In order to fight for the Common Good we must remember who are the true enemies of the Common Good. It is the ultra-wealthy who would like to see an authoritarian ruler that would allow them to continue to collect unlimited wealth, remove all restraints on big business and remove virtually all taxation on the wealthiest. Donald Trump himself is not democracy's worst enemy, it is the forces of unrestrained capitalism that permit and support his agenda. The feuding Republicans may think they are standing for Trump but they are not. They are destroying the concept of the Common Good for the benefit of the ultra-wealthy. Trump is an ultra wealthy wannabe, but as the courts are revealing, he is not actually in their ranks. He is just a huckster and a showman and a dangerous one at that. He is best suited for “Reality TV."
I’m both a hard core liberal and a democrat and I doubt this will fly, but I want to throw this out anyway. What about Liz Cheney? I realize she isn’t a member or the house any longer, but technically she doesn’t have to be. Unlike the ROTUS (my acronym for former rump of the US) she knows the rules and procedures of the House and she’s never been indicted for a felony. Even I think this sounds naive, and her excellent work on the January 6 committee puts her at odds with many Republican members but she doesn’t have to run for reelection, so the MAGA crowd can’t use that against her. I realize it would take democrats to get behind her and I don’t agree with all her political positions but I have great respect for her integrity and moral compass. We could certainly do worse.
As nearly always, Prof. Reich, your phrases, recommendations, ideas, entire paragraphs, etc., are highly inspiring. Enjoy your well-deserved rest and keep going next week. As the saying goes: "Don't let the bastards (i.e., Trump, Jordan and their ilk) get you down."
Robert, what is wrong with Merrick Garland rounding up all of the GOP followers of the attempted coup? He has wasted two and a half years so far, it is responsible for the GOP winning the house and keeping the supreme Court while Biden looked the other way. He's got about a month to arrest and prosecute about 300 of them or at least arrest them. The statute of limitations is not up for another two and a half years roughly. Why are the Democrats letting Biden and Garland do this? If he put his agents to work 24/7, he could charge at least 10 of them and put them out of commission, by just upholding the Constitution obviously Garland doesn't like the Constitution either!
Thank you Robert Reich for finally getting on board with what we at www.FeathersOfHope.net have been advocating since January.
However, circumstances are now far different than they were then. The idea of haveing just a few Republicans join all Democrats will only lead to more anger and retribution. In order to be successful a bipartisan coalition must be truly bipartisan, consisting of something more like a hundred + R's and a similar number of D's.
Last night, when asked about who should be elected Speaker, Leader Jeffries said this:
"No, this shouldn't be about any one particular individual's aspirations to lead either House Democrats or House Republicans. This is about what is good for the American people. . .
We've got to find a way to come together, restructure the House in a bipartisan way, designed to allow for common sense things to come to the floor, receive an up or down vote . . .
But first we need Republicans to agree on the principle."
In other words, the priority here is to protect and defend the integrity of the House of Representatives against MAGA extremists who've repeatedly demonstrated that they have no interest in governing. As former Speaker McCarthy observed, they "want to burn the whole place down."
Hakeem Jeffries is bringing out the hoses and raising the ladders. Putting out the fire is every bit as important as identifying a consensus Speaker.
I guess I am getting old, but I remember when the two major parties communicated; the Republicans represented the business viewpoint and the Democrats represented the working class viewpoint; together they came to a compromise that just helped America.
Robert, I saw you speak at the Washington Monument before we marched to protest W’s invasion of Iraq. Your voice gives oxygen to brighten the fires of Democracy we have received from the Founders of our way of life. God bless you. Fr. Jacob Kulp
Israel now has an emergency unity government. That’s something you cannot imagine happening in the US with the current TrumpCult Republicans. They would rather burn everything to the ground.
Professor Reich: i like the idea of a coalition government. i also would -- grudgingly -- support fitzpatrick as the house speaker. (fitzpatrick appears to be a spineless toady to me, especially from his words issued immediately after the attempted coup, but that's just me.)
i'm wondering what ever happened to the campaign to vote in Schwarzenegger as house speaker?
