WASHINGTON — Embattled House Speaker Mike Johnson’s fate seems to rest in the answer to a seemingly petty, though deeply — if accidentally so — philosophical question: Where’s performance end and policymaking begin these days?
For Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and her allies on the far right of today’s far-right Republican Party — whether her congressional colleagues or someone livestreaming from their basement — Speaker Johnson lacks fight.
And they’re always itching for a fight. And, sometimes, the fight is the goal.
“Republican voters want actions,” Greene told Raw Story on the Capitol steps Thursday. “They want to be protected from the destructive Democrat agenda, and Republican leaders aren't doing it.”
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In today’s era of pop politics, performance is paramount to the MTG’s of the political world. But rank-and-file Republicans from competitive districts are sick of sacrificing policy at the feet of political antics.
Whether flashing a d–k pic of the president’s son in committee or threatening to deploy a motion to vacate Speaker Johnson — just as eight Republicans did to former Speaker Kevin McCarthy last fall — Greene and others from the party’s rightward flank are aggravating their own by actively working to derail the agenda more moderate Republicans ran on.
The self-righteous rhetoric is too much for their colleagues, especially those defending tough districts this fall who are openly accusing Greene and her allies of rank hypocrisy.
“They only want to abide by the rules when it serves their purpose,” Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) told Raw Story. “The moment it doesn't serve their purpose, they're fine with changing the rules.”
Greene and her band of giddy gadflies don’t care. Reps. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Paul Gosar (R-AZ) are now backing her motion to vacate Johnson.
The threat of another GOP-on-GOP brawl over who should lead the House hangs over the chamber as lawmakers work a rare weekend session in order to give members more time to digest the foreign aid package.
But the party’s far right now parade about — with the blessing of their titular head, former President Donald Trump —- as if they’re the mainstream, hence they’re threatening to derail the speaker himself if he moves the monthslong stalled foreign aid measure.
That’s not how politics works — or, at least, not how it worked — and members of both parties say things aren’t working at the Capitol these days.
“Every member has a right to represent their districts and their conscience. You have a right to vote yes; you have a right to vote no,” Lawler said. “When it comes to governing as a majority, we are here to advance legislation.”
Johnson’s allies floated overhauling House rules to make it harder for Greene — or any single one of her cohorts — to challenge the speaker, but that measure was torpedoed before it really took root Thursday.
Middle-of-the-road Republicans say the constant threat of being deposed by his rightward flank — whether from Greene or, say, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) — makes governing practically impossible in the House.
“It's so much bigger than just her. She's whatever. She doesn't matter to me very much,” Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) told Raw Story. “I don’t care who’s speaker, just you cannot live under these conditions.”
On Friday, Speaker Johnson needed the votes of Democrats to advance the Ukraine aid package. While that’s heretical to the party’s purists, Crenshaw says there’s no apostasy in policymaking.
Like many, Crenshaw’s sick of all the performance art parading about as policy these divided days.
“I've heard members say those kinds of things: ‘It’s better to lose so that we appear that we're fighting.’ So that tells me something really important, which is that it really is just about the appearance. It's never been about moving the ball forward and getting conservative wins,” Crenshaw said.
With November’s election on the horizon, Crenshaw and other Republicans are starting to take this new style of politics personally.
“They always paint the rest of us as these RINOS [Republicans in Name Only], when it's, like, we're the ones actually trying to get the wins,” Crenshaw complained.
That’s a quaint notion these days.
“You think losing a battle is better than no battle at all?” Raw Story asked from the Capitol steps.
“Absolutely,” Rep. Eli Crane (R-AZ) told Raw Story. “We lose a lot of fights up here, but they expect us to fight. They're not seeing that from this party.”
Crane’s one of the eight Republicans who retired Speaker McCarthy last fall, and he’s left the door open to backing Greene and the motion to vacate she’s hanging over Johnson.
Members in what’s left of the middle are angry with Crane, Greene and company for selling a false reality to the party’s base, though.
Digital dunking’s one thing; data’s another thing entirely, according to the increasingly vocal block of Republicans who are sick of their GOP colleagues claiming they speak for the party — for the people even.
“They don't. They're completely absent from the polling. We're polling these issues — these issues are popular. America wants us to stand strong in support of our allies,” Rep. John Duarte (R-CA) told Raw Story.
Duarte fears too many in politics these days live in their own digital universe rather than reality.
“We have them standing up and saying, ‘the base of the party wants this,’ ‘the base of the party wants that.’ Well, it's new math. They can't show it in the polls. They can only show it in their Twitter feed. And, you know, that's a chat room. That's not the American public,” Duarte said.
Don’t tell that to Marjorie Taylor Greene, though.
“A lot of your Republican colleagues are increasingly frustrated with you,” Raw Story pushed Greene just outside the Capitol. “Saying that you don't speak for the party.”
“I think I speak for the people, and the people are the party,” Greene told Raw Story. “And that's everything wrong with the Republican Party. Many Republican leaders have forgotten that. And this is why Republican voters for many years now are so tired of the Republican Party.”
It also seems to explain why the GOP — or what’s left of Reagan’s Republican Party, at least — is increasingly tired of Greene and her political pals, empowered as they may be.
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