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Regardless of How the McCarthy Fight Ends, the Battle Itself Lays Bare the Larger War to Come
Red State ^ | 01/05/2023 | Mike Miller

Posted on 01/05/2023 7:50:51 PM PST by SeekAndFind

Before the seventh round of voting for the next Speaker of the House began on Thursday — which Kevin McCarthy lost — the embattled Republican Party Leader was asked on his way to the House floor about his plan if he again failed to secure the 218 votes necessary to secure the gavel:

We’re just gonna keep working til we solve it. Look, look you’re going to go in here, we’re gonna have votes; nothing is going to change. What we’re doing is we’re having really good progress in conversations. … Nothing is agreed to until everything is agreed to. I wouldn’t read anything into the votes today.

Translation: McCarthy remains in it to win it, no matter how long it takes.

Meanwhile, Florida Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz, who voted on Wednesday for fellow Floridian Byron Donalds, on Thursday voted for Donald Trump, while Trump diehard, Colorado’s Lauren Boebert and Fox News host Sean Hannity — forever in Trump’s back pocket — engaged in a hissy fit debate over her refusal to support McCarthy. Hence, the stand-off continues — with no predictable end in sight.

Translation: Gaetz, Boebert, and like-minded holdouts are in it to win it, no matter how long it takes.

Obviously, this thing has to end somewhere — with hard feelings on both sides of the GOP internecine war presumably even more bitter.

Reality begs the question:

What have we learned — whether Republican lawmakers have learned anything or not — about what the battle itself portends for the broader fight to come, which will begin in earnest this spring as the race for the GOP presidential nominee begins to heat up?

And, like it or not, what lies ahead for Trump and the MAGA Republicans — who’ve laid bare their differences for the first time over the McCarthy battle?

In a related Wednesday article, I asked if Trump has lost his touch, given that his multiple calls for House Republicans to fall in line behind McCarthy have failed — now after seven votes. Has Trumpism failed, or has the former president lost control of Trumpism to the likes of Matt Gaetz, Lauren Boebert, and like-minded Trump diehards?

I’m sure the majority of MAGA Republicans reject the notion but is MAGA in the process of kicking Trump to the curb? These are valid questions that need to be asked, and more importantly, answered — with an eye to the future vs. the past.

To be fair, as opined by Bruce S. Thornton, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center, Trump has been brutalized by the left, including the “mainstream” media sock puppets and the TDS-riddled Democrat Party:

The above — all of it despicable — considered, Republican voters must be honest (those who are capable, that is) about Trump’s self-inflicted unforced errors. Regardless of how one views Trump, as I wrote on New Year’s Day, only Donald Trump can do to Donald Trump what the Republican establishment could not: bring an end to the former president’s political career.

We’ve covered Trump’s recent missteps ad nauseam — yours truly, included — which I’m not going to repeat in this article. The bottom line here is Trump no longer has a vice grip on the Republican Party. That is a fact — and it becomes increasingly evident.

Also evident, as revealed by the Speakership battle, the Republican Party — in my not-so-humble opinion — is desperately in need of a new vision and new bold policies. Why? It should be obvious to the objective among us.

Non-stop rehashing of the 2020 presidential election — regardless of on which side one stands — and ad hominem attacks against potentially promising candidates, as was the case in 2016, aren’t going to work in 2024. That shtick is old and tired. Moreover, the relentless claims about the “stolen” 2020 election no longer rally a sufficient number of Republican voters — or critical independent voters — to win in 2024.

In the end, the Republican Party will choose a 2024 presidential nominee, determined by which candidate receives the requisite number of delegates. In other words, voters will decide the outcome of the 2024 election, as it should be.

Given the disastrous state of America under the Democrat Party, let’s hope Republican voters make a wise choice in the primaries.



TOPICS: Government; Politics; Society
KEYWORDS: congress; kevinmccarthy; speaker
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To: sauropod

Hannity and Pirro, and probably Ingraham, all are beholdin’ to the Fox Board of Directors for their paychecks. McCarthy’s BFF, Ryan, is on the Board. They have to toe the line.

(How does Tucker get away with being the maverick?)


21 posted on 01/06/2023 3:15:40 AM PST by MayflowerMadam (Stupid is supposed to hurt.)
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To: SeekAndFind

The Republican party is not going to win anything until the RINOs are purged from leadership positions in the party.

The old open borders, perpetual war, globalist, country-club, corporate shills have no future. They simply cannot win national elections. Trump’s multi ethnic, working and middle class populist and nationalist coalition very much can win national elections. That’s the future of the Republican Party.


22 posted on 01/06/2023 4:57:56 AM PST by FLT-bird
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To: SeekAndFind

Another example of Anti-Trump mental masturbation.....


23 posted on 01/06/2023 5:08:25 AM PST by nikos1121
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To: Secret Agent Man

He meant a Covid shot?/LOL


24 posted on 01/06/2023 8:23:04 AM PST by Honest Nigerian
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To: FLT-bird

This speaker fight is a preview of what’s coming down the road, sooner than later. The great chasm between the leftist GOP establishment and the conservatives in the base has been brewing since 1989. Rush at times would talk about and knew at some point it would explode.

Fear the democrats would win and SCOTUS nominees kept the conservatives in line for decades but Stephens and Kavanaugh and repeated betrayals by the likes of McConnell and McCarthy have ended that boogie man argument the trash of the party has been shoveling.

The GOP, as in 2022 offered no reasons to vote for them other than we are not Democrats. When you offer no differences, no real choice then people are not going to make the effort to donate, work and vote for you and right now the GOP is a feckless left of center Little Me-Me party of the Democrats-willing Uniparty participants. Conservatives are finally saying change or win without us—and they have no chance whatsoever if conservatives leave the party, they need us more than we need them. If they drift even further left they will never convince liberals they are on their side. Think NBC hiring Megan Kelly and thinking she would draw an audience, it was a disaster.

I know Goldwater conservatives who are pretty much done with the GOP congress, they believe it is a waste of time to fool with the GOP, there’s no difference. I’m a Reagan conservative and I haven’t voted for my GOP congressman since 2010, I leave it blank. He’s a Robert Byrd wannabe. The GOPE thinks as long as they are at the government trough they are okay. Eventually their good friends from across the aisle are going to look at one another and go why are we putting up with these pathetic useless idiots, we no longer need them and the country club trash will be booted out of the trough.

The speaker vote is just the conservatives in congress saying enough is the doing the same insanity and it makes for lively politics. When the conservative voter says enough and stays home it makes for a political disaster for the GOP at the national, state and local levels and that started in 22 and will get worse in 24, especially if we get another McRomney candidate for president.


25 posted on 01/06/2023 8:28:35 AM PST by sarge83
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To: SeekAndFind

You’re missing the point on the so-called re-hashing of the 2020 election Miller. Purposely I would guess since it’s obvious you don’t want Trump. The choose-wisely in the primaries is the tipoff. It’s a moot point if election fraud is not stopped so the article is meaningless.


26 posted on 01/06/2023 8:36:15 AM PST by subterfuge (I'm a pure-blood!)
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To: SeekAndFind

This feels like an Israeli election, where you build a coalition of disparate groups that make a patchwork foundation of conflicting objectives as your platform.

Can anyone explain what the Republicans stand for? Besides enriching themselves.


27 posted on 01/06/2023 8:46:00 AM PST by gitmo (If your theology doesn't become your biography, what good is it?)
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