McCarthy’s Stern Talking To
If there is no path for Donald Trump’s second term, it doesn’t mean the end of the ‘America First’ movement or his role in leading it. On the contrary, this is only the beginning. For now, it’s time to take our gains, learned from our defeats, and confidently expand one of the greatest political movements for the past 100 years. — Laura Ingraham, 11/6/2020
To be honest, although I hate Kevin McCarthy, part of me feels sorry for him. I could imagine no greater Hell than being the number one Republican in the House at a moment like this, especially considering a good chunk of his party thinks he’s a Satan worshipping pedophile of some kind. And he’s not even the most likely candidate, that honor still belongs to Senator Tom Cotton.
On 1/27/2021, McCarthy told the members of his party to “cut the crap out,” telling them their should be “no more attacks on one another.” Rather he’s mad at Matt Gaetz for going after his good friend Liz Cheney, or he’s mad at Ben Sasse for going after him, I cannot be sure. But he’s mad at Republican infighting, because that might take away from the amount of time his party spends kissing his ring. McCarthy is one of many who dreams of an older era of politics where sure politicians had disagreements, but after work they’d all go to Little Saint James together. (This is the same thing Mike Pence showed nostalgia for during the Vice Presidential debate.)
Oh, but I kid. But seriously, as politicians are getting more and more hate for their corruption, and as the idea of it being “one big club” (in the words of George Carlin), the idea of “unity among politicians” is becoming less and less popular among the masses. You might as well be telling the general person that you dream of an oligarchy — although I wouldn’t be surprised if McCarthy truly did. Why won’t politicians just stop arguing and do whatever it is Kevin McCarthy wants, asks Kevin McCarthy.
I pointed this out when rhetoric of “unity” started rearing its ugly head back in 2015 or so with cries about us being “more divided than ever,” but division in a representative democracy is far from an evil. A political system like ours, as was explained through The Federalist Papers in the defense of the very House McCarthy serves in, was actually meant to be so divided that no one group of people could effectively oppress another. Rather McCarthy is doing this unity dance in hopes of gaining more effective whip power or because he is spineless is up for debate, although I personally lean towards the second option, but he’s doing it.
Here is McCarthy on 1/13/2021 on the floor of the capitol during Trump’s second impeachment:
The president bears responsibility for Wednesday’s attack on congress by mob rioters. He should have immediately denounced the mob when he saw what was unfolding. These facts require immediate action of President Trump. Accept his share of responsibility, quell the unrest, and ensure President-Elect Biden is able to successfully begin his term.
Quite the controversial statement, one could even say it’s rather decisive. Well don’t you worry, because McCarthy made sure to backpedal in an interview aired on 1/24/2021:
I thought the president had some responsibility when it came to the response. If you listen to what president said at the rally, he said, “demonstrate peacefully.” And then I got a question later about whether did he incite them. I also think everybody across this country has some responsibility. What do we write on our social media? What do we say to one another? How do we disagree and still not be agreeable even when it comes to opinion?
You have to give it to McCarthy, it takes some serious skill to take a capitol insurrection and turn it into a rant against how gosh darn divided we are as a nation because of social media or something. Just a few years ago, everyone in the GOP was tripping over themselves to denounce Ilhan Omar’s “some people did something” comment about 9/11 (which, while insensitive, were at least accurate), but now we have McCarthy blaming everyone for a terrorist attack. The strawman position for critics of US foreign policy during the Bush years has become what Republicans truly believe regarding domestic terrorists.
And this brings us to the biggest news of the day, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, known for her embrace of Q-Anon, harassing David Hogg by following him on the streets and screaming at him on 3/25/2019, which was uncovered on 1/27/2021 and uploaded onto Twitter. How does McCarthy plan to stop this divide within his party? Well it’s quite simple, he plans to “talk to her,” possibly at Mar-A-Lago when he met with Donald Trump on the exact same day.
McCarthy would never dare condemn her views, although he did try when she was running in her district’s primary, because doing so might cost him power going forward. McCarthy knows that, even if Trump does not run in 2024, it’s very likely at least one major Trump apologist will attempt a run for President, and it’s not impossible that person will throw Q-Anon a bone every now and again. (As I write this, the most likely Republican loudmouths to run in 2024 are Josh Hawley, Ron DeSantis, and Jim Jordan.) McCarthy does not want to burn bridges with what could be the future of his party, and nobody can blame him.
As it stands, McCarthy has two choices, either take a stand and make it so the Q-Anon believers might take him down, or do nothing and make it a certain. McCarthy is likely to pick the second one, because McCarthy is a coward who can do nothing but repeat what the party tells him — which makes it rather hard when he’s the one setting the agenda.
