Reaching out
Oh is that what they call it.
The House Republican leader, Kevin McCarthy, said on Saturday he had “reached out” to Democrats over Islamophobic comments made by one of his party, Lauren Boebert of Colorado, about the Minnesota Democrat Ilhan Omar.
Boebert apologised for the remarks, in which she likened one of the first Muslim women elected to Congress to a suicide bomber, on Friday, saying she wanted to meet Omar in person.
No she didn’t. We saw this yesterday. She didn’t apologize. She did the “sorry you got so offended” thing. You don’t apologize for an insult by saying “Apologies to anyone who was offended by the insult.” That’s not an apology. It treats the insult as only contingently an insult, and it puts the onus on the targets of the insult as opposed to the trashy person who tweeted the insult. That’s not just not an apology, it’s a further insult, in painting the targets of the insult as whiny babies and the insulter as a patient adult telling them to calm down. Lauren Boebert is not that patient adult, she’s a trashy vulgar belligerent ignoramus.
In a statement to CNN, McCarthy said: “I spoke with Leader [Steny] Hoyer today to help facilitate that meeting so that Congress can get back to talking to each other and working on the challenges facing the American people.”
Never mind that, speak to your trashy vulgar member and tell her to stop with the insults.
McCarthy did not condemn Boebert’s remarks.
Of course he didn’t.
Sounds like Boebert was “wretching” out rather than “reaching” out. How do dingbats like this get elected to such important positions? Lastly, do all of the people who put their little “x” beside her name agree with the garbage she continues to spew out on a regular basis? If not, why the heck do they vote for her? Yikes!!!
Lulymay, or possibly retching? your next two questions have answers that are closely entwined. As a distant observer of US politics it’s pretty clear that voters are currently drawn to those they most closely identify with on an emotional level. To some extent that has always been the case, but more so at present. In the USA it is not helped by the fact that it’s decades since Congress mattered in a more than symbolic manner (most of the time). Yes, Congress can pass laws if they really want to. yes, Congress can obstruct a President for better or worse if they really want to. Te thing is, they seldom want to these days. Congress has enormous power if it chooses to wield it. For decades though, Congress Critters of both parties have ceded power to the Executive – the President. They have thus been able to keep the baubles and trappings of power, while doing little actual hard worker and taking almost no responsibility at all. The resulting irrelevance makes a vote for a Congressperson more symbolic than a meaningful act, and essentially is used to increase or decrease the power a particular President can wield for the next two years, than to support a particular legislative agenda.
I’m not sure exactly when this started or why. My guess is during or just after WW2 is when it became critical. Again, my guess is that it started with a Congress that approved of the ability of a particular President to act out the will of Congress in a manner that would be more expeditious than legislation. In the manner of Presidents, the accumulation of power is an attractive thing and once granted power it’s easy to keep it and unattractive to surrender it. I would bet that if Congress actually grew a collective spine and tried to reclaim some of their power, Presidents of both parties would resist.
Rob, you have just described what happened in the Roman Empire. I’ve been noticing that for a long time.
As for when it started, the time line I usually see is with Wilson, but I’ve recently seen another work that talked about how earlier presidents took some powers to themselves (back to Ulysses Grant, I think) in order to preserve wilderness. Prior to that, it was the argument that the president didn’t have that power. Since Congress wouldn’t do it, people like John Muir and others persuaded the president to take it on. I forget the exact argument they used to take this power, but I could probably find it pretty easily.