The Dysfunction is the Point: The GOP and the Dismantling of Representative Democracy

Coverage of the Speaker debacle misses the mark because people still want to believe we're operating in an old reality

I’ve tried for a couple of years now to clue people in. In THE MIDNIGHT KINGDOM: A HISTORY OF POWER, PARANOIA, AND THE COMING CRISIS, I laid out the ongoing, worsening crisis and how political, economic, and social conditions had coalesced into a gathering storm. Among the problems outlined was the renewed push for industrialization in the United States, or, rather, re-industrialization as the globalism project that has defined the last half-century unravels and the austerity and authoritarianism used against the rest of the world cycle back and plague America.

Understanding this scenario, and its many iterations, is one of the reasons I’ve been warning about the rise of child labor. The American Childhood, or rather “Western Childhood,” as the benefactors of the globalist project have been afforded certain luxuries and perks, enjoyed a brief moment of protection, or, at least, certain strata of the population did, but now that is over. The push for children to labor in slaughterhouses, warehouses, and other dangerous locations, is a reaction to the rollback of the progress of the 20th century, but also the effects of the population deficit that not only troubles the U.S. but other powers around the world.

Here, Louisiana Representative Mike Johnson speaks to this insidious and often unspoken situation in our politics. Of course, Johnson is now the next Speaker of the House. Johnson, whether he was completely aware of what he was saying or not, was able to at least begin vocalizing one of the secret and troubling aspects of modern politics that, in many ways, informs our present crisis and the many crises springing up around the world.

Johnson, like other Republicans, likely has no idea what’s actually happening in the world right now. The GOP, because of its long-standing history as the reactionary engine for terrified white people of wealth, affluence, and, through continued strategized appeals, its base of MAGA-obsessed, disaffected white people of the country’s interior, has devolved into a teeth-gnashing entity that does little besides work itself into a lather over what Dr. Seuss book might get “cancelled” next by the author’s estate or what beer is preferred by whatever group it happens to hate the most this afternoon. There is largely no strategy there. Whatever strategy there is is supplied by a collection of obscenely wealthy donors who use the Republican Party as their favorite marionettes and benefit wildly from the spreading of these fears and reactions.

Johnson’s ascent to the Speakership is disturbing, and caps a humiliating process that chewed up and spit out god knows how many candidates before landing on this poisonous one. Before Johnson was eventually chosen, it seemed as if there was no possibility of the GOP finding their person. And, according to The Washington Post, this absolute disaster falls upon the Democratic Party to fix. That’s right. Because the GOP is such an absolute mess and is driven by self-destructive urges (which we’ll get to after the jump) the Democrats are needed to set things right in order for the business of the House to resume.

Just to take this to its logical conclusion: the Democratic Party is now tasked by one of the major papers of record, which represents the viewpoint of a large swathe of moderate and liberal America, to put in place a Speaker of the House at any cost, even if that person is someone like Mike Johnson, who is on the record expressing the idea that women should be forced to birth children in order to create more workers to stabilize a system. A literal fascist viewpoint. And that’s only the beginning of Johnson’s disturbing ideology.

Nevermind, of course, that this is always how this plays out. The GOP stamps its feet and makes an absolute mess of thing and then the Democrats have to come in and set things right again. Scandals. Dysfunction. Wars. Security disasters. Record deficits. You name it. The GOP gains control of power, makes things infinitely worse, and then the opposition sweeps in and is completely responsible for making things right and, in turn, handcuffed from making any “desired” changes that it would absolutely, we promise you, pursue if only they had the money, the resources, the energy, the circumstances, or the time.

We’ve seen this dance. In fact, we’ve been held hostage by this dance. We’ve been forced to watch as it has continued and become more and more grotesque with every movement and measure. Our lives have gotten worse. Our situations have grown more precarious. Our most vulnerable populations and oppressed peoples have been told, promised really, that their fates are important, buuuuuuuuuuuuuut. And it only gets worse.

Meanwhile, coverage of this has continued to miss the mark. We’re treated to the GOP spectacle as if this is simply an aberration, something that should embarrass everyone, and it’s simply a problem with the House Freedom Caucus and the general tug-of-war within the party. And that’s partly true. Surface-level, that is what’s going on. But the Beltway Gaze manages to oversimplify all of this because there is a deep, deep desire to not reflect on what has happened and how this current cycle was entered and then worsened in the first place. I know, by now, this shouldn’t be a surprise, but America’s understanding of itself and its politics, particularly through a corporate media lens, is, well, severely lacking.

The truth is much more disturbing than that. And if we have any hope whatsoever of escaping this cycle and actually solving our issues, we’re going to have to face facts and recognize exactly what’s going on here.