Hakeem Jeffries tells House Republicans it’s their mess to clean up
As much as Republicans love to whine about the media being prejudiced against conservatives, they actually get a lot of their power from both journalists and pundits who echo their rhetoric – their threats and all too often, their own narrative frame of what’s happening. Although Republicans have the House majority, it’s become abundantly clear in the last few days that they’ve caught the car and don’t know what to with it. Otherwise, they would have either never voted against keeping McCarthy as House speaker, or they would have a replacement ready to go, unlike when they forced John Boehner to retire a decade ago.
The fact is that the media feels compelled to cover politics like sports – seeing Republicans and Democrats as different teams with different players – but essentially being the same thing when it comes to games. This is why Meet the Press felt enough time has gone on to ask House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries if he bears some responsibility for the current chaos that’s happening – essentially asking if Democrats should once again step in and save Republicans from themselves.
Jeffries had the perfect answer: “At this point, that is on my House Republican colleagues. We have made clear publicly and privately that we are ready, willing and able to enter into a bipartisan governing coalition that puts the American people first and solves problems for hard-working American taxpayers. My Republican colleagues have a simple choice. They can either double or triple down on the chaos, dysfunction and extremism, or let’s have a real conversation about changing the rules of the House so it can work in the best interests of the American people.”
It’s really that simple – and it invites the media to admit what’s been true of the GOP for awhile: they just want chaos, essentially the very thing they regularly accuse our side of. Should our government be pushed towards a shutdown, particularly at a time of crisis when Israel needs more aid against Hamas, it will clearly be the fault of Republicans and they must be held accountable by being voted out of office in 2024.
James Sullivan is the assistant editor of Brain World Magazine and an advocate of science-based policy making