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THE VIEW FROM HERE - The US faces the same domestic and international problem - extremism. The two ways to end extremism are: death or centrism.
Death Ends Extremism with Extreme Prejudice
As for the US Congress where both the GOP and the DEM allow their extremes, MAGAs and Wokers, to run roughshod over the vast center, the solution is simple. The first option of death has its complexities.
Round up 20 of the most extreme MAGA and 20 of the most Woke and shoot them firing squad style. That will leave 395 centrist Congressmen/women to elect a new speaker. On the other hand, mass murder does have its drawbacks. For example, who will do the shooting? I suppose we could let Jim Jordan shoot the Woker who he hates most. Then, the Squad can shoot the MAGA that it hates the most. Although Jordan is not the brightest light, he should realize that he would be the first MAGA that the Squad would shoot. Thinking ahead just a moment or two, which is a mental task Jordan finds nearly impossible, should give him pause about his firing the first shot, as AOC will get the next shot. We could get around this problem of a GOP Congressman being fearful of killing an extreme Lefty.
Maybe, Joe Biden could invite all 40 extremists to lunch and offer to show them the secret war room in the basement where the military would bludgeon them all to death. Perhaps poisoning them all at lunch would be less messy. Voters, being an ungrateful lot, would probably fail to see the great benefit from Biden offing all the extremists. I recall that this method of politics was common under monarchies and seldom lead to harmony.
On the other hand, killing all the extremist has the salutary result that all the extremists are gone. What good is a solution which everyone is afraid to use?
The other way to end extremism is harder than mass murder. It’s known as Centrism! Oh, the horror of allowing Congresspersons, who can see the good in others, chose the Speaker As American Political Scientist Association (APSA) proclaimed in 1950, the best form of government is to have two diametrically opposed extreme agendas and let the public select one extreme party and banish the other. The APSA’s proposal ruled out any consensus on any issue and each side should be run by true believers who knew the truth. After each election, we could sing Hallelujah or The Internationale. To be sure, cooperation with other Americans is Satanism in its worse form. It would be far better to destroy the nation than allow Centrists to run the government. No doubt Liz Cheney is a witch who escaped from Salem.
If only there were some group, that shared the same basic values, that was large enough and had enough institutional power to bring about a Centrist government without mass murder. Sad to say, there simply are not enough Congresspersons. There are only 395 non-extremists vs 40 extremists. Although Americans like to call themselves a democracy where the majority rules, the non-extremists do not constitute a majority of the 435 Congresspersons. 395/435 is 91% and as any politico knows, 91% is far less than a majority, when your campaign donors become displeased. We have extremism not only due to the idiot APSA, but also because political campaign donors control Congress. The donors want what is best for their pocketbooks and the nation be damned.
One thing which Dems refuse to recognize is that Pelosi’s Identity Politics and Wokeism are what gave rise to the lunatic Freedom Caucus. In 2010 Obama’s Pro Wall Street policies and Pelosi’s incipient Wokeism brought the Tea Baggers to power afer which she elevated Congressional anti-Semites. In 2016, Hillary called millions of White Americans “a Basket of Deplorables,” bringing Trump to power. Since the Dems like the GOP are mostly composed of True Believers, they are certain everything that they have done is good and holy.
While the GOP has a few outspoke dissenters like Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, no one in the Dem party has the basic morality speak out against the polarizing evil which Nancy Pelosi has visited upon us. She is the only member of the House of Representatives whose re-election race will bring out massive numbers of GOP votes in purple states to vote MAGA in other House races. Pelosi’s agenda has been clear for over a decade. She thinks that if the GOP behaves badly enough, America will turn against the GOP. No, millions of former Dems turned against the Dems which is why Trump was elected and they we had Jan 6th. A significant portion of Centrist GOP and Dem Voters rightfully see Pelosi as more danger than Trump. November 8, 2021, CityWatch, Nancy Pelosi is the Most Dangerous Person on the Planet The present Dem approach to the Speaker of the House is pure 10% Pelosism – do nothing to help the nation. Let the GOP elect their own Speaker.
No matter whom the GOP elect with only GOP votes will be totally controlled by the MAGA right. The DEM and GOP moderates can protect a new GOP speaker by making certain that they will support moderate measures and rejects all measures by either extreme. This issue is about the Constitutional duty of the Speaker to protect the House from either extreme. It is not about evaluating any substantive policy. Its purpose is to end the polarization so that both extremes know that the Center has frozen them both out. This has to be the Dem-GOP deal before a Moderate GOP is elected with large GOP and DEM majorities. Everyone has to know this fact before the election. However, the Pelosi Dems would rather ruin the nation than allow a Centrist government return to the US.
Since no one has the guts for mass murder and since cooperation in order to elect a Centrist Speaker of the House is the personification of evil, is there a third option? Yes, we can bury our heads in the sand as the nation disintegrates, as Putin recapitulates Hitler, and as Iran-Hamas-Hezbollah finishes the Holocaust.
(Richard Lee Abrams has been an attorney, a Realtor and community relations consultant as well as a CityWatch contributor. You may email him at [email protected].)
