comment: >
  
  What is this guys end game…like what does he want?
context: It’s so weird to see republicans with genuine outrage. I’ve become accustomed to the false variety from them. >
  
  Well now it’s affecting them personally. >
  
  "This is hurting the wrong people!!" >
  
  If some human trafficking scumbag were trying to Gaetkeep Democracy, I’d walk out too >
  
  Hey! That’s Rapist Human Trafficking Scumbag Gaetz to you! >
  
  Hey! That’s pedophile Rapist Human Trafficking Scumbag Gaetz to you! >
  
  Yo! Thats DOUCHEBAG pedophile Rapist Human Trafficking Scumbag Goetz to you! >
  
  Ok ok but it’s literally RUSSIAN FUNDED REPUBLICAN AND SUSPECTED PEDOPHILE >
  
  Ok, but which Russian funded republican and pedophile? There's over two hundred in congress alone >
  
  Anyone else hear America the Beautiful playing in the background? >
  
  Honestly can every year start with republicans getting unironically frustrated with minority rule? >
  
  and arguing with each other that they aren't extreme enough >
  
  It’s like POWERTHIRST EXTREME >
  
  MANergy! >
  
  They should've been forced to watch it like Alex DeLarge in "A Clockwork Orange." >
  
  Even though I think they are full of shit and vehemently disagree with their politics, the one place I found myself agreeing with Boebert through all of this was that it was nice to see the entire chamber assembled (and I’m sure she was just saying this a vague rhetorical gesture to seem reasonable but whatever). They should be forced to listen to each other’s bullshit and greatly inconvenienced when they want to play delay games like this. That’s also something I’ve said about the filibuster in the senate. When they can all go off and no one actually has to suffer through a filibuster, it’s pretty meaningless. But if they are forced to sit and listen, the dynamics are changed, especially if they even want to pretend to be “patriots” and woo the folks on the far right while secretly despising them. The performative aspect of the chambers and the extent to which speeches and such are now made for television instead of the chambers is bad. >
  
  Classic Republicans. Do nothing about credible allegations of sex-trafficking and pederasty, but the second he moderately disrupts their power games, they wAlK oUt In DiSgUsT. >
  
  Sad thing is, really, that this ultimately won't mean anything. 
  It's been a treat for empathetic humans viewing, but McCarthy will sell himself out for the Speaker position, will get it, and Republicans will continue to hold the country hostage over their ignorant and hypocritical ideologies, and face no real consequences because the real money donors of this country will throw billions at them because of control, and people will still see Dems as spineless. 
  This will ultimately be a hollow victory for Democrats, reinforcing the GCoupP to finish Hitler's playbook, despite the reality of the situation.
  Then again this country was never about what's right, so what did we expect? >
  
  McCarthy has never not sold himself out in his entire tenure in politics.  I’m not sure he has anything left to sell. He’s a duplicitous opportunist of the worst kind, so nobody trusts him. He’s already conceded so much to these lunatics, I think they just want to see monkey dance. >
  
  Why is he "making concessions" with his enemies in his own party to ensure he gets the speaker? 
  This should have been a clear example of their failure of government. 
  Yet they'll still make their shifty deals amongst themselves that hold democracy hostage, and at the end they'll still be in power when they don't deserve to be. >
  
  Serious (potentially dumb) question: how binding are the concessions McCarthy made? Like, he could have said anything to secure the vote, but is he actually required to follow through? I know good faith/precedent may indicate that he does have to keep his word, but if he doesn't, what happens? Or is it just that if he doesn't, he'll get the same holdouts for every vote? Which seems likely, but also like those officials will have their constituents up in arms, so it seems like a headache for them. >
  
  It's all political, but he only has that position because he was elected into it by the House under their own rules.  Legally he can ignore any rules he wants as they are not laws, but it will now only take ONE member of the House to call for a vote to remove him from the position.  He has traded away all of his actual power in order to have the title and position as 2nd in line for the Presidency. >
  
  That was a concession he made and will require an actual rules change through the committee, iirc, not just him saying it will be so. He could go back in his word and the freedom caucus couldn't do anything about it except gum up everything the GOO tries to do in the House. Which they absolutely will do anyways unless it's their stuff, because their primary goal is to prevent the federal government from functioning correctly. >
  
  Right, it seems (to me, who is not an expert) that a lot of his concessions have to go to committees, which are full of people annoyed at the stunts that were pulled. Even if McCarthy sends them, fulfilling his end of the deal, whats stopping all the other people from not moving it forward? Some of those people hate Gaetz and Bobert at this point (I mean, grown men were lunging at each other on the House floor) so it doesn't seem unreasonable that most of these concessions just die in committee. (But again. I'm not an expert so I might be way off here...) >
  
  What happened to the good old days where they just fought it out? 
  McCarthy vs Gaetz >
  
  Yeah with all this I was hoping someone would have to break out the Mace of the Republic. >
  
