Wondering on Wednesday 2/3/21

 

Ready... Set... Wonder!

You know, I've often wondered what goes through the minds of our elected representatives as they sit in Washington, trying to the people's work, and watching the machinations of the party leaders. 

For example, say there's a big-time conspiracy theorist, a true believer in the cannibalistic pedophiles in the deep state Democratic party from which only Donald John Trump can save us, and in Jewish space lasers, and in the killing of Democratic leaders, and in the insurrection at the Capitol, and that school shootings are false flags, and that the government or the cabal or the laser-wielders set up the Las Vegas concert shooting to scare people into accepting gun reforms, and a whole host of other stuff about which I've only read, and in which I personally have zero belief. 

And say that she gets elected and ends up in the House of Representatives, and she refuses to act in a manner in keeping with what most civilized people consider to be adult behavior worthy of someone holding federal office. And say that she's chummy with the former president, and they, you know, talk and stuff, and she has his full and total endorsement and support. 

And say that the members of the other party are unhappy with her statements, and want her to be stripped of committee assignments, which is how the House traditionally has disciplined people who are really offensive or behave offensively. And say her party leaders get together and try to figure out what the hell to do with her, knowing that she has the full and total support of the former president, but they can't figure out what to do without facing the Florida man's wrath. And they cave, and decide to do nothing. 

And, say the members of the other party say, "Listen, party of the loved-by-the-former-president conspiracy theorist, if you don't take care of this, we will - we'll strip her of her assignments."

And then the conspiracy theorist-protecting party says, "Fine - if you strip our extremist of her committees, we're going after one of your extremists, the one from Minnesota, and we're going to move to strip her of her assignments." 

And then the majority party says, "Fine, if you go after ours because we went after yours, we're going to do a strong show of support for your third-ranking leader. At least she's smart enough to understand that you can't let the president foment insurrection and cheer when it happens, even as his most loyal servant is being hunted by the insurrectionists who think that hanging him is an appropriate punishment for following the Constitution." 

And the party devoid of leadership other than their #3 decides, "Fine - you want to throw your support behind one of ours? We're going to throw our support behind one of yours - another extremist, the loudmouth from Queens, and move to have her inserted into a leadership role currently held by one of your octogenarians. "

And the octogenarian leaders get together and announce, "Well, if that's what you want, fine - but then we'll move to shrink all of the committees and subcommittees - so you'll have lots of members without assignments!"

And the party of the gerrymandering chickens decides "Fine! If you do that, we'll refuse to attend any meetings, and you'll never have a quorum and won't be to get anything done!" 

And the petty majority party says, "Fine, if that's what you want - we won't even set a calendar and we won't even meet, so you won't be able to prevent us from having a quorum.  And then the president will do everything by executive order, just like the former president did, because Mitch McConnell held the legislation we passed hostage! And see how you like us now!"

And the party of the we're-more-pissed-off-than-you-are says "Fine. We'll get the nut-bag off the committees, but only because she's going to keep us from obstructing the majority, and that's our goal, to obstruct you and win back our majorities in the midterms next year." 

And the party of two impeachment a term graciously says "That's what we wanted anyway, thank you very much and have a nice day."

And the party of the nut-bag says, "But first, before we strip her of committees, we're going to try and force you to act on her plan to impeach President Biden for things he said he did when he was vice president. So how do you like us now?"

And the party of the oh-crap-forgot-about-that-little-issue says, "Well, since you're in the minority, good luck with that. You can't make us do anything we don't want to!"

And the party of the only slightly more obnoxious lunatics (depending on what day it is) says, "Ha! We'll all go on Fox and OAN and Newsmax and Breitbart and whatever social media will have us, and spill the beans and make everyone think it's going to happen, and that's just as good as it actually happening -- look how well we did with all the election fraud stuff!"

And the leader of the only slightly less obnoxious lunatics (depending on what day it is) says, "Well, why don't we talk together about committee assignments, before we do anything rash?" 

And ALL the voters stand up, go to their doors or windows and scream, in unison,

WE'RE MAD AS HELL AND WE'RE NOT GOING TO TAKE IT ANYMORE! IF YOU'RE NOT GOING TO FOCUS ON US, PACK YOUR BAGS AND GO HOME!

I wonder, this Wednesday, since some of what's documented above is true, what the other members of the House - those not in leadership positions, those not participating in all of this backdoor intrigue, and those who don't qualify as extremists - think of all of this? 

Are they standing at their doors or windows screaming along with the rest of us? Are they hanging their heads in abject embarrassment somewhere? 

Or are they gleefully sitting around, popcorn at hand, watching all of this transpire and hoping to land in a better spot when the dust settles? 

I surely hope they're in the 'screaming along with the rest of us' bucket, or at the very least in the 'hanging their heads in abject embarrassment' bucket. 

If they're eating popcorn, they can pack their bags as far as I'm concerned.

What's on your mind tonight?