The question is answered in the first three words. “I’m a Republican” = YTA.
The democrats are not to blame. They have been consistent throughout. They didn’t want McCarthy back in January and they didn’t want him three weeks ago. The GOP filed the motion to vacate, forcing the democrats to answer honestly: Nope, We Still Don’t Want Him. At any time it would have taken about five republicans, fewer than half the number of republicans (and only republicans) that held the chamber hostage for three weeks, to cross the aisle and elect Hakeem Jeffries. If anyone thinks the D bear responsibility, they must admit the GOP bears tenfold.
And if they didn’t want Hakeem Jeffries specifically, they could have bargained for someone else. If they were in the mood to cross the aisle, they would be holding all the cards.
Republicans like circling the wagons to the point that the horses get choked out and they’re elbowing each other in the face.
There are a few moderate Republicans and yes they could have gone across the aisle, but they would never let Jeffries become Speaker. That was never an option on the table and it would have created a very dysfunctional House. After all, Committees would still be run by the Majority and it just wouldn’t be possible to run the House that way. Too many logistical challenges and broken norms to make it work. What they would have done had moderate Republicans reached across the aisle is to elect a Republican speaker with several concessions that would ensure Democratic legislation could stand a chance of getting out of Committee and onto the Floor for a vote. That price was apparently too high as well, since 100% of Republicans voted for Mike Johnson.
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Blaming Democrats is outright idiotic. Republicans have a majority, and offer no compromise for Democrats to vote for.
90%+ of what Republicans blame Democrats for is idiotic.
And it doesn’t matter. Most of their base does the exact same thing. As long as those people get confirmation of what they want to believe, that is all that matters.
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How come?
A vote for a Republican is a vote for misogyny, bigotry, racism, authoritarianism, and class warfare on the side of the rich and powerful. There isn’t a single Republican leader looking to move the nation forward, only backward to preserve the privileges they’re losing.
If you know this and you vote for them anyway, you’re an asshole. If you didn’t know this and were just voting for them because that’s how you were raised, here’s your opportunity to not be an asshole.
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Or just outside the US. In the Netherlands, a republican is someone who wants to abolish the monarchy and start a true republic.
I think having a king is idiotic, but I can’t use the actual term for that, thanks to several tens of millions of assholes in America who equated the word with authoritarianism and racism.
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YTA. It is just unreasonable to expect a party to vote for the opposing party’s Speaker, and if a Speaker can’t get enough votes to save themselves, they aren’t about to lead an effective coalition.
The option was already dysfunction vs a different kind of dysfunction because of the Republicans who turned against their own Speaker. They would either get a Speaker they approved of or they would bring the House to a standstill. They had already taken to blocking all House business under McCarthy. You just have to blame the dysfunction on them.
What has the Republican Party ever done for you to earn your vote?
Guess you didn’t read the article?
Could have stopped at “AITA: I’m a Republican…” and the answer would be the same.
Yes.
I feel like a lot of people didn’t read the article… There wasn’t a thread about this, it’s just a framing device.
Or maybe I am just being pedantic, idk
Nah, I agree with you…
GOP being GOP.
YTA and go fuck yourself for voting republicans.
Next?
Did you even bother to read the article?
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Disappointing to see so many impulsive replies. READ THE ARTICLE folks, it’s well-written.
The claim that Democrats are responsible for the House impasse reads to me like an AITA post. So, imagine that the Republicans claiming that the House inability to get any work done is the fault of the Democrats wrote in to AITA. What would the judgment be?
Too be fair, the AITA format is typically a self post, not an article link. We’re used to commenting on the title only when it’s worded like that.
This isn’t the dems fault, and I don’t think this would have worked (the republicans probably would have chickened out), but in a dream scenario where politics wasn’t politics, I would have liked to see a coalition of both sides come together to elect someone like Emmer (hopefully I got that name right). He was the best solution the dems were ever gonna get, and personally I would have had a lot of respect for dems swallowing their pride and voting for him to keep the far right from taking control.
Of course, it’s all moot as long as the house keeps that awful single person can vote to vacate rule on the books. The far right would have just taken turns with movements to vacate and create a different flavor of turmoil.
All that said, it’s not the dems fault we are here - it’s the fault of the freedom caucus, the party that let those people become candidates, AND the people that voted for them.
The concept behind AITA is that even though a title can lead people in one direction the explainition may take you in another. All the people who didn’t read the article and instead made snap judges based off a title… YTA
Or rather a EHS
Don’t you all see how the current reflection of governance is not aligned with the views of the people? Your news pits you all against each other with fear factors. I don’t agree with views of Republicans but freedom caucus and my neighbor Bob have different agendas. One is being told someone is trying to destroy them and the other one is on tv telling them that. It’s easy to fall in with views your comfortable with and stay there long after they get out of hand. Education takes time
if you think of yourself as a Republican right now, your default state of mind is finding someone to blame for your little headache… and your default activity is bitching about it as loud as possible to whoever will listen to your crying ass…
Funny enough, all the republicans I work with have been silent on this whole debacle, and the trump cases. They sure as hell can’t stop running their mouth about biden though.
Really interesting to spend 2/3 the article framing the discussion. I totally think it works, but I was surprised how much time we devoted to tardiness and speeding tickets.
I’d be more convinced if it wasn’t the 4th time they were going to lose their license. Also, they agreed to stop speeding if he cooked dinner more but that was a lie and immediately started again but expected him to keep cooking. Also …
The audience wasn’t Lemmy/Reddit…I don’t think retired English teachers write for us usually lol
I approve of this comment section 👍
I don’t. I’m not sure who had actually read the article…
Ehh, the article is good, but people get the theme it’s going for already.
Blaming the person who is reasonable for not covering for the unreasonable person does not make the reasonable person responsible when shit blows up.
The GOP is playing at “if you just gave me what i wanted, I would stop hitting them” and trying to say that it’s the “not hitting peoples” fault for not giving in.
Folk aint buying it.
I read the last 10% because the first 90% was explaining how the AITA subreddit works. Worthless article IMO.
Also, Democrats NTA. McCarthy was a goon and everybody knew it. That picture of him shaking Cheeto’s hand in the days following 1/6 was all anybody needed to see to know this.
Worthless article IMO.
Oof! At least you read the article. Thx.
Did you expect pro republican comments?
That’s not really what they’re saying. Instead, they’re saying that it’s obvious which commenters only read the headline.
Which is due to the headline being phrased in the same way as the commonly used Reddit theme of AITA. It makes it seem as if the OP is asking the question, rather than it being the headline of an editorial.
Or people are just lazy and self-righteous.
A little from column A, a little from column B
The concept behind am I the asshole is that even though a title can lead people in one direction the explainition may take you in another. All the people who didn’t read the article and instead made snap judges based off a title… YTA
