Democrats Should Not Join MTG's Effort To Oust The Speaker

 

There is a small extremist element in the Republican caucus in the House of Representatives who seem to enjoy creating chaos and using trouble. Although far from a majority in the GOP caucus, they were able to oust their own Speaker. They were able to do that because the Republicans have only a slim majority in the House, and knowing that Democrats would naturally vote against a GOP Speaker, they only needed a few GOP votes.

The result was weeks of chaos as Republicans could not agree on who the new Speaker should be. They finally settled on right-winger Mike Johnson. The extremists thought Johnson would go along with them. For the most part, he did. But to avoid a government shutdown, he negotiated a deal with Democrats. Now he has negotiated with Democrats again - this time to provide aid to Ukraine.

The extremists, led by Marjorie Taylor Greene (MTG), are not happy. They did not want Ukraine to get any new aid, and have been parroting Russian propaganda. Now MTG has filed a motion to vacate the Speakership, and is threatening to ask for a floor vote. 

Democrats should not participate in this latest bit of crazy political theater.

I'm not saying the Democrats should vote for Speaker Johnson. He's not a good Speaker, and should not be celebrated for negotiating with Dems on a government shutdown avoidance or on aid to Ukraine. He was forced into doing both.

But Democrats shouldn't vote against him either. This is a Republican problem, and they should make the Republicans handle it. 

Kicking the Speaker out would just result in more chaos, and it could be weeks before the House could do any business. 

Democrats should just vote "present". If they do that, I expect most Republicans would vote against ousting the Speaker, and business could continue. It would also show the extremist wing of the GOP just how little power they actually have, and that would be good for both parties.