“Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player, That struts and frets his hour upon the stage, And then is heard no more. It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing.“
That Billy Shakespeare sure did write pretty.
And who could have known he would describe the modern Republican Party so well?
It has been less than a month since the GOP took control of the House of Representatives, and they have already given us a year’s worth of goofy entertainment.
First was the main event where they took 15 votes to elect Kevin McCarthy Speaker. McCathy was so desperate to get the votes of the far right part of his caucus that the only concession he didn’t make to them was allowing them to strip him naked and whip him with Lauren Boebert’s riding crop.
And before he even had a chance to enjoy being Speaker, along came the saga of New York Congressman and one-time drag queen George Santos. It turns out. that he got elected to his seat in Congress by lying about everything except the fact that he was alive.
The problem is, with so small a majority, McCarthy has to be terrified of losing any seats, especially someone who voted for him through all 15 votes of his Speaker ordeal.
So when people call for an investigation …
Thankfully, the “law enforcement” type didn’t make it to Congress.
What we’re starting to see is what always happens when Republicans get some power in Washington. They overreach, assuming that the reason anyone votes for them is because they want the most conservative part of their agenda.
It isn’t as if Democrats never make the same mistake. When Bill Clinton was elected in 1992, he ran on a platform of finding a way to cover more uninsured people. The problem was that Bill and Hillary proposed overhauling the entire system and making everyone change their healthcare.
Republicans are much worse. People like Paul Ryan and others like him have been saying for years that we need to put an end to Social Security and Medicare for “moral reasons.” Of course when they get called on it, they deny it just like Ronald Reagan did in one of the 1980 debates.
To quote Reagan, “There they go again.”
They’re saying they won’t lift the debt ceiling without major spending cuts to Social Security and Medicare.
Ronnie would be so proud.