There is only one way out of the fiasco that is so apparent in the Republican conference’s speakership choice. That is to accept that the conference is ungovernable. That is because the Republican party is actually three parties in an unstable coalition with very differing priorities and agendas. The analogy is the political scene in Italian that has a merry-go-round of shifting alliances that form rapidly morphing serial governments.
So, what are the three factions (parties)?
First up is the chaos caucus that is just out for click bites, believes the conspiracy theories, and just wants to burn it all down.
Second, the largest group and by far the most dangerous, are those supported by the morbidly rich billionaires who brought us Project REDMAP and the gerrymandering efforts in the States, the Federalist Society stacking the courts with Conservative judges, and now the Project 2025 manifesto to remove government regulation of business and to destroy the Executive branch by decimating the Civil service and putting in a layer of political hacks as overseers to insure political “alignment” with a President’s views. This last bit is popping up as the “unitary executive” theory. This is no secret conspiracy—it is all there in 900 black and white pages in Project 2025, available for free on the internet. The goal is to continue to increase the concentration of wealth in this country, which is most easily done in an authoritarian regime. The anti-immigration, anti-abortion, anti-welfare, pro-gun-rights policies are there to generate grievance issues in the electorate to secure majorities and obscure the real purpose of making the morbidly rich richer.
Third are the recently silent “moderates” who remember a time when people realized that in a two-party system, there has to be bipartisanship to get anything done. They are the old “small business” Republicans.
This is not the first time parties in America have fractured and morphed in America. The most recent example may be the split and migration of segregationist southern Democrats to the Republican Party during the 1960s and 1970s. But this is the first time since the Civil War that the threat to our democracy has risen to this level.
So what to do now? Democrats have to start pointing out WHY the Republican conference is dysfunctional. They have to name names in each of the factions and point out what the factions’ agendas are. And they have to make clear that we are now operating in an essentially 4-party system. Democrats have to be explicit in their invitation to seek a coalition with the “small business” group where there is the most overlap on the issues. After all, those “small business” supporters are being destroyed by huge monopolies like Amazon. Being explicit is necessary to explain to Democratic voters what is at stake and why a coalition is necessary, and it provides cover for the “small business” party to combat the “traitor” label that they will be smeared with by parties 1 and 2.
Why do I think this has a chance of working? Only 99 Republicans initially supported Jim Jordan, Trump’s choice for speaker. The cracks are starting to appear and this is the time to leverage them wider. Hakeem Jeffries just stared to widen that crack!!!
Thank You for the expose' of Jim Jordan for those who do not know what an insurrectionist he is; not to mention no backbone or having tacitly approved sexual harassment of his team members when was a HS coach. I state these things along with you in case anyone reading your newsletter didn’t know about him. I saw all the Jan6 Hearings and read the entire report. It has Jim Jordan all over it! He refused to respond to their subpoena; then chairs the House Judiciary Committee. I mean-WTF!? This guy is right out of "The Third Reich’s Qualifications Manual" (I made up that name.) I didn’t know about the Problem Solvers Caucus. My Florida’s delegation members are Darren Soto and Stephanie Murphy. These are among the best for Florida, at least. Gives me assurance about the committee. Cjeck it out.
A coalition would actually be a healthy change from the rank partisanship we have seen since the 1990s. It is only a first step towards making the House more of a functioning parliamentary body instead of a multi-ring circus.
Rather than always defaulting to the Coastal elites for a person to fill the role, I suggest looking at Ken Buck from Colorado. He's had the courage to stand up to MAGA and has enough security in his seat to withstand a Trumpian primary.