  Mace of the Republic sounds like Star Wars >
  
  Mace: A Star Wars Story >
  
  You know what I would watch a mace windu bio-pick where he's a scrappy youth absolutely thrashing crime and stuff like as close to the punisher as a padawan is allowed to get in the lower levels of the capital >
  
  There's a book in the old EU where Mace beats up five people while fully naked after they attempt to rob him in the shower >
  
  Reading the tea leaves, as a federal employee I should make sure I have a couple months of mortgage and utilities liquid since the government will obviously be shutting down a few times soon. >
  
  What a horrible reality to have to live with. >
  
  Yeah. Gets kinda depressing to look over the pond these days. >
  
  Well on the bright side it’s completely fine if you don’t rely on the government for anything >
  
  Which is literally nobody. >
  
  I am much much much more affected by my state and local governments than by the federal for sure >
  
  Until no planes can fly because there's no air traffic controllers. >
  
  Only done once since the pandemic anyway >
  
  
  “They believe Mr. McCarthy has earned the position of speaker of the House because he raised half a billion dollars to get Republicans elected.”
  
  There was a This American Life episode on this years ago, and he is not wrong in this statement. He is wrong to act like this is new news. All, both sides of the aisle, appoint members to key positions based on how much they fundraise and will have quotas to raise based on their position. I'm not saying this is a good thing, but this is kabuki theater. He is just Mitch-Bitching - Complaining about someone doing something that you've been a part of or done yourself. >
  
  I believe the This American Life episode was "Take The Money and Run for Office" from 2012.  Unless you're thinking of a more recent one idk >
  
  “Years ago” equals a decade plus, apparently. >
  
  Why wouldn’t it? >
  
  Why? That's the inevitable outcome of your strategy to make people hate and fear the other, the government,  civil servants, libraries, lqbtq folks, democrats and democracy. 
  It's your fucked up strategy Republicans,  you can't get mad now. You. Caused. This.
  And you'll keep doing it because outside of anger...you offer nothing to the American people. It's justa shame that there are so many hateful rubes that fall for your shit.
  And those rubes are enabling this horseshit. >
  
  They had two choices to get enough votes: go moderate and get a coalition of democrats, reach across the aisle and find common ground or appease their fringe and pull the party further right.
  I know that they can’t “own the libs” / tell their constituents that they “owned the libs” if they were to reach out and I know it could be politically risky, but the other option? 
  They choose this, the have been choosing this again and again, any time there is an option they go right and more right and more right.
  I’m pretty angry they chose to ignore the majority of Americans for their own stuff (again) and they wont get any sympathy from me with whatever will unfold next. >
  
  Why can't they just stab and poison each other like the Roman senate? >
  
  That's what the gop tried to do two years ago >
  
  Twitter going nuts RN. Apparently another R lunged at Gaetz and had to be restrained from throwing down on the House floor. >
  
  My money is on Bevis. >
  
  Bevis wasn't there, it was someone who identified themselves as the great cornholio. >
  
  Lmfaooo Gaetz voted present >
  
  How and why these asshats get elected is amazing. >
  
  Elected by asshats. There are petty, hateful people all over the country that know and care so little about governance or American citizens beyond their own immediate circle that this is all they hope for - to have someone in office say the stupid shit they’re thinking themselves. We all know the type, they start every encounter with an expression of outrage over whatever trivial thing they’re told to be upset about and ramble nonsensical arguments with no evidence to back them up because it makes them feel smart or holier than thou if a person in power said it to. >
  
  Word. >
  
  He was probably drunk. >
  
  You know how I know this walk-out was just performative bullshit? These same Republicans voted to give the gavel to the guy who basically groveled at Gaetz's feet for his vote. >
  
  If this is how the speaker election goes.... imagine any normal vote.
  Should American citizens be able to breathe? 
  At least 20 no's while huddling and giggling like a middle school girl clique. >
  
  People would vote no because they know it’s not enforceable and they can use it to say the Biden government is literally trying to kill you if it doesn’t pass >
  
  This House Speaker election screams for ranked-choice voting even more than the public ones do. >
  
  People keep saying that... but would it have helped here? What stops Gaetz and crew from voting: Trump, Ivanka, Eric, Rudy? Nothing forces them to list McCarthy as one of their votes.
  Same with the rest of the Republicans; if they picked Jordan as their number 2, then the crazies win.
  Ranked choice helps when there has to be a winner in an election, and it allows you to vote for your preference, even if they are unlikely to win, without throwing away your vote.
  This is a case where the people blocking the process were doing it purposefully for attention and to have their demands met. >
  
  Because eventually, all the "random" votes get eliminated and someone gets a majority. Ranked Choice Voting always results in a majority vote (or a tie I guess...), even if it comes down to the final two candidates once the votes of people who voted for neither of them stop being counted. RCV would have forced the rebel Republicans to either put McCarthy somewhere on their ballot, or accept that the Democrats would win the majority once all the oddball Republican votes were tossed out. >
  
