House Republicans in Disarray

[Physics Guy]

I don't profess to be a political scientist but I've been impressed by a point of logic that has emerged in political science. I'm submitting a paper real soon now about its relevance to quantum entanglement, but this is just my homage to a fact that's a lot more important for politics than it is for physics.

There exist three possible goals. All three at once are mutually exclusive, but one can have any two of the three. Party A wants goals 2 and 3, and sacrifices goal 1. Party B will sacrifice goal 2 to obtain goals 1 and 3. Party C will give up goal 3 for the sake of goals 1 and 2. The three parties are equally strong.

The result in a vote? Every goal has strong majority support, a 2/3 super-majority, because only one third of the votes are prepared to reject each goal. All three goals together are logically self-contradictory, and every party is honest and rational. Nevertheless everyone together is collectively demanding the impossible.

The contradiction only appears with three parties or more. A perfect two-party system prevents it. If one party has multiple factions, however, this can totally happen, in some form or other. It's a bug in democracy. It's called the Discursive Dilemma.

[Res Ipsa]

Thanks for posting that information, PG. Really fascinating.

In other news, the Republican attempt to get back into array has resumed with a floor vote today. They are midway through the first ballot, and enough republicans have already voted for not-Jordans that no speaker will be elected on this ballot.

First ballot totals:

Jeffries(D) 212
Jordan (R) 200
Others (R) 20 (No Republican other than Jordan was nominated)

[Res Ipsa]

The Speaker Pro Tem called the House into recess.

Jordan has had several days to lobby/pressure the moderate Rs that do not support him. The speculation was that Jordan would put pressure on any holdouts by calling vote after vote until they folded. Apparently, there were too many holdouts for that strategy to be effective.

Now what?

[Doctor CamNC4Me]

The Speaker Pro Tem called the House into recess.

Jordan has had several days to lobby/pressure the moderate Rs that do not support him. The speculation was that Jordan would put pressure on any holdouts by calling vote after vote until they folded. Apparently, there were too many holdouts for that strategy to be effective.

Now what?

Romney?

- Doc

[Res Ipsa]

The Speaker Pro Tem called the House into recess.

Jordan has had several days to lobby/pressure the moderate Rs that do not support him. The speculation was that Jordan would put pressure on any holdouts by calling vote after vote until they folded. Apparently, there were too many holdouts for that strategy to be effective.

Now what?

Romney?

- Doc

Spin the prize wheel.

Maybe the solution for the Rs does lie with someone outside the House. If and when Jordan surrenders, the Freedom Caucus will have had its shot. At that point they should be able to find someone they can agree on.

[Res Ipsa]

No more votes today. Next vote could be as early as 11:00 a.m. EDT tomorrow.

[Res Ipsa]

Todays (first) speaker vote is complete.

Jeffries: 213
Jordan: 198 199
Others: 22

Jordon received two fewer votes than he did yesterday.

ETA: A late vote for Jordan. He only went backwards by one.

John Bohener received a vote.

And we're back in recess.

That's it for the day. They'll try again tomorrow at noon EDT.

[Res Ipsa]

Todays (first) speaker vote is complete.

Jeffries: 213
Jordan: 198 199
Others: 22

Jordon received two fewer votes than he did yesterday.

ETA: A late vote for Jordan. He only went backwards by one.

John Bohener received a vote.

And we're back in recess.

That's it for the day. They'll try again tomorrow at noon EDT.

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) will not seek an additional speaker vote Thursday, and he will back a plan to give Rep. Patrick T. McHenry (R-N.C.), the temporary speaker, additional powers, according to multiple people who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the situation. After two rounds of votes, a group of Republicans had made it clear that Jordan did not have enough support to win the speaker’s gavel. With House functions at a standstill, lawmakers can now consider a proposal to expand McHenry’s powers.

This has been a possibility that I've read a number of Ds describe as a solution they'd support. Despite his petty eviction of Nancy Pelosi from her office while she was attending Feinstein's funeral, he has a reputation among Ds as someone willing to work with them on important issues.

This option requires amending the House rules, so the devil's in the details. I expect the ability of a single member to call a privileged vote to vacate the chair to go bye-bye.

With apologies to Lin-Manuel Miranda, I hereby dedicate Cabinet Republican Caucus Battle #1 to the Freedom Caucus. https://youtu.be/TZ1drFwVT24?si=pTkBxykspWDubrNS

[Res Ipsa]

Well, apparently Jim Jordan is not a Hamilton fan, so he did a quick flip-flop and decided, once again, to run full speed into a brick wall. The House is scheduled to vote at 10:00 EDT.

[Vēritās]

At this point, why would anyone who cares about this country ever vote Republican again? We can't even trust them to keep the government functioning.

They are inept at doing their job and they choose their leaders based on their ability to get Twitter likes.