It Is Comforting--But Foolish--to Believe the House GOP Inquisition Will Fail

[Nevilledog]

https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/house-gop-inquisition

If you are anyone but a MAGA enthusiast, and you care about the future of democracy in the United States, then you think that what the Republican Party and especially the House Republican majority has planned for the next two years is very bad.

And it is very, very bad.

And yet strangely, many of the same people who talk about how very bad it is also refuse to take it seriously.

I am a very regular watcher of MSNBC. Since the ascendancy of Trump to the presidency, I have enjoyed the network’s coverage of Trumpism, which often features really smart commentators, a few of whom are even my friends, who relentlessly critique Trumpism. I believe it is fair to say that MSNBC, now the home of both Never Trump former Republicans and some of the most prominent liberals, represents the mainstream centrist view of things: Trumpism is terrible, the Republican Party fully in its grip must be defeated, and democracy must be defended.

I share all of those beliefs. But there is one further claim that more or less defines this centrist perspective, and it is one that I do not share: that the Republican Party is a “clown car” and what it is doing might be dangerous but ultimately so crazy that it cannot possibly succeed.

And so MSNBC viewers are treated to a regular and constant barrage of variations of comments such as these (paraphrases of things I hear said regularly by Joe Scarborough and Lawrence O’Donnell, other hosts, and a great many guests):

* “All of this talk about investigations is not political, it is performative.”
* “These extremist plans for oversight are nothing but a distraction from their own lack of a governing philosophy.”
* “These far-right pronouncements and commitments are out of step with the American electorate, which rejected the extremist agenda in November.”
* “These crazy efforts cannot work, and it is hard to understand why any sane politician would commit to them, for such commitments will only weaken their chances for re-election.”

*snip*