Two Americas Persists on January 6, 2023.

Division is a "d" word as well.

McCarthy prevails after three days, technically four days and fifteen votes. Huzzah for whom?

As the voting seemed endless, but finally wrapped after capturing the attention of the country and not ending until well into the night into Saturday morning after midnight. In the very same day, during the standoff between the Democrats, the Republicans and the Party of Terrorists within the GOP continued. Shakespeare is still not outdone for reflecting the human condition that allows for a play within a play as in the comedy that teaches so much about confusion and trickery, A Midsummers Night’s Dream. Pardon the digression.

Performative politics in an all time high. No moment for photo ops are spared as the Democrats on the house floor maintain a voting block that never wavered although scary names such as Trump or Jordan surfaced for Speaker of the House in an effort to put a scare in us but neither took the votes away from Jeffries or from McCarthy in any substantive way. The names seemed like fright night, red herrings, scary stuff. Like getting blindfolded at Halloween, turned gently around and asked to find the prize at the bottom of a bowl of worms when it’s really cold spaghetti. In the same moments the party of responsibility hands out medals for valor.

Biden gave medals to those who showed particular valor in defending the Capitol on January 6, 2021, marking the second anniversary of the insurrection by domestic terrorists know to some as “tourists”, on our Capitol. (Perhaps that is “terrorists” pronounced with some unknown accent? Don’t hurt yourself finding out.)

Biden led the ceremony. It was a sweet and moving testimony to the men and women of our country who have defended democracy with a willingness to sacrifice their lives if necessary. It’s what happens everyday. We can never become callous or ignore the men and women who sacrifice daily for our collective greater good. We learn the meaning of ironic as courage and the greater good seemed lacking en masse on the floor of the house, at least by half of the attendees.

Media can be used in ways that are informative or are propagandist. We can judge the media as being somewhere on this spectrum. Politicians have always used this from the start to gain attention and favor and are still using it so no surprise. The creation of a days long performance should have us on alert as to what may have been performance in the past and how to not get emotionally too upset by the ups and downs in the future.

Nancy Pelosi knows the first rule of voting as do many politicians. Don’t go into a vote not knowing if you have the votes or not. I don’t suggest McCarthy knew or didn’t know or even if it could be known in our current mix of politicians. He was made a pawn by the Treason Twenty, the faction of the Republican Party that is considered radical. The faces are Bobert and Gaetz but The Freedom Caucus is their roots. Below is a tidbit from the wikipedia page linked above.

On October 30, 2017, Vanity Fair published an interview with Boehner, who said of the Freedom Caucus: "They can't tell you what they're for. They can tell you everything they're against. They're anarchists. They want total chaos. Tear it all down and start over. That's where their mindset is."[44]

The negotiations in the party were generally private but the trades of procedure for favorable votes has left McCarthy, the experts say, in a very weekend position giving too much to the dissenters.

So, why the performance anyway? Fund raising. It’s simple economics. It’s simple human response to seeing your friends, your party, your dreams being threatened. You donate. Fifteen rounds to get the seat. Fourteen opportunities to shell out for the GOP. Every heart string pulling ad you’ve ever seen banks on this simple truth. Every photo of a sad skinny puppy or child with a distended belly tells the truth you need to see and your dollars will make it stop. It’s why trump wears a simple poly too big suit. He’s the needy. Why change what works? Evolution.

Below is a video that talks about CPI. It’s included here as a glimpse into the world of Republicans who persist in their grab for power within the GOP. All sorts of recognizable faces are there talking up some kind of illusory feel good moments strung together while talking about our current administration in the most awful self owing projections of bad for good. The video is worth watching for seeing that Trump is not present, not mentioned. We are beyond him now. The radical movement has been birthed and is becoming accepted as mainstream likely for its gentle approach. Trump stepped in pushing it wildly and clownishly forward and now he is being brushed aside for more serious looking and more serious detractors to democracy who hide their plans in blahblah speak such as it is spoken in the clip added here.

After midnight on January 7, 2023, once the Speaker was chosen, Hakeem Jeffries of New York, had some welcoming words to the 118th Congress. His name had been on the voting board throughout the Speaker selection. Nominated and voted for in a block by Democrats. He failed as expected, in all fifteen votes but he is Minority leader and people are saying he looks like presidential material. In a speech that was unscripted, sounding from time to time like he may have taken cues from Martin Luther King Jr., from time to time sounding a bit like Barak Obama, Jeffries went through the alphabet contrasting the Republican and the Democrats general bents. It is added here. He began with “A” saying

“house democrats will always put American values over autocracy.

Coming to “d”, he said

“(the House Democrats will always put) democracy over demagogues.”

The applause throughout and at the end was rousing.

An episode we can finally put to rest.

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