In order to fight for the Common Good we must remember who are the true enemies of the Common Good. It is the ultra-wealthy who would like to see an authoritarian ruler that would allow them to continue to collect unlimited wealth, remove all restraints on big business and remove virtually all taxation on the wealthiest. Donald Trump himself is not democracy's worst enemy, it is the forces of unrestrained capitalism that permit and support his agenda. The feuding Republicans may think they are standing for Trump but they are not. They are destroying the concept of the Common Good for the benefit of the ultra-wealthy. Trump is an ultra wealthy wannabe, but as the courts are revealing, he is not actually in their ranks. He is just a huckster and a showman and a dangerous one at that. He is best suited for “Reality TV."
I’m both a hard core liberal and a democrat and I doubt this will fly, but I want to throw this out anyway. What about Liz Cheney? I realize she isn’t a member or the house any longer, but technically she doesn’t have to be. Unlike the ROTUS (my acronym for former rump of the US) she knows the rules and procedures of the House and she’s never been indicted for a felony. Even I think this sounds naive, and her excellent work on the January 6 committee puts her at odds with many Republican members but she doesn’t have to run for reelection, so the MAGA crowd can’t use that against her. I realize it would take democrats to get behind her and I don’t agree with all her political positions but I have great respect for her integrity and moral compass. We could certainly do worse.
As nearly always, Prof. Reich, your phrases, recommendations, ideas, entire paragraphs, etc., are highly inspiring. Enjoy your well-deserved rest and keep going next week. As the saying goes: "Don't let the bastards (i.e., Trump, Jordan and their ilk) get you down."
Jim Jordan should already have been arrested.
Robert, what is wrong with Merrick Garland rounding up all of the GOP followers of the attempted coup? He has wasted two and a half years so far, it is responsible for the GOP winning the house and keeping the supreme Court while Biden looked the other way. He's got about a month to arrest and prosecute about 300 of them or at least arrest them. The statute of limitations is not up for another two and a half years roughly. Why are the Democrats letting Biden and Garland do this? If he put his agents to work 24/7, he could charge at least 10 of them and put them out of commission, by just upholding the Constitution obviously Garland doesn't like the Constitution either!
Thank you Robert Reich for finally getting on board with what we at www.FeathersOfHope.net have been advocating since January.
However, circumstances are now far different than they were then. The idea of haveing just a few Republicans join all Democrats will only lead to more anger and retribution. In order to be successful a bipartisan coalition must be truly bipartisan, consisting of something more like a hundred + R's and a similar number of D's.
Last night, when asked about who should be elected Speaker, Leader Jeffries said this:
"No, this shouldn't be about any one particular individual's aspirations to lead either House Democrats or House Republicans. This is about what is good for the American people. . .
We've got to find a way to come together, restructure the House in a bipartisan way, designed to allow for common sense things to come to the floor, receive an up or down vote . . .
But first we need Republicans to agree on the principle."
In other words, the priority here is to protect and defend the integrity of the House of Representatives against MAGA extremists who've repeatedly demonstrated that they have no interest in governing. As former Speaker McCarthy observed, they "want to burn the whole place down."
Hakeem Jeffries is bringing out the hoses and raising the ladders. Putting out the fire is every bit as important as identifying a consensus Speaker.
(Learn more here: https://jerryweiss.substack.com/p/putting-out-the-fire)
.
I guess I am getting old, but I remember when the two major parties communicated; the Republicans represented the business viewpoint and the Democrats represented the working class viewpoint; together they came to a compromise that just helped America.
“Always Stay Humble And Kind”. Words to live by.
Robert, I saw you speak at the Washington Monument before we marched to protest W’s invasion of Iraq. Your voice gives oxygen to brighten the fires of Democracy we have received from the Founders of our way of life. God bless you. Fr. Jacob Kulp
Jim Jordan is not qualified to be a member of the House according to the 14th amendment. Folks ought to file suit to have him removed.
Israel now has an emergency unity government. That’s something you cannot imagine happening in the US with the current TrumpCult Republicans. They would rather burn everything to the ground.
Yes the House of Representatives must return to tolerance and compromise if it is ever to br an effective government body again!
Bipartisanship needs to be restored.
