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GOP debuts the ‘can’t do anything’ Congress
mccarthy

Andrew Harnik / AP

Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., reacts during the 12th round of voting for speaker in the House chamber as the House meets for the fourth day to
elect a speaker and convene the 118th Congress in Washington, Friday, Jan.
6, 2023.

By Brian Greenspun (contact)

Sunday, Jan. 8, 2023 | 2 a.m.
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In 1948, President Harry Truman famously complained about the
Republicans’ “do-nothing” Congress. Truman’s constant refrain has been credited, in part, with his defeat of the odds-on favorite, Thomas Dewey,
for president that year.

The lesson has been clear for the past 74 years. American voters — known
for their long fuses and short memories — actually want their elected
leaders to do something to make ordinary American life better.

In 2023, it is not a presidential candidate — President Joe Biden has not disclosed yet whether he will run for reelection in 2024 and has been relatively silent about the GOP-led Congress’ inability to act — who is
blaming the Republicans for doing nothing.

It is, incredibly, the GOP itself, which has been proving daily its
inability to lead. After years of lying to the public about what they can,
will and must do to right the American ship of state — including the big
lie about the 2020 election — Republicans convinced the voters to hand
them the speaker of the House’s gavel in the 118th Congress.

So far — and this is being written after the 11th shameful, embarrassing
and humiliating loss by Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., in his life-long
quest to be speaker — the only thing the GOP-led Congress has shown
America and the world is incompetence when it comes to governing.

In a new take on “Groundhog Day,” the world has witnessed vote after vote
with the same result. It is far worse than do-nothing. It is more like
“can’t do anything.”

In the meantime, there is vital work to be done on behalf of the American people that gets put off until the Republicans — remember, they are the
folks who were elected to lead the House and show us the way — can get
their act together.

Nevadans, unlike many voters in sister states far to the east and more to
the south of us, turned away the extreme, election-denying MAGA
Republicans (well, most of them) in the 2022 elections. These are the
folks who are just saying “no” to McCarthy’s journey toward speaker
heaven.

By the way, at some very basic level, it is hard to blame anybody for not wanting a two-faced, spineless congressman to be third in line to the presidency of the United States. But this is not the “just say no” crowd’s motivation.

Whatever the reasons, the entire country is sick and tired of having to
watch the dramatic and disappointing reality television from Congress that
has been playing on our TV sets all week. Maybe by the time this is
published, there will be a resolution.

A boy can hope, can’t he?

But if this insanity continues and the entirety of the U.S. government
grinds to a halt because the GOP can’t make a decision, we have to ask ourselves who really is at fault.

I can’t blame a bunch of know-nothing and do-nothing Americans who decided
to run for office. That is their right and part of the privilege of being
an American citizen. But it is our responsibility as voters to turn them
away.

I differ with many of my colleagues who claim the voters don’t deserve
this political malfeasance and deliberate attempt to destroy this fragile democracy of ours.

I believe we deserve exactly what we are getting right now. There have
been no surprises. The entire country has known exactly who these people
are and exactly what they want to do. This newspaper and others have not
been quiet on the matter.

Voters, on the other hand, have mentally twisted themselves into pretzels
on the way to ballot boxes across the country to justify voting for incompetence. They gladly cast their votes for candidates who tell
Americans what they want to hear and not what they need to know.

The House of Representatives will sort this out eventually but at what
cost to our democracy?

America must remain the beacon of light to the world, the example of what
can be wrought from self-determination. We cannot become a flickering
shadow of what we used to be as we slowly kill what the Founding Fathers created centuries ago. The world needs us to be great!

So, if there is a lesson to be learned, it has to be that the voters need
to wake up, do their homework and not blindly follow the big, little and
very white lies that they are fed at election time. We owe it to ourselves
and our progeny to do our homework before we vote.

Otherwise we get exactly what we deserve, even if we don’t deserve it.


https://lasvegassun.com/news/2023/jan/08/gop-debuts-the-cant-do-anything- congress/

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