A Choice Between Chaos and Governance
Democratic leaders must speak out with clarity about the dangers of extremists, showcased in the latest effort to shut down the government
America currently has one governing party and another party driven by chaos agents increasingly at war with each other. This creates a tricky dance for Democrats: Take on the extremists with clarity while also seeking to govern effectively. That means pursuing bipartisanship when possible, yet knowing the MAGA Republicans are bent on burning down the house.
No one is in a more intriguing position to manage this moment than House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who successfully encouraged his members to support a last-minute stopgap spending agreement on Saturday to avoid a government shutdown. This required bailing out House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who’s unable to do his job without the Democrats, while also targeting the destructiveness of the GOP anarchists.
“The American people have won, the extreme MAGA Republicans have lost,” Jeffries said at a Saturday press conference after the final vote that excluded any of the MAGA demands that would have severely cut spending and implemented extreme immigration restrictions. The bill was approved 335 to 91, with 209 Democrats and 126 Republicans voting for it and 90 Republicans opposing it.
“It is our hope that the traditional Republicans will finally take their party back from the extremists who have hijacked this Congress from the very beginning of this Republican majority,” Jeffries said. “Time and time and time again, House Democrats have had to come to the rescue, to push back against the extremists and to ensure we’re doing the right thing for the American people.”
President Joe Biden quickly signed the short-term funding bill that keeps the federal government operating until Nov. 17, calling it “good news.” But he underscored Jeffries’ criticism. “We should never have been in this position in the first place,” he said in a statement. “Just a few months ago, Speaker McCarthy and I reached a budget agreement to avoid precisely this type of manufactured crisis. For weeks, extreme House Republicans tried to walk away from that deal by demanding drastic cuts that would have been devastating for millions of Americans. They failed.”
The aggrieved plan of Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, to oust McCarthy from the speakership, only makes the Democrats’ role more important. McCarthy, who said yesterday Gaetz is “more interested in securing TV interviews than doing something,” sounded for a whiplash moment like a bipartisan leader interested in governing.
Referring to Gaetz’s threat to drive him out, McCarthy said, “Bring it on. Let’s get over with it and let’s start governing. If he’s upset because he tried to push us into a shutdown and I made sure the government didn’t shut down, then let’s have that fight.”
But no one should assume that the unreliable and spineless McCarthy, who was more than willing to kowtow to the extremists until that weak tactic failed, is turning over a new leaf. There’s no sign he’s genuinely interested in decreasing Congress’ deadly dysfunction or dropping his appeasement of Trump and the House cultists bent on a Biden impeachment without evidence.
Yet while neither Jeffries nor Biden have weighed in on whether they think Democrats should join angry Republicans in the “motion to vacate” that would remove the gavel from McCarthy’s hand, they must continue to speak out loudly about the dangerous chaos the extremists are fueling. (Let’s never forget the desire of alt-right Trump acolyte Steve Bannon to “destroy the state” like Lenin did, explaining why he relished the violent insurrection on Jan. 6. “I want to bring everything crashing down and destroy all of today’s establishment,” he said in 2016.)
In his speech in Arizona last week, the president made a strong opening move to center the messaging in this next year on the dangers America faces from within, that is, from “an extremist movement that does not share the basic beliefs in our democracy.” It’s the kind of discourse that I think is critical to rally the majority. As Biden put it:
There is no question that today’s Republican Party is driven and intimidated by MAGA Republican extremists. Their extreme agenda, if carried out, would fundamentally alter the institutions of American democracy as we know it.
My friends, they’re not hiding their attacks. They’re openly promoting them—attacking the free press as the enemy of the people, attacking the rule of law as an impediment, fomenting voter suppression and election subversion…
I’m asking you that, regardless of whether you’re a Democrat, Republican or independent, put the preservation of our democracy before everything else. Put our country first.
Note also the calmly stated but frustrated comments of House Leader Jeffries on Sept. 12 in response to the MAGA Republicans’ lack of a governing agenda and their impeachment inquiry: “We were sent to Washington, D.C., to improve the quality of life of everyday Americans. The extreme MAGA Republicans are determined to illegitimately investigate the president as part of an ideological crusade that, week after week after week, does nothing more than try and jam their extreme right-wing ideology down the throats of the American people.”
I remain doubtful that it’s possible to change the mind of Trump cultists, except through the long and grinding efforts of the justice system to hold him accountable for his violent and criminal behavior. But eventual repair will also take a constant clarion call among the majority dedicated to democracy—to assert what’s at stake and to remind each other about the dreadful role the extremists continue to play in putting our way of life in danger.
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"But eventual repair will also take a constant clarion call among the majority dedicated to democracy—to assert what’s at stake and to remind each other about the dreadful role the extremists continue to play in putting our way of life in danger. " Thank you, Mr. Beschloss for this eloquent and powerful call to arms. We can't wait for MAGA extremists to wake up to what America is. It is our duty to do what we can to vote them out at every opportunity.
Every idea gets lost in the repetition of its use. Beautiful ideas democracy, freedom, voting for one's leaders, freedom without license to speak one's truth, "serve the people," 'Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,' all become slogans... until we can speak to what that means in our daily lives.
Today, in my neighborhood, a foreign company has purchased the land next door to my home and plans to create a noisy, toxic, traffic jamming, metal shredding business.. I understand the EPA says within 1/2 mile of these shredders is a zone of 'extreme danger.' DEMOCRACY: I have the right to rally my neighbors, protest, write letters, sue... what ever it takes to protect my family and neighbors to stop this. Hopefully we will win. We will vote out the politicians who didn't stop this before it started. Thank you America.