING McCarthy showdown, TRUTH is out.
3. Congress RUNS AWAY AGAIN, McCarthy LOSES 11th Vote, EPIC FAIL
4. GAETZ NOMINATES TRUMP FOR SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE, RAILS AGAINST ‘SQUATTER’ MCCUCKTHY’
5. Roger Stone Breaks Down The House Speaker Vote And Why McCarthy Should Never Be Speaker
6. Kevin McCarthy May Regret Wearing Ukraine Flag Around Congress

A good example of an alternative, non-sympathetic view of what took place is “McTRAITOR FLIPS 14 Votes As Soon As Trump Gains Momentum For House Speaker?”, where the presenter does not mince his words concerning how bad he thinks McCarthy is and to speculate on reasons why those who might be expected to oppose his election as speaker or flipped their vote sometime between round 2 and round 15, pondering on what back room deal might have been reached to come to an “understanding”. Alarmingly, but not proven, although we know it goes on, some say common place, some of those who did change or vote inconsistently with their earlier rhetoric, such Marjorie Taylor Greene, could have succumbed to either bribery or blackmail. A more charitable view is political success depends partly on the preparedness to compromise and the ability to make deals; and one wonders what part potential deal makers, Trump for example, might have played to bring disaffected, “principled” Republicans around to voting McCarthy.

All of which may be a distraction, for there is so much more in terms of momentous happenings in US Politics, such as on the day the speaker was elected, the US Supreme Court were considering the “Brunson case”, needing to decide whether, when Congress approved the 2020 US Presidential election result, rules were broken. Another ongoing activity is the Twitter file revelations of Deep State collusion with US Politicians, pertaining to nefarious activities not in the interest of the people. With or without an “on board” speaker, all this and more will shake the establishment.

To end with, I offer (above) a meme relating to a music video (see here), an ironic take on what the presenter thinks is going on in our culture and why we should expect better for US Congress speaker, and (below) an ironic take on what if Trump (who had endorsed McCarthy) had become speaker. I believe what we have been seeing these past few days, while disappointing for folk like me that believe there is swamp to be drained and shenanigans that need to be investigated, take heart that, while we know but half of the back story, the bit we do know is rather revealing as we look forward to the House of Cards and Row of Dominoes all falling down. With so much else going on, while witnessing some of what went on during this vote, only confirms we are living in interesting days.