It is quite clear the Republican Party is incapable of governing effectively. They cannot even manage their own affairs. Their cult leader, Donald Trump, is mired in a swamp of legal problems which is diverting millions of dollars that normally would go to support Republicans up and down the ballot to buy new yachts for his militia of attorneys. Thanks to the MAGA wing of the party, led by the queen disrupter, Majorie Taylor Greene, Mike Johnson is once again under fire and a threat of losing his job for the sin of actually doing his job by passing a negotiated compromise funding bill to avoid a government shutdown.
In response to this threat and in order to further avoid angering Trump, Johnson recessed the House until April 9th, leaving Ukraine to try to fight off Putin’s onslaught without the ammunition that would be provided by passing the previously negotiated, bipartisan bill to provide such aid. There appears to be a pattern here. When there are tough decisions to be made that might anger Trump, Johnson adjourns the House and kicks the can down the road. This is not leadership. This is cowardice which Mike Johnson appears to possess in copious quantities.
Some of the saner Republicans have had enough and are jumping from the decks of the Republican titanic. Ken Buck, a Republican representative from Colorado, resigned from his seat making no secret of his disgust with the current situation and leadership. He refused to even finish out his term. He was rewarded for this small act of defiance by being ousted from the House Freedom Caucus just before his last day in another sign that the inmates have truly taken over the asylum.
Representative Mike Gallagher from Wisconsin is also leaving early which will leave the slim Republican majority in the House with a single vote margin. Gallagher served on the Intelligence Committee and surely had a front row seat on the damage being caused by the continued delay in providing the aid to Ukraine. It is very unusual for a member of the Intelligence Committee to leave midterm. However, Gallagher was not always towing the party line. He was one of only three Republicans who voted against the impeachment of Secretary Mayorkas.
This should be a harbinger of things to come if Trump is re-elected. His first term was marked by chaos and disfunction. A second term will make the first term look like a paradigm of Swiss precision. He will surround himself with people like Johnson and Greene who are demonstrably incompetent but have unwavering loyalty to Trump. The result will be mayhem on steroids much to the amusement of our adversaries like Russia and China.
The only major international challenge Trump (and his toadies) had during his term was the occurrence of the pandemic which he spectacularly failed to handle effectively, and which resulted in tens of thousands of needless deaths. What will happen during a second Trump if he and his incompetent team have to deal with a real crisis? How would you feel if Trump and his cronies had been at the helm when Pearl Harbor was attacked? Scary thought isn’t it?