Professor Reich: i like the idea of a coalition government. i also would -- grudgingly -- support fitzpatrick as the house speaker. (fitzpatrick appears to be a spineless toady to me, especially from his words issued immediately after the attempted coup, but that's just me.)
i'm wondering what ever happened to the campaign to vote in Schwarzenegger as house speaker?
There is only one way out of the fiasco that is so apparent in the Republican conference’s speakership choice. That is to accept that the conference is ungovernable. That is because the Republican party is actually three parties in an unstable coalition with very differing priorities and agendas. The analogy is the political scene in Italian that has a merry-go-round of shifting alliances that form rapidly morphing serial governments.
So, what are the three factions (parties)?
First up is the chaos caucus that is just out for click bites, believes the conspiracy theories, and just wants to burn it all down.
Second, the largest group and by far the most dangerous, are those supported by the morbidly rich billionaires who brought us Project REDMAP and the gerrymandering efforts in the States, the Federalist Society stacking the courts with Conservative judges, and now the Project 2025 manifesto to remove government regulation of business and to destroy the Executive branch by decimating the Civil service and putting in a layer of political hacks as overseers to insure political “alignment” with a President’s views. This last bit is popping up as the “unitary executive” theory. This is no secret conspiracy—it is all there in 900 black and white pages in Project 2025, available for free on the internet. The goal is to continue to increase the concentration of wealth in this country, which is most easily done in an authoritarian regime. The anti-immigration, anti-abortion, anti-welfare, pro-gun-rights policies are there to generate grievance issues in the electorate to secure majorities and obscure the real purpose of making the morbidly rich richer.
Third are the recently silent “moderates” who remember a time when people realized that in a two-party system, there has to be bipartisanship to get anything done. They are the old “small business” Republicans.
This is not the first time parties in America have fractured and morphed in America. The most recent example may be the split and migration of segregationist southern Democrats to the Republican Party during the 1960s and 1970s. But this is the first time since the Civil War that the threat to our democracy has risen to this level.
So what to do now? Democrats have to start pointing out WHY the Republican conference is dysfunctional. They have to name names in each of the factions and point out what the factions’ agendas are. And they have to make clear that we are now operating in an essentially 4-party system. Democrats have to be explicit in their invitation to seek a coalition with the “small business” group where there is the most overlap on the issues. After all, those “small business” supporters are being destroyed by huge monopolies like Amazon. Being explicit is necessary to explain to Democratic voters what is at stake and why a coalition is necessary, and it provides cover for the “small business” party to combat the “traitor” label that they will be smeared with by parties 1 and 2.
Why do I think this has a chance of working? Only 99 Republicans initially supported Jim Jordan, Trump’s choice for speaker. The cracks are starting to appear and this is the time to leverage them wider. Hakeem Jeffries just stared to widen that crack!!!
https://www.project2025.org/policy/
RepJeffries/status/1712631598145818931
Thank You for the expose' of Jim Jordan for those who do not know what an insurrectionist he is; not to mention no backbone or having tacitly approved sexual harassment of his team members when was a HS coach. I state these things along with you in case anyone reading your newsletter didn’t know about him. I saw all the Jan6 Hearings and read the entire report. It has Jim Jordan all over it! He refused to respond to their subpoena; then chairs the House Judiciary Committee. I mean-WTF!? This guy is right out of "The Third Reich’s Qualifications Manual" (I made up that name.) I didn’t know about the Problem Solvers Caucus. My Florida’s delegation members are Darren Soto and Stephanie Murphy. These are among the best for Florida, at least. Gives me assurance about the committee. Cjeck it out.
A coalition would actually be a healthy change from the rank partisanship we have seen since the 1990s. It is only a first step towards making the House more of a functioning parliamentary body instead of a multi-ring circus.
Rather than always defaulting to the Coastal elites for a person to fill the role, I suggest looking at Ken Buck from Colorado. He's had the courage to stand up to MAGA and has enough security in his seat to withstand a Trumpian primary.