For the Sake of Twenty: The Republicans and the Speakership

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The current impasse among the Republicans in their attempt to elect a new Speaker of the House reminds me greatly of the passage in the Bible wherein Abraham reasons with God regarding the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. Genesis 18:23-32

For the sake of illustration, let's suppose that the Republican caucus of the U. S. House of Representatives is Sodom; Kevin McCarthy is Abraham; and Matt Gaetz, a member of the Republican Freeedom Caucus is God (we could have chosen any other member to play God, among those twenty in the Freedom caucus who oppose McCarthy, but Gaetz will suffice).

The conventional reasoning goes somewhat like this:

KEVIN: The Republican caucus has 222 members. Will you destroy the entire Republican caucus if only 202 are corrupt?

MATT: Yes, I will destroy the entire Republican caucus if only 202 are corrupt.

KEVIN: Will you destroy the entire Republican caucus if only 150 are corrupt?

MATT: Yes, I will destroy the entire Republican caucus if only 150 are corrupt.

KEVIN: Will you destroy the entire Republican caucus if only 50 are corrupt?

MATT: Yes, I will destroy the entire Republican caucus if only 50 are corrupt.

…and thus the back and forth is reduced to "only 25," then ten, then five, then…"

KEVIN: Will you destroy the entire Republican caucus if only 1 is corrupt?

MATT:  Yes. It only takes one spoiled apple to rotten the entire barrel, and this barrel has way more than a single spoiled apple.

KEVIN: But surely the entire barrel should not be rejected if it contains only one rotten apple?

MATT: Refer to my previous reply.

Rotten apples, the Swamp….use whatever illustration you like, but don't deny that there is no problem in electing the spoiled apple that is Kevin McCarthy to be Speaker. 

And quit making the dangerously illegitimate claim that McCarthy must be elected as Speaker because 202 members want him, and 202 is overwhelmingly more than the 20 who believe McCarthy is and always has been a denizen of the Swamp. "We have the numbers" is a stupid argument, one that sounds logical and wise, as in "202 members chose to drink the Kool-Aid, so there must be something fundamentally wrong with the 20 who refuse to do so." It is an argument that the terminally ill patient, who certainly can recover if he takes his medicine, should shut up and die because his recovery would be inconvenient or somehow inexplicably "embarrassing" for others.

The twenty principled and brave Representatives who oppose Kevin McCarthy did not create this impasse, any more than the millions of Americans who voted against Biden, because they looked down the tracks and saw a total train wreck about to happen, are responsible for the train wreck that is the Biden administration. 

In short, if you like Joe Biden, you're going to love Kevin McCarthy. But is doesn't have to be that way.






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