No More Drama, Please.
No More Drama, Please.
How House Republicans Alienated the Entire Political Spectrum
On October 3rd, the House of Representatives, led by far right Republicans, ejected Rep. Kevin McCarthy from his position as Speaker of the House, setting into motion one of the country’s most widely publicized workplace dramas in recent memory. Following McCarthy’s demise, the Republican caucus spent three weeks wrestling with potential candidates for a new speaker, informally proposing three alternatives before finally uniting to elect Rep. Mike Johnson as the 56th leader to hold the position.
Meanwhile, a Russian invasion raged in Ukraine, Israel and Hamas engaged in a fraught conflict, and Americans across the country continued to grapple with inflation, soaring interest rates, and a wide variety of other domestic challenges.
Leading to, for the first time in ages, Americans from all walks of life agreeing on one thing: House Republicans are wasting our time.
It’s interesting to note however, that the reasons for the frustrations differed widely based on political affiliation, or lack thereof.
Social media users who self-define as Republicans or conservative often complained about “the chaos,” placing blame on their own Republican party. Supporters of Donald Trump, who are especially vocal within the discourse, called some Republican representatives RINOs and referred to Congress as the UNIPARTY.
Social media users who self-describe as Democrat or liberal most often talked about the state of “disarray” and the “lack of qualifications” of the various candidates for the position. These people often expressed “disgust” over the speakership crisis.
Social media users who do not incorporate any political affiliation into their social media bios most often mentioned how they are tired of “political games.” When talking about the speakership crisis, those who didn’t include a political affiliation in their bio most often used clown emojis and words including “pathetic,” “zero,” and “fraud.”
Quite often, social media users across party lines expressed one very similar feeling about the Speaker of the House chaos:
One reason for the frustration is a lack of understanding about the rules, regulations, processes, and purpose of the Speaker election. Resources from the Republican party helping to clearly elucidate the importance of the position are rare, but Democratic leaders, including most prominently Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, are using social media to help inform and educate the public - and the response is overwhelmingly positive.
Democrats, Independents, and Republicans alike have all been frustrated with House Republicans’ drawn out inability to elect a new speaker - that is, if they care about the Speaker of the House at all. Americans across party lines have been voicing real concern over real issues, and few have expressed any sympathy for the House of Representatives’ workplace drama.
Now that a new Speaker has finally been seated, the bottom line is straightforward: Americans have bigger things to worry about than right wing infighting. While the message to House Republicans is clear: in the words of Mary J. Blige: please, “no more drama.”
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