Rouse The Rabble
Progressives could learn from the GOP's off-label grenadiers
Links are at the end.
Evidently I like shoegaze music. I had suspected as much.
Oh right, we’re anti-autocracy
The Republican failure to go for the 133-ballot record for a Speaker election is disappointing, and reflects their lack of commitment and imagination.
Unfranchised Democrats are gazing lustfully at the hard-right’s attempt to break the monopoly power of the Speaker and other top leadership positions. Democrats generally don’t adopt the “they govern best who feck the government at every turn” position underlying at least some of the Birchers’ and gold-bugs’ positions, but they’re intrigued by the notion of gaining substantive leadership concessions in the face of a fuss, which the collection of lunkheads and anti-matter revolutionaries have certainly done at Kevin McCarthy’s expense.
This is not to say that minoritarian domination of a process is desirable, or that there’s anything to admire about the politics of the anti-democratic folk on the right (which is close to all of them, but the anti-McCarthyite examples are getting all the attention); only that some of their objectives were good. All the power in a caucus vesting in maybe a half-dozen members isn’t good, whether it’s Pelosi & Hoyer et al or McCarthy & Scalise et al. Minoritarian control isn’t great even when the characters in the controlling clique are people you like.
The administrative concessions most sought after by the GOP holdouts were access to the rules committee, which determines how business is done in the House, and devolving power to draft legislation and bring it to the floor back to the relevant committees.
They also want leadership and leadership money to stay out of primaries, which is something many Democrats also favor—leave the selection of party candidates to the voters, and support the primary winners in the general election.
In theory, voters elect their representatives to represent their interests, not to march in lockstep with whatever the party leaders have in mind. Advancing that prospect is good.
All that said, money is still the determining factor in what gets done and what doesn’t. Changes in rules and the balance of power can mitigate that a little bit, for good or ill, but we’re only ever a democracy within narrow parameters so long as the money keeps sloshing around.
“[W]hen the affluent prefer policy change and the middle oppose it, the rate of change is nearly identical to when both groups prefer it. When only the middle prefer policy change, the rate of change is the same as when both groups oppose it.”1
Today’s writing music (which you can’t blame for the result)
Diiv, “Deceiver;”2 Slow Pulp, “Moveys;”3 Animal Collective, “Time Skiffs.”4
And that, comrades, is all I got. Take care, be well, subscribe if you’ve not already.
Thank you for the recommendations. I've been a fan of shoegaze since the early days of the Cocteau Twins. It's interesting to me that there's been so much that I missed. Busy doing other things, I suppose.
Thank you also for the word minoritarian.