Former Speaker Kevin McCarthy to resign from Congress at year end

jeffw@lemmy.world to politics @lemmy.world – 349 points –
Former Speaker Kevin McCarthy to resign from Congress at year end
cnbc.com
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This is exactly what he did. He apparently organized the ouster of George Santos, and also was interested in ejecting Matt Gaetz if he was able to before he (Kevin McCarthy) resigned. His intention is to leave the GOP fucked by having only the slimmest of majorities while punishing the people who worked against him.

It's the GOP civil war, and they all deserve it.

No way Bakersfield isn't returning another maga republican.

This affects fundraising. He was Mr Moneybags, that's how he held the caucus together to the extent he did.

I think the count of Republicans is going to be the same.

If there is a single moment where the Democrats can have the majority, before the Republicans are replaced, then they will have the opportunity to do some worthwhile actions. There is also one other Republican who is expected to leave to take a job at a college.

Could be nice, but the Speaker has absolute control even if his party loses the majority.

Nothing in any way positive is being allowed to even be DEBATED on the full House floor as long as the Jericho Johnson is Speaker.

Thanks to the new rules from the Gaetz wing though, the Democrats can rather easily remove and replace the speaker. And they just might if they end up with a majority.

Good point, I totally forgot about THAT particular foot-shot! 😆

There was a point, around the time the Tea Party astroturfing was in full force, where Republican planning and messaging was unified and tight. Trump showed up and didn't know why things worked the way they did, and Republicans eating themselves is the result.

Surely it can't be that difficult to goad McCarthy into continuing his vendetta after he leaves office. He's no friend to Democrats, but he doesn't have to be our friend to decide that he doesn't care if we win, so long as Gaetz and company lose.

And him leaving means less money. Guy was an ahole of the highest order but he knew exactly how to get rich Republicans to give out their money. I highly doubt he passes that on and no one currently is in a position to replace him in terms of fund raising.

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If only he had done that after the 10th failed attempt to become speaker

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I was watching the talking head shows last night at someone raised a good point:

McCarthy was only good at fundraising, that was his strength.

After 1/6, corporate donations for the insurrection candidates dropped off a cliff, and without that fundraising, McCarthy literally has nothing.

I can see that. Given the actions of the current Speaker, I don't see the party changing back any time soon.

Nope, it's going to take a full implosion before anything changes, and if Trump loses in '24, he'll keep coming back until he wins or dies.

I don't think it's a question of "keep coming back". Whether he wins or loses, he won't leave. I want to be clear I am prognosticating, not advocating, but I feel strongly that the next election will lead to some kind of violence - regardless of outcome.

I'm convinced we're at the end of this age - think Wheel of Time. The current civilization has run it's course and is about to collapse like it has done countless times before. Trump wins and America turns into the next autocracy. Or Trump loses and the conservatives keep working towards their goals next term, with or without Trump.

And either way, World War 3 is just around the corner. Tensions are high all over the world and Russia won't stop provocating wars. This is the same kind of build up we saw in WW1 all over again, except this time we have nuclear weapons at play.

All we can do is try to survive, and hope that when we are reborn this will have all blown over.

Or trump fails and continues to try, continuing the erosion of the Republican parties ability to win elections. Sure, some places move right but the majority of America moves left and the Dems start to move left too because of it.

Sure, there may be violence but that's not the same as a civil war and likely will be quickly quelled. 1/6 was amateur hour but it was scary how easily it still was allowed to happen.iy won't be allowed in the same way again, but it's important to prosecute those responsible for round 1, in order to not get multiple rounds after.

My hunch is that if the Republican Party implodes, anything but a symbolic leftward shift by the Democrat party will be halted by a flow of money from donors.

Any real change won’t happen without overturning citizens united.

I'd be fine if the Democrats became the conservative party without changing a single policy goal. A new party can emerge to their left.

Either Trump wins, which will destabilize America and lead to the collapse of society

Or

Trump loses and the Republicans continue pushing more and more extreme candidates. I know everyone here loves to circle jerk themselves about how all the Republicans will just die out and I think that's really near-sighted. Lots of young people increasingly support Trump. I'm around Gen z a lot and not all of them are democrats.

Or

Russia, feeling the pressure of an endless war, colludes with China, India, and the Arabs to wage all out war against America. Alone, none of them stand a chance against the US Military. But together, maybe they figure they have a chance. There's a lot of deep seeded anti-american resentment out in the world. A lot of politicians are tired of the American hegemony, and they have lots of support.

I just don't see a scenario where Trump loses, the Republicans give up trying to institute a theocracy, and Putin says "ok I guess this is enough war, we'll go home".

And I haven't even mentioned what would happen to global markets if Russia collapsed and countries started coalescing out of the rubble.

Or of the Israeli-Hamas genocide.

Or of unstoppable climate change.

Or of the pandemics that are sweeping the world.

Global hunger is on the rise again.

Make no mistake, this is the end of a chapter in human history. I'm not religious; I don't believe this is the end of days or anything like that. I think humans will survive and will continue to build new and great things. But I think a shitload of people are going to die first.

The biggest thing that kills countries or societies is revolts. China is experimenting to see if they can hold back revolts using technology to control citizens. We will have to wait and see if it works or instead creates a bigger tipping point.

For those in power before, war allowed them to increase their riches. As economies have become more interdependent, war hinders wealth generation, apart from on the military industrial complex. The incentive for war is less. That's the whole point of the EU, the marshall plan and globalisation efforts in general. It seems to be working. Putins position is more precarious than before the war. Trump is less liked overall, but does have more youth support than previously. That may be a side effect of youth growing up knowing no difference. 20 year old voters now were kids before he was a politician.

Look at current hardship with cost of living increases after the pandemic. Things are hard and it's starting to stabilize but it's less widespread hardship than, say, the great recession after Spanish flu. There is a rose in populism and authoritarianism worldwide but there has not yet been the same backwards jump in living standards.

If Trump is successful, I think he'll struggle to do much. He's old and it's dangerous but he's self interested, so as soon as it's hard he gives up and leaves it to others. If he loses, his power within politics diminishes more. The Republicans can try to shake him off and risk him weakening them or continue as now and go down with him. They will weaken either way, as has already been happening. I'm optimistic that we are indeed at one of those turning points in humanity. I wonder if the rise of ai and self driving will free many from work and truly lead to a post scarcity society. It all depends on how we distribute the spoils.

Maybe you shouldn't base you worldview on decades old fantasy novels.

Civilization has never once collapsed and it certainly isn't a regular thing.

McCarthy […] said he is leaving “to serve America in new ways.”

this is very ominous sounding

Proud Boys next probably.

While I have almost no respect for McCarthy, I would say Proud Boys might be a step too far for him. If he were that type, he would have been all in with the Freedom Caucus, right?

I imagine him taking a more snake-ish route using his political accumen to advise/lobby for rich assholes, and trying to undermine the will of the people in more passively malicious ways.

Proud Bois is probably a step too low for him. I see a Fox/OANN gig in his future. Somebody has to fill all of Rudy's slots after he gets incarcerated.

Hopefully what Paul Ryan did. Write a book and disappear.

who? oh, they guy who barely squeaked onto the position, spent the year doing nothing while nearly getting fried, then finally did in a tantrum?

oh, yeah, real loss there...

Redistricting in 2022 turned CA-20 from strong blue to strong red, so it's unlikely that a Democrat will fill the seat. But - and I never thought I would say this - thank you, Kevin McCarthy, for further threatening the American Fascist majority in the House.

"No matter the odds, or personal cost, we did the right thing... in this spirit that I have decided to depart the House at the end of this year"

Never thought we'd agree. Hope more people decide to make the right choice.

The part where he kissed Trump’s ass and tried to sell the insurrection as a peaceful protest? Or…?

Good riddance.

He's about as useful as a dead donkey's dick.

Shoves as many people over as possible on his way out of the aisle

i guess he figures he can't possibly do any more damage at this point

So a special vote for a new congressman in January?

From the article:

Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom is required under state law to call a special election within two weeks of McCarthy’s seat becoming vacant. That special election must take place between 126 and 140 days later, though it may be able to coincide with California’s congressional primaries on March 5.

In a reliable R district, but a special election will come soon. Not necessarily that soon, but maybe