The unsung 1824 Bicentennial is fast upon us. Soon it will be only a year away. The year has been a personal favorite of mine. It has been the subject of blogs since 2016.
The year marks the transition from the First Party System to the Second Party System. It was the end of the Virginian-dominated American Revolution era and start of the Jacksonian dominated one. The Federalists and the Republicans were out and the Whigs and Democrats would be in. The new system would last until the demise of the Whigs and the emergence of the Republicans under Lincoln. It also was a time of Senate giants like Henry Clay, John C. Calhoun, and Daniel Webster.
Putting aside all the talk about the Civil War today, the squabbling over the Speaker position in the House of Representatives suggests we may be in for a de facto three party system in the next session of Congress.
THREE-PARTY SYSTEM
America is not designed for a three-party system. In Europe and Israel, multiple parties are par for the course. After every election, the jockeying for power begins by the various parties. Which one can form majority? That is not the American way where the two-party system is sacred.
Until now. Right now the House of Representatives beginning in January is divided into three groups:
213 Democrats
182 Republicans
40 Freedom Party.
No one of the groups has the magic 218 votes needed to form a majority and elect a speaker. There has been talk of multiple ballots in an unprecedented situation. Perhaps Kevin McCarthy will deal for the position he has coveted. Perhaps he will drop out when he realizes he cannot win and a host of new candidates will emerge. Perhaps cross-party deals will be made. We are in uncharted waters.
SUPPOSE MCCARTHY WINS
Suppose McCarthy wins, then what? Even if he can cobble together a winning coalition with 4 votes to spare, that will not be the end of his problems in holding together the Republicans and the Freedom Party.
Every subsequent vote will be a battle for him. There already is a 21 member faction that has openly expressed its displeasure with the Freedom Party shenanigans and its extreme agenda. Many Republicans ran on a platform of getting things done including reaching across the aisle. If you were elected in 2022 from a Congressional District that Joe Biden won in 2020, you don’t want to face the voters in 2024 with nothing to show except you shut down the government.
Consider the issues important to the voters as identified in surveys versus the ones propounded by the Freedom Party. Voters are concerned about jobs, inflation, the economy and the threat to democracy. By contrast the Freedom Party agenda consists of:
Relitigating the 2020 election
Investigating Hunter Biden
Investigating the House Select Committee
Impeaching Joe Biden.
None of these issues are on the radar of the Real Republicans. So if McCarthy does win the speaker vote, he is still going to have to deal with the agenda of Freedom Party which has limited support beyond its own Party. On the other hand, there will be plenty of real Republicans ready to deal with the issues Americans actually care about and willing to vote in a bipartisan manner. McCarthy will be walking a land mine field each and every vote.
THE INSURRECTION AND THE FREEDOM PARTY
Simultaneously, McCarthy is going to be forced to deal with the legal challenges to members of the Freedom Party. The House Select Committee may refer ethic charges be filed against the Representatives who did not comply its subpoenas. It may request the current House in its last few days ask the Department of Justice to pursue indictments against the January 6 conspirators who have refused to testify. The various options and scenarios still are to be played out. Suffice it to say some of the most vocal people in the Freedom Party are likely to be questioned by the DOJ at some point in the future about their role in the insurrection.
There is a human element in the insurrection that so far has been overlooked. The President of the United States was supposed to arrive at the Capitol Building and lead his followers both armed and unarmed into the House chambers. When Steve Bannon broadcasted to his listeners to strap in because what was going happen was not what they expected, he knew what had been decided. Roger Stone knew what had been decided in the War Room. Some Congressional Representatives knew what had been decided in the War Room, too. None of them have testified to the DOJ so far.
This means at some point the plan did not go as expected. The Secret Service declined to drive to the Capitol. No matter how vigorously the President objected, they returned to the White House and did not succumb to his wishes.
The question then to be asked is when did the co-conspirators in the House chambers realize the plan had failed and what did they do then? According to the War Room plans, the President of the United States was to lead his people into Chambers and intimidate the Vice President into disqualifying the vote of the states with the fake electors. The President was to force a delay in the certification until all the disputed votes could be resolved.
Instead there was a leaderless mob roaming the halls and offices of Congress seeking to hang Nancy Pelosi. That was not part of the War Room plan. The result of the collapse of the plan due to the failure of the President to lead his people into the House chambers was that the members of Congress had to scramble for their lives. Run Josh Run!
We have yet to hear the testimony what the War Room plan known to Steve Bannon was or how the congressional co-conspirators learned that it had failed and they were on their own now. So while Jim Jordan may initiate an investigation of the House Select Committee, he and the other congressional co-conspirators (and Mark Meadows among others) will be called to testify about their own role in the January 6 insurrection. This is why Mar-a-Largogate will be prosecuted first. It is a more straightforward case whereas there still are many people to be subpoenaed by the DOJ before the full story is known.
DONALD TRUMP: OVERTHROW THE CONSTITUTION
In the meantime, the chief conspirator will be giving his rather astonishing marching orders to the new Speaker.
So now it comes out, conclusively, that the FBI BURIED THE HUNTER BIDEN LAPTOP STORY BEFORE THE ELECTION knowing that, if they didn’t, “Trump would have easily won the 2020 Presidential Election.” This is massive FRAUD & ELECTION INTERFERENCE at a level never seen before in our Country. Remedy: Declare the rightful winner or, this would be the minimal solution, declare the 2020 Election irreparably compromised and have a new Election, immediately! (8/29/22)
Do you throw the Presidential Election Results of 2020 OUT and declare the RIGHTFUL WINNER, or do you have a NEW ELECTION? A Massive Fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution. Our great ‘Founders’ did not want, and would not condone, False & Fraudulent Elections! (12/3/22)
While McCarthy is trying to bring order to his unruly House, the Loser will be continually fanning flames. Besides his partnering with anti-Semitic racists, he is continuing to up the stakes. The immature child with the emotional maturity of a three-year old has elevated his ranting and ravings to new levels. The person who has shown no loyalty to the Constitution when it prevented him from playing his game of “I am the President. Your loyalty is to me,” has called for the scrapping of the very document he swore to uphold.
Despite all the machinations of Pillow Head and Séance Sidney, he was not restored to the White House in 2021 nor is he going to be in 2022. He may even have doubts about 2024 now. Why he thinks a do-over election would be favorable to him is a mystery given the results of the recent election. Or in lieu of a new election, who is going to throw out the results of the 2020 election as he tried to do January 6 and declare him the winner? Is that what he expected the Vice President to do on January 6? Will he so testify under oath to the DOJ? Does he expect the new Speaker do so now?
Team Normal Republicans did not run on an agenda of overthrowing the Constitution. Even the Freedom Party pledges loyalty to it provided it is interpreted correctly. Meanwhile the Loser will ratchet up the expectations of what he wants his Speaker to do. He will do so secure in the belief that his base will never abandon him and is of sufficient size to prevent anyone else from grabbing the nomination. The more desperate he becomes, the far-fetched his texts will become and the more Speaker McCarthy will have to walk a fine line. As of this writing he remains silent about the head of his Party calling for the overthrow of the Constitution. Democrats are sure to ask him where he stands on this issue. In other words, even if McCarthy wins the battle to become Speaker, his problems are only just beginning.