  Ranked choice is an alternative to FPTP. Both methods find a plurality, not necessarily a majority.
  It doesn't help if the rules explicitly say someone needs a majority of all voters. There are reasons why a plurality is not enough.
  Normally the election of the speaker (or any other election by a  parliament) is a two step process. First each party/coalition chooses a candidate in internal negotiations and maybe votes, then the ballot itself isn't much more than a formality.
  The US system heavily depends on having exactly two blocks of functional adults, the case "majority cannot be found" is not foreseen and paralyzes the house resp. senate with no way out.  Most other countries can dissolve the parliament in that case and have a new general election. Usually this threat alone is enough to discipline the members. >
  
  You don't understand how ranked choice voting works. It never results in a plurality, only ever a majority, or a tie in very rare cases. Here's some information on how it works, and how it differs from plurality voting.
  The short version is that in a race using RCV, the winning candidate must cross the 50% threshold. If nobody crosses it, then the candidate with the least votes is eliminated, and the people who voted for them get their votes moved to all of their second choices. This process repeats until one person has more than 50% of the vote, or a very unlikely tie occurs.
  The winning candidate in a RCV system ends up being the candidate the vast majority will generally be okay with, whereas in a FPTP system (or other plurality voting systems), it is very easy for the least-liked candidate to win if there are spoiler candidates.
  The even shorter version is that RCV simulates as many runoff elections as needed to reach a majority, all in a single election. >
  
  In an election like for Speaker where apparently anyone in the world is eligible, how would this work?  Would all House members be required to list every other House member somewhere in their ranking?
  If everyone only lists their top 3 or something, it would still be quite possible that no one ends up with a majority - unless you count people who no longer have anyone on their list in the running as not part of the vote, but that seems like a rather technical definition of majority. >
  
  It's my understanding from watching the C-SPAN footage that members nominate their preferred candidates before voting occurs. Generally speaking, each party (or coalition, more accurately) nominates their preferred candidate. The ranking would be out of those nominated. Theoretically, every single house member could nominate one unique person, but practically speaking that will not occur. Even with this McCarthy vote, you had 5 or so options maximum at any given time, which is entirely reasonable for a RCV ballot. >
  
  not because he's a pedophile, mind you. >
  
  This coupled with him saying he'll resign if Dems break rank to help elect a moderate Rep is really making my evening. Can we piss him off to the point that he not only resigns but also crawls back under the rock he came from?! >
  
  He won’t resign. 
  He isn’t a man of his word. >
  
  And his seat keeps him from being charged for his involvement in the trafficking of a minor. >
  
  He should not be there and it says a lot about our country that we allow someone who sex trafficked teenagers across state line for sex to represent anything is beyond me. He’s a piece of fucking garbage and he shouldn’t be there. We have to stop allowing creepy fucking rich people to make our choices for us. >
  
  THIS! Facts >
  
  Why are we still letting a sex trafficker like Gaetz walk free. Lock him up for the rest of his miserable life. He is a pedophile and a moron. What is wrong with the Republican party? Is there a decent Republican politician left? Like even one single person? >
  
  The count keeps going up... after seventeen or so Matt Gaetz will lose interest. >
  
  What I would love to see is that now the GOP really turns on Gaetz because of the shit show he caused. I am pretty certain that he really really pissed off a lot of Republicans.
  And we all know that Matt Gaetz has a lot of stuff going on that can break his neck. Let's just hope that he will end up in prison. >
  
  Did enough walk out to give the democrats a majority for their nominee? Because that would be hilarious. >
  
  To give the democrats a majority, I believe they would have to be present and not vote >
  
  Or Raymond Burr for that matter. >
  
  I love it when they tell the truth and the GOP freaks out. >
  
  Gaetz has overplayed his hand. Burned up too much political capital in the last few days. Will be interesting to watch the GOP continue to self-destruct over the next 2 years. >
  
  I hope they treat him like a fucking pariah now. I really hope McCarthy double crosses him, and doesn’t keep a single promise or concession. That be some drama I would enjoy. >
  
  How does this pedo get to say anything of any importance? Why does anyone pay him any attention??? >
  
  Why is is still roaming the streets a free man? This country is a joke when it comes to accountability for the rich and politicians. Where is the justice? >
  
  The irony of Gaetz singing the praises of Jim Jordan. >
  
  well both are predators.. soooo >
  
  why are people surprised at Republicans lack of action with Santos? they’ve allowed Trump to falsely his life for years >
  
  
  The far-right Florida Republican was attacking Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s fundraising prowess, calling him “the LeBron James of special-interest fundraising.”
  
  Yeah, and that makes  Matt Gaetz what? the Rudy Gobert of fucking kids? 
  He does it, but he's definately second tier. >
  
  LePublican catfighting >
  
  To be fair to Matt Gaetz, he's a human trafficking pedo.