This is a hot mess!
When Democrats won a narrow majority in the 2020 general election, we immediately unified under the brilliant leadership of Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and without missing a beat we certified the election despite being interrupted by the Trump inspired January 6th insurrection. Over the next two years we went on to pass the American Rescue Plan, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the CHIPS Act, the Inflation Reduction Act, and other important and consequential legislation. History will show the last session of Congress to have been the most productive session in modern history.
Republicans won a narrow majority in the House in the midterm elections, and what do they do with it? They bring the people’s House to a standstill, unable to elect a Speaker after 11 roll call votes. Members of Congress can't even be sworn in!
Republican Kevin McCarthy was so sure he would be Speaker that he’s taking the phrase “prematurely measuring the drapes” to a whole new level—he’s not only worried about the drapes; he seems to be moving all his stuff in, too!
While Kevin dreams of that beautiful Mall view, we’re locked in a floor fight over who the next Speaker will be, and there’s no end in sight. The last time this happened was a century ago, and it happened with regularity during the 1850s—when the South was rallying around slavery and the Supreme Court issued the Dred Scott decision, in which Chief Justice Roger Taney wrote that Black Americans “…had no rights which the white man was bound to respect…”
One of Democrats' last acts just last month was to vote to remove a bust of Taney from the Old Supreme Court Chamber in the Capitol. Now, Republicans are intent on taking us back to Taney’s time. If they elect Kevin McCarthy as Speaker, they will try to take us backwards and the House will be mired in gridlock and endless dysfunction over bad ideas.
Thank you, John.
– Hank HQ
