This is not my idea of what America should be

[Dave Grubb]

A snip of today's "Letters from an American"

Last night, New York Times reporters Alexander Burns and Jonathan Martin released more of the audio recording of Republican leadership that they obtained in the process of writing their forthcoming book. This recording features a conversation among the House leadership on January 10, 2021. In it, the two top Republicans in the House of Representatives—House minority leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and House minority whip Steve Scalise (R-LA)—agreed that the Trump loyalists calling out other Republicans as “anti-Trump” were endangering lives, including that of the third-top House Republican at the time, Liz Cheney (R-WY), who was also on the call.

McCarthy noted that Representative Anthony Gonzalez (R-OH) had just sent him a recent tweet from Representative Matt Gaetz (R-FL) about Cheney and that McCarthy was going to talk to Gaetz to get him to stop. “We saw what people would do in the Capitol,” he said. “These people came prepared with rope, with everything else.” Scalise agreed, saying “it’s potentially illegal what he’s doing.”

McCarthy singled out Representatives Gaetz and Mo Brooks (R-AL) as key culprits, but he and the others on the call also discussed Representatives Louie Gohmert (R-TX), Lauren Boebert (R-CO), and Barry Moore (R-AL). McCarthy said he was going to be talking to those people because “this is serious sh*t,” and they needed “to cut this out.” “The country is too crazy,” he said. “I do not want to look back and think we caused something or we missed something and someone got hurt. I don’t want to play politics with any of that.”

And yet, of course, they did not cut it out. Instead, McCarthy did play politics with it. He caved, Cheney lost her position in House leadership, and Gonzalez, once seen as a rising star in the party, announced in September 2021 he would not run for reelection. Gonzalez’s vote to impeach Trump for inciting an insurrection and his support for an investigation into the events of January 6 led Trump supporters to threaten him and his family. In his announcement that he was leaving Congress, Gonzalez called Trump “a cancer for the country.”

How did these bastards ever get into office-----and stay there?

[UTAH]

How did these bastards ever get into office-----and stay there?

If these legislators stay in power after the next election cycle - it is our (the voters) fault. Democracy is a double-edged sword.

Hunter

[mgrist]

If these legislators stay in power after the next election cycle - it is our (the voters) fault. Democracy is a double-edged sword.

Hunter

When all of our choices are as morally corrupt as the next what's our choice?

[UTAH]

For me, it's hoping a strong Independent rises up. If not, we be screwed.

I can see it now. In the next national election cycle, I'll be voting for the lesser of evils. So, yes my friend, it appears we have no choice.

Hunter

[Kevin]

I don't think every politician is as corrupt as the next one. There are still decent people trying to get things done via politics. We focus on the idiots but there are 535 people at the federal level alone. We only hear about maybe, what, 30 or 40 of the knuckleheads because they take up all the bandwidth but the rest? Probably just trying to do their jobs.

At the state level, I don't think all politicians are corrupt. I might not like what they say but corrupt? Naw. Just dumb because they don't agree with my position!

Was Bush I or II corrupt? I don't think so. Misguided, maybe. Carter? Nope. Obama? Nope. Clinton - yeah, I'll give you that one. He liked the dirty business of governing. Reagan? Nope. Trump? Oh, yeah. Johnson? Iffy. Kennedy? Iffy. Ike? Truman? Some bad decisions, some moral compass waggling at times but not fundamentally corrupt.

[Mike]

I don't think every politician is as corrupt as the next one. There are still decent people trying to get things done via politics. We focus on the idiots but there are 535 people at the federal level alone. We only hear about maybe, what, 30 or 40 of the knuckleheads because they take up all the bandwidth but the rest? Probably just trying to do their jobs.

At the state level, I don't think all politicians are corrupt. I might not like what they say but corrupt? Naw. Just dumb because they don't agree with my position!

Was Bush I or II corrupt? I don't think so. Misguided, maybe. Carter? Nope. Obama? Nope. Clinton - yeah, I'll give you that one. He liked the dirty business of governing. Reagan? Nope. Trump? Oh, yeah. Johnson? Iffy. Kennedy? Iffy. Ike? Truman? Some bad decisions, some moral compass waggling at times but not fundamentally corrupt.

I have to agree with Kevin, with the exception of Johnson. Being from Texas I think I have the right to say that he was more corrupt than Clinton. Clinton was an amateur at corruption. Johnson was the political equivalent of a "made man".