The Squatter

“See – this is the great part, because it took this long, now we learned how to govern.  So now we’ll be able to get the job done.” — Kevin McCarthy after the 13th ballot.  He finally won on the 15th.

Asked why he reversed course on McCarthy, Gaetz said, “I ran out of things I could even imagine to ask for.” 

"Video coverage of the debates originating from the chambers of the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate is in the public domain and as such, may be used without restriction or attribution." — C-Span.

Whoever wrote the script for “Clusterfuck in the House, 2023” did a bang-up job.  It kept me pretty entertained, and there hasn’t been much in US politics for me to feel good about since the day of Biden’s inauguration. 

When day comes, we step out of the shade, aflame and unafraid.

The new dawn blooms as we free it.

For there is always light,

if only we’re brave enough to see it.

If only we’re brave enough to be it.

On that day I gave myself over to hope and determination.  I let myself believe, for that day, that the worst of the madness that had descended on the country during the erratic reign of TFG was over.  In fact, (and I knew this at the time) it was just entering a new phase.  An improvement, to be sure, but not a full turning away, not a wholesale leaving behind.  So last week’s entertainment value was bleak and bitter, coming from watching McCarthy abase himself further and further in pursuit of the nameplate above the door of the office suite he’d quickly moved into before he had any legitimate claim to it.  Look at the photo of him after the final vote, beaming as he stands in the doorway, brushing off any suggestion that he’s so weakened the office as to make it impotent. 

Most people seem to know exactly what’s going on inside the heads of other people, particularly those they disagree with.  I don’t know what’s wrong with me that I find that so difficult.  “It’s all about power.”  “It’s all about money.”  “They’re all the same.”  “You can’t trust any of them.”  People reach into the grab bag of raggedy worn phrases to pick out the one they think covers the motivations of whoever they’re angriest with at the moment.  My problem is that I can’t wrap my head around the idea that people are ever only motivated by one thing.

Still, it’s worth paying close attention to what they say and do in order to make some reasoned speculations about the things that are driving them.  Take the McCarthy quote.  There’s nothing wrong in principle with putting a positive spin on a disaster.  “What’s good about this?” is a tactic that Lynn has consciously used all her life in order to move forward from disappointments and things gone wrong.  I picked it up from her and it is a tremendously useful discipline.  But McCarthy takes it to a surreal extreme.  Did he really mean to imply that prior to this embarrassing spectacle, he and his colleagues didn’t know what they were doing?  I guess we’re supposed to believe that it’s a good thing they didn’t put McCarthy through on that first ballot since they didn’t actually know how to govern yet.  Only now, having beaten each other up for several days and proudly displaying their vanity and hypocrisy in full view of the public they claim to serve (thank you C-Span!) have they learned enough to “get the job done”.  This’ll make them so much more effective.

McCarthy’s naked ambition has always been pathetically transparent, and it’s hard to take him seriously when he says, “As Speaker of the House, my ultimate responsibility is not to my party, my conference, or even our Congress. My responsibility – our responsibility – is to our country.”  Nothing in his political history indicates that he’s ever acted out of deep principle.  But maybe he believes it.   Maybe his heart swells with pride at the future possibilities he sees for Freedom in America, as he convinces himself that he’s doing it all for you, the people.  Aren’t we all capable of believing the most amazing things about ourselves?  Don’t we often we see ourselves as the secret hero, even when everything appears to have gone wrong?

Gaetz is the more interesting creature.  If you take his quote as genuine, then it appears that all of his ranting about McCarthy and the swamp, all his insults, all his determination to change the way things are done in DC, his drawing the line in the sand with his “Never Kevin” stance, was all just a negotiating posture after all.  Once McCarthy had finally agreed to everything he’d demanded and he couldn’t even imagine anything else to ask, he gathered the dissidents and gave McCarthy his pass.  Gaetz’s fans may have believed he was going to stay true to his determination that McCarthy would never be Speaker, but McCarthy never believed it.  Now Gaetz’s spin is that he’s put McCarthy in a straitjacket and that’s just as good as if he’d kept him out of the office altogether.  Everybody wins.

It remains unclear what changed between the 14th & 15th ballots.  That morning, Gaetz accused McCarthy of engaging in an “exercise in vanity”.  “Mr. McCarthy doesn't have the votes today, he will not have the votes tomorrow, and he will not have the votes next week, next month, next year.”  Earlier in the week he’d said, "If you want to drain the swamp, you cannot put the biggest alligator in charge of the exercise".  By the end of the day, having run out of things to ask for, he cleared the trail for the alligator and ushered him in.  He did manage to avoid voting for him directly.  Does that distinction make a difference?  Did he believe what he said when he said it or was it always all for show while he imagined more things to ask for, knowing McCarthy would eventually give him everything he wanted?  At what point does performative hyperbole destroy the truth function of language altogether?

What do any of them really believe?  The policy goals the Freedom Caucus claim to be fighting for are not achievable in this Congress and surely they know that.  A requirement that the federal budget be balanced in ten years (with the defense cuts that would require), the repeal of civil service protections for federal workers, the elimination of the IRS and the replacement of the income tax with a use tax, the dissolution of most of the Cabinet level departments – none of this can happen.  Even if the Republicans could get such bills out of the House (not likely), they’ll go nowhere in the Senate. 

Maybe they’re playing the long game?  They know they won’t accomplish much in this Congress, but the noise they’ll make will keep the cameras trained on them, and it’ll keep their supporters enraged and voting. That rage will be the key to electing more people who believe as they do, and eventually they’ll have the numbers they need. Is that the strategy?  It’s how McConnell has played for decades – patient and disciplined as he laid the groundwork for a Christian nationalist judiciary. 

Maybe they really are idealists who believe that a free-range Christian nation will be best for everybody.  Even if it seems out of reach right now, aren’t we closer than we’ve ever been?  Isn’t it worth continuing the fight?  In the meantime, Gaetz and Boebert have learned from their mentor that you don’t actually have to build that wall in order to use it as a cudgel.  In fact, if you’re clever enough, it’s probably better to fall short.  Then you can blame your failures on the other guys.

I’m sure there are documentarians poring over the C-Span footage right now, angling for how best to tell the story.  I can’t wait to see it.