McCarthy, MAGA, and Revenge ｜ 10⧸5⧸23
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Summary
Kevin McCarthy has been removed as the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and some are very angry about it. We break down why some are upset, and why others are not. We also talk about the impact this will have on the future of the Republican Party.
Transcript
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All right, so Kevin McCarthy is out as Speaker of the House.
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He's the first guy to get removed from that position by a motion to vacate vote,
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I don't think this is going to make a difference.
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Let's go ahead and jump into what happened here and break this down.
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So, it looks like McCarthy is out because he ended up getting in a back and forth with Matt
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McCarthy secured his position by guaranteeing a number of things to people like the Freedom
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And one of the things that he promised was an end to continuing resolutions.
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See, way back when I was a kid, the government actually voted on this thing called the budget.
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Yeah, the power that Congress is supposed to have, the big power that it's supposed to be able to
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The reason Congress is supposed to be one of the most powerful, if not the most powerful
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branch, the reason the House specifically is so powerful as the House of Representatives is its
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ability to control funding, its ability to control how much money goes anywhere.
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It's nice to have authority, but if you don't have money to fund all of those different
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organizations, all of those different institutions, then they really don't matter.
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And so, with the power of the purse, the House of Representatives is supposed to be able to
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restrict the different things that the other branches can do.
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But Congress has basically given up that ability.
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The House has more or less handed that over to different parts of the executive branch,
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especially due to the fact that they have just been passing these continuing resolutions.
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Instead of looking at a real budget and having multiple votes over all these different issues,
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basically, you just got one big block of funding.
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You said yes to everything, or you said no to everything.
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And this is why every congressman has these votes where, you know, during their campaign,
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people can say, oh, he voted against money for the troops, or he voted against money for
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senior citizens, or he voted against money for whatever group we're flogging today.
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The whole reason they get to say that is because everything is wrapped up in these omnibus bills,
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these one giant spending bills, and they just keep continuing that bill over and over again.
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They don't actually do individual votes the way that it was intended.
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And again, this is so much of why the House of Representatives and democracy in general
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just has no real impact, because all of this stuff has been streamlined.
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It has been more and more taken out of the hands of people who are supposed to represent
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And instead, it's been put into the hands of bureaucrats, been put into the hands of big
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Everything is centralized behind just a few people who kind of bring this whole process together.
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And one of the ideas about bringing McCarthy in was he was promising to end this.
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Obviously, we know that the Republicans did not shut down the government.
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They went ahead and decided to pass a bill that would keep the government open for like
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45 days or whatever, keep all the money flowing.
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And so this was kind of seen as the final straw, the final failure by Gates and many members
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of his caucus, who then turned around and gave Democrats enough votes that they needed to
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Now, again, this has a lot of people very angry, especially people in the Republican establishment,
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even some people who are against a lot of what's going on with the Republican establishment were
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still very frustrated because they saw this as a failure to govern.
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They saw this as as a petulant child striking out and getting revenge at somebody and and
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just attacking leadership just for the sake of attacking leadership.
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They didn't think there was a real political goal behind this.
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This smacks of people who only want to tear things down, have no interest in actually building
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things up. This is the attack that many people have leveled at Gates and those who decided to
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Oh, you're not really helping advance the conservative agenda or anything with the Republican
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You're just helping Democrats get rid of their enemy.
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This has kind of been the storyline that a lot of people have had behind this.
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And in some ways I can understand this, though, it's funny because a lot of these people
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are way more angry, especially the never Trumpers or the very establishment conservatives.
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They're far more angry about McCarthy being removed as Speaker than they are with Trump
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being indicted. So they have McCarthy who gave this deal like he made this deal.
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He made himself specifically vulnerable to removal for the ability to be held accountable.
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That was the whole reason that the deal was structured in this way and that the vote could
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be put forward this way. And then he didn't deliver on certain parts of the promise.
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Now, maybe you could say, oh, well, he delivered on some or it's not prudent.
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Those are reasonable arguments, I guess, to make. But the point is that there was a real
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consequence for his inability to lead and to bring things forward in the manner he said he
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was going to, as where Trump is literally just being prosecuted for the purpose of getting rid of
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political opposition by the regime. The regime is wielding, you know, the law enforcement
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powers, the judicial powers against somebody just because they happen to be the most prominent
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candidate on the right, the opposition party of the GOP. And they seem really more angry about the
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fact that McCarthy was removed than the fact that the guy who is the most powerful opponent,
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the most prominent opponent of the sitting president of the United States is being indicted.
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So really interesting way that we're distributing outrage here. But again, I don't think there's
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no argument that's reasonable for people who wanted McCarthy to stay, who did not like this move.
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But I just thought it was interesting, the amount of outrage we saw from certain sectors
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of those who are representing this. Now, to the point of, is this just Gates wanting to be a rebel?
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Does he just want to burn down things? Is this kind of MAGA caucus? Are they just out for revenge?
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Do they really have any political aims? I think we have to look at McCarthy. Okay. I chose this
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picture for a reason. McCarthy's on the floor with a lot of, to be fair, many, many different
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Republican representatives, of course, along with Democratic representatives. And it's not about
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America. It's not about displaying your loyalty to America. It's how much loyalty you can display
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to Ukraine. And I think in a lot of ways, that is very representative of this era of Republican
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politics. That really shows a lot of people what's going on here. People who were angry at the system
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definitely voted Trump. That is a huge part of what Trump was. He was a reaction to this. A lot of
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people want to go back and they want to speculate about, oh, Trump wasn't a good leader. He wasn't that
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smart in office. He didn't get certain things done. He didn't behave himself well. Well, he failed
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definitely during COVID. All those things are legitimate criticism. Those are all true about
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Trump. I don't think Trump is a great statesman. I don't think he's some kind of Messiah figure.
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I don't think he's somebody who even is particularly competent in certain roles. So I understand why a lot
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of people have backlash towards him. I'm not against people having backlash towards him. What I want
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people to understand, the thing that I'm constantly trying to encourage people to understand is what
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Trump was, what he represented, what he meant. Look, some mediocre, you know, kind of buffoonish,
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self-centered guy who's a host of a TV show, a reality TV show, doesn't become president in the United
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States through a series of accidents. Okay. There was a message behind this. It's not just the voters
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are dumb. That that's the wrong thing to take away from the Trump presidency. It's understanding
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what Trump was. He was a middle finger to the establishment. People who would say, I would rather
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vote for this guy who will say a few things that I really care about and will honestly try on a few
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levels to advance the ideas and the issues I care about and will actually show love and dedication to
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my country. I will vote for him over you, even though you're far more polished, you're far more
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accomplished. You have all the bona fides, you have all the policies and procedures and everything down
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because I don't trust you. I've seen your process. I've seen the establishment go through its process.
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I've seen your experts. I've seen your well-educated people, your well-spoken people. I've seen you
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with your different documents from different think tanks and bringing all your ideas forward and going
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through this process and you betray me every single time. You lie to me every single time. When the
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chips are down, you show that you are far more interested in retaining power to being on the side
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of high-powered lobbyists, special interest groups, big money, and other people who can provide
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corporate benefits, all these things that will give you what you want, the status, the money,
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the reputation back home. You are far more interested in being part of the system
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and defending the system. And no matter what you tell me about my issues, at the end of the day,
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you're just going to keep going back to that. I've seen this before and I'm going to elect this guy.
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And this guy, he may not have any of that stuff. He might be ridiculous, but what he is doing is
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telling you that you are illegitimate, that you are fake, that you are liars. And he's telling me
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that he cares about issues that you would never touch. And he's talking about them in a way that I
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understand and the way that connects with the people around me. Again, that doesn't endorse
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everything Trump did in office. It doesn't mean that he didn't make major mistakes. He obviously
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did. It doesn't mean that he doesn't have massive flaws in character. He actually does. Okay. But we
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need to understand what the MAGA movement is. Because if you don't understand what the MAGA movement
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is, then you could be very confused about how this is all working.
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So again, a lot of people, even people, you know, of course, establishment Republicans are furious at
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this. Of course, never Trump Republicans are furious at this. How could you possibly remove
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our milk toast, you know, run of the mill guy who's just going to maintain the status quo? They're very
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angry about that. But to be fair, and again, I want to give people their due because there are people
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who are respect who don't like this move. And for them, they're saying Republicans are refusing to
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govern. The MAGA coalition is refusing to govern. They're just striking out. They're just being angry.
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They just run revenge against the establishment. Even when some of these people aren't part of the
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establishment, they're just going out to hurt something and strike something and they don't
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care. And that's what happened here. Now, there's a lot of inside baseball here. Again, I think on the
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face of it, McCarthy just didn't keep his promises. And to that point, you could just hold him
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accountable there. And I think Gates is probably within his right to make that argument. Again,
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maybe you don't think those, the breaking of those promises is severe enough. Maybe you think
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the continuing resolution process is just a part of life and it's going to continue in perpetuity
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and shutting down the government is a failing move for Republicans optically. I think there's probably
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good strategic arguments for that. And so you're just making a practical argument here.
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But here's the issue. And this is really what people who are trying to make that argument need to
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understand. That when you try to make practical arguments, when you try to make arguments that say
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we need to move the ball further down the field and it's about the process, you have to show real
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results. And you have to show people that what they care about matters to you. People will only trust
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you to move the ball down the field, you know, by inches if you've shown them that you are actually
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committed to doing something that matters in their life. And when people, especially those who voted
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for Trump, especially that MAGA coalition, look at people like Kevin McCarthy with his Ukraine pen on
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and his Ukraine flag kerchief in his pocket, they don't see somebody who's fighting for them.
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Kevin McCarthy is not somebody who has consistently shown deep ability to connect with the base,
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deep ability to connect with the MAGA crowd. He is not somebody who has communicated the shared values
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between him and the Republican voters. And they are sick and tired of people who will not do this.
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There's no big changes happening at the border. There's no big changes happening on things like
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the war in Ukraine. People are sick and tired of this stuff. They want this over. Now, obviously,
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the House of Representatives by itself cannot do all of those things. But what they can do is use the
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power of the purse. That's the one thing that they can continuously do without needing to have
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approval from the courts or the Senate or the president. They can continuously put pressure
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through that ability to wield the budget on the rest of the government. But they refuse to do it.
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The FBI, we've just found out, again, we already knew this. But the FBI, again, Newsweek just recently
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had another piece about how different parts of the security state apparatus are targeting people who
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are Trump voters, targeting MAGA loyalists, right? We already know that they're the FBI sending people
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into Catholic church services because they have the wrong prayers being said or they're adhering to the
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old Latin mass. We already know that they target people like parents who don't want their kids trans
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and are protesting at school board meetings. We already know that so many of these government
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organizations are deeply corrupt, targeting the political opponents of their current masters,
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going out of their way to shut down political opposition in the United States while it pretends
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to be a free country, while it pretends to care about democracy, while it pretends to care about the rule
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of law, while it pretends to care about the voice of the people. They know about this already, okay?
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They already know these violations are going on. And what do they do? They just keep giving these
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people money. They keep signing on to fork over money and pay every one of these agents who is destroying
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their voters and destroying the people who wanted them to represent them. That's what he's doing.
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He's shipping endless money to Ukraine. He's making no serious moves about the border or anything else.
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And everybody knows it. Everybody knows this truth. And so when people look at guys like Kevin McCarthy,
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they say, we're done with this. We are done with this. I don't care if the Republicans can't govern
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in this scenario. They can't govern anyway. And when they do govern, all they do is hand money over to
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our enemies. All they do is hand money over to people who want to destroy us or launder our tax
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dollars through their defense contractor buddies and through all of their Ukrainian oligarch connections
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into a place that has no relationship to our national security, just so they can continue to inflate our
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money, make things worthless, make it harder and harder for people to make a living in the United States.
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That's who the Republicans are. That's what they do. They're not an opposition party. They're not
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providing any real pushback against these people. They are going to destroy our liberty. They are
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going to take our money. They're going to send that money to their corrupt friends. They are going to
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funnel all that money to all the agencies that are seeking to destroy the very people who vote for them.
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So yes, this is about revenge. And yes, MAGA loyalists will continue to bring that attitude
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to the Republican establishment until something is done because nothing is getting done and everybody
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knows it. So sitting around and saying, we don't look responsible. We don't look like we're all on the
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These people do not represent the country. They do not represent conservatives. They do not represent
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the GOP. They do not represent the wider Republican voting base, and they do not represent the right.
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That is not who these people are. They are spoiled, corrupt swamp creatures. That's all there is to it.
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Again, I understand the desire to have a disciplined, responsible Republican party who can get out there
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and get things done on the behalf of the people. But that is not what we have. And pretending like
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it's what we have, just because we show some moments of unity or professionalism, that's ridiculous.
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These people should have rhetorical bombs thrown at them. They should be harried from the vanguard.
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Okay? Yeah, I get it. Right now, you know, AOC is backing Joe Biden. She's showing her ability to be
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behind what they're doing. But you know why? That's because the Biden administration is already going
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to do everything she wants. Yeah, they might not do it as fast as she wants, but she's going to get
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everything she wants from the people in leadership. If she wasn't, she would be holding these people
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accountable. And you've seen this before. The left does do this. The left vanguard has held
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their mainstream party accountable. They have held up proceedings. They have launched insurgencies
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inside the party to make sure that they conform to what the radical part of the party wants.
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Well, guess what? Conservatives need to learn a lesson from that. Okay? I'm sorry. But moderate
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Republicans are not going to get anything done. Establishment Republicans are not going to get
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anything done. They're going to continue to double down on this failed strategy. They're going to continue
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to fund organizations that want to destroