Any Republican on the ballot in 2024 faces the ugly prospect of being asked to defend Trump for the next three years, while getting nothing done on Capitol Hill.

Have you noticed the rush of House Republicans calling it quits in the last few weeks?

Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.) announced his exit Nov. 1. He explained that to be a member of the Republican House majority means putting up with  the “many Republican leaders [who] are lying to America, claiming that the 2020 election was stolen.”

Buck is predicting that even more House Republicans will leave “in the near future.”

The day before Buck said good-bye, House Appropriations Chair Kay Granger (R-Texas) also quit. Granger had been a leader among House Republicans who prevented the far-right, election-denying Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) from becoming Speaker of the House.

Also in October, Rep. Debbie Lesko (R-Ariz.) said she was quitting. “Right now, Washington, D.C. is broken,” she said. “It is hard to get anything done.”

  • wert_straffer@feddit.de
    6·
    11 months ago

    Is there ELI5 for us Europeans?

    Members of parliament are vacating their seat because they are not satisfied with what their party is doing? That would be seen as rather undemocratic over here. You would expect them to leave the party, maybe join a different one, or stay as an unaffilated member.

    What will happen with the empty seats?

    • Uglyhead@lemmy.worldEnglish
      211·
      11 months ago

      So in 2015 the headquarters of the DNC and the RNC were hacked by two different expert Russian hacking groups,…

      Massive amounts of dirt on everyone in the DNC and RNC was acquired.

      All the DNC (Democrat) dirt was leaked before the 2016 elections. The RNC (Republican) dirt was held back, and has been being used for other purposes since 2016.

      All who do not support the Orange GodKing are being forced out.

        • Uglyhead@lemmy.worldEnglish
          81·
          11 months ago

          Basically yes.

          There was a guy here in Congress just recently, a Far Right up and comer, super popular with Qult45; he publicly mentioned he was invited to a GOP cocaine orgy.

          A flood of incredibly damaging dirt on him came out soon after and quickly destroyed his whole political career and reputation amongst his peers.

          • wert_straffer@feddit.de
            4·
            11 months ago

            Isn’t that terrifying news? I mean there are always actors not believing in democracy at all, but them being so powereful to blackmail members aout of parliament that’s a new level of fucked up.

            • SoylentBlake@lemm.ee
              3·
              11 months ago

              They didn’t blackmail, they sandbagged. Suddenly his entire backstory he ran in was a lie, or at least partially ginned up. That he was secretly gay, even tho being a paraplegic. Anything they could somehow spin into turning the guy into a gay communist who drinks puppy milkshakes. All very publically broadcast thru the news. Daily. Non stop. They had a point to make and they made sure every ear within shot would hear it.

              I’m no fan of the kid, and he was obviously in way over his head, but his naivity def let a couple skeletons fall out of the church closet.

            • RunawayFixer@lemmy.world
              3·
              11 months ago

              I suspect they are talking about Madison Cawthorn.

              There always was a lot of dirt on him: he was known for sexual harassment, he was caught lying several times, he engaged in nepotism and graft, … None of those scandals were a problem for the republican party, but when he mentioned some dirt from other republicans, they went after him with a vengeance. An example article, but you can find many more: https://wlos.com/news/local/republicans-and-democrats-take-shots-at-rep-cawthorn-over-latest-video

              From looking at it as an outsider, I’ve become convinced that the entire republican party is rotten and only people on whom there is kompromat, are given opportunities to be elected to the highest level.

        • AlwaysNowNeverNotMe@kbin.social
          6·
          11 months ago

          Yes but also they are likely being offered some lovely private sector positions where they do speeches 6 times a year for a cool 300k.

    • Talaraine@kbin.social
      8·
      11 months ago

      Sounds like you got it alright. They’re resigning because they don’t want to be associated with ultra right wing fascists, which opens up their seat for ultra right wing fascists.

      Look, nobody accused Republicans of being intelligent.

      • wert_straffer@feddit.de
        2·
        11 months ago

        Everyone with two brain cells wants to stay away from facists, that part is clear.

        What i don‘t understan is why they are vacating their parliament seat. Wouldn‘t it be better to stay and vote with the democrats?

        Or better found a new conservative party? Considering there are several fed up members.

        Are they only leaving the parliament or also the party?

        • Makeitstop@lemmy.world
          8·
          11 months ago

          They are leaving ahead of the elections next year. I can think of quite a few reasons why they might do that.

          • Staying means being forced to either defend the indefensible or facing backlash and challenges from the right, either of which could damage any future political ambitions they may have.
          • Getting out now leaves room for others to get elected, which keeps them from being held responsible for their party losing a seat.
          • They know how nasty things are going to get and they want out before leaving becomes too dangerous. It wouldn’t be the first time that Republicans in congress were afraid that pissing of Trump’s base could put them in harm’s way. That was not helped by Jim Jordan supporters agitating their followers and stirring up death threats against their colleagues just to get their way during the fight to become speaker.
          • Because they are getting pushed out behind the scenes and are choosing not to fight. I’m skeptical of this but I can’t say for sure that it isn’t happening.
          • Because they expect the next election to be a disaster and they don’t want to get caught up in it.

          Basically, most reasons come down to either just wanting out, or wanting to make sure they don’t ruin their future political career choices.

          If they stayed and voted with democrats, went independent or switched parties, or tried to start a new party, most likely they would end up just as unemployed but with fewer friends and no followers. Going directly against the party would lead to the party itself attacking them, along with the right wing media that many of their supporters get all their info from. Most districts lean to one side or the other, and while a few politicians have made careers on being independent or moderate, the ones that had been on the Republican side of the aisle are all gone, as are those who had the courage to take a stand against Trump when it mattered.

          Honestly, at this point they may actually be able to get more done by quietly coordinating with others who have left or been forced out and organizing support for whoever emerges as a viable Trump alternative in the Republican primary. That keeps them out of the cross hairs and at least increases the chances that Trump will lose either in the primaries or the general election if they can at least drag out the fight for the nomination.

          If Trump loses badly, political winds could shift in the party. Or if another politician gets the nomination and goes on to win the election, they’ll be in a position to push Trump’s people out. That’s how his people took control in the first place.

          • wert_straffer@feddit.de
            2·
            11 months ago

            Wow, thanks for the extensive answer. Makes things much clearer. Unfortunatly I can only give one upvote.

        • cfi@lemmy.world
          7·
          11 months ago

          The thing that is different about Congress is that Reps and Senators are free to vote with or against the rest of their party without any repercussions. We don’t have three line whips or anything like that here, so the party system isn’t as powerful. This is why Manchin could go against the Democratic Party agenda so frequently and the Democratic leadership couldn’t do anything about it.

          So in theory these Reps could stay Republican and vote with the Democrats, or go independent/libertarian/etc if they really want to make a break with the Republican label. Staying or changing parties really doesn’t matter except in how it defines the majority party in each house, and also practically as to what legislation is likely to get brought to a vote per the Hastert Rule or the Standing Rules of the Senate.

          So this all can go to explain why they’re not changing parties or who they caucus with. It still leaves the question of why they’re choosing to leave rather than remain and affect change from within. Answer: They don’t care about the country or the party. They were here for power, the lobbying money, the post politics sinecures, etc. Now that all of that is gone, they have decided to cut and run. They are abandoning ship now in the hopes that they can get the best life raft.

        • assassin_aragorn@lemmy.world
          3·
          11 months ago

          We have effectively two rounds of elections. In the primaries we determine who the candidate will be from either party. That candidate then runs in the general election against the other candidate.

          Republicans have now run into the problem where party voters in primaries will pick candidates who can’t win the general election. The Republicans retiring could possibly win another general election, but they’re not extreme enough to win a primary anymore.

          Plus Republicans aren’t known for courageous behavior. Retiring quietly is what they do.

        • Talaraine@kbin.social
          2·
          11 months ago

          They’re resigning their seat but not leaving the party, as I understand it. Makes no sense at all.

          I agree, we need a 3rd party terribly right now. You guys have got the edge on us in that.

          • assassin_aragorn@lemmy.world
            1·
            11 months ago

            Unfortunately I think it’s less likely for the Greens or Libertarians to get their shit together than it is for moderate Republicans to somehow retake their party. For them to be viable today, they needed to be financing widespread state and local races 30 years ago. And a new party is unlikely to prove viable.

            I think our best option is to fight against Republicans until they’re firmly defeated, and then split the Democrats into centrists and Progressives.