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I've been wondering for the past few weeks whether there's a chance that Democrats would find an acceptable moderate Republican from the Cheney/Kinzinger mold and try to peel off enough moderate Republicans to give him the win. Unanimously voting for Jeffries is a nice symbolic gesture, but there's no real chance the guy is going to win. It would be a win for the Republicans in swing districts whom the party owes its majority to; they can claim that McCarthy made too many concessions to the MAGA wing and wasn't going to win anyway, so better to have a speaker that accurately reflects the values of the majority of the chamber. For Democrats it would be a total coup, since, even in victory, the Republicans still don't really control congress in any meaningful way. Even if it doesn't work (i.e. AOC and other proggies can't stomach voting for a Republican and it derails the whole plan), I don't really see any downside. Even the possibility of it working would be more exciting news than McCarthy winning on the 189th ballot.
They'd have to find such an "acceptable" Republican, which they cannot do, because by definition, an "acceptable Republican" is one who wields no power. Whence, Cheney became acceptable when she was stripped of leadership positions for undermining Republicans. Romney became acceptable after his landslide presidential election loss. McCain became unacceptable when he won the Republican nomination for President, and regained acceptability after his humiliating loss.
I eagerly expect the time where Trump retires from the political scene and it turns out he's a moderate centrist and a very acceptable person unlike that new Republican presidential candidate who is literally Hitler.
I mean, it's already happening:
https://web.archive.org/web/20230102131625/https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2022/12/ron-desantis-just-as-bad-as-donald-trump-2024
To be Fair: this has been happening for 4+ years in lib spaces; once everyone who takes this shit seriously realized trump was a retard.
Lotta "Oh shit we just dodged a bullet; imagine if it was pence/desantis/whoever in charge with all three branches instead of this manchild".
The problem is they would have to explain why Desantis would be such a terror compared to Trump when his reputation amongst people who live in his state and thus are actually governed by him is to give him an overwhelming electoral victory and a general record of approval.
You can't go "Trump was bad because he was incompetent and alienated possible allies (both immediate political allies and foreign policy allies) and was unable to govern effectively" and say "But Desantis worse because' he's competent, is good at forming and keeping alliances and governs supremely effectively."
Because now you're saying that you preferred Trump be incompetent and ineffective.
With Desantis it's "Well he supports policies I don't like and he's GOOD at getting them passed!" Which yes, would make him scarier to his opponents but is arguably a pitch that makes him more appealing to everyone who might consider voting for him.
Yup.
This is libs talking to libs.
They are firmly of the opinion that republicans in general and the right fringe in specific are ant-humanist authoritarians; and are more worried about a competent authoritarian than in incompetent authoritarian. They assume that there are no republicans left with any shot of getting a leadership roll in the party that are NOT anti-humanist authoritarian.
And as mentioned, it really does not help that this trick has been pulled on every GOP candidate since Bush Jr., and that's just the ones I have in living memory.
Bush Jr fucked the party pretty god damn hard with Iraq and afghanitan.
I was actually kinda on the boat for Mccain; but the pandering to the room temperature IQ wing of the conservatives after he lost has permanently locked me out of voting R, even for reasonable R's, because I know they will caucus with Bible McThumpin to do silly shit, while also not even lowering the deficit or being good for the economy.
They are all culture war no substance these days.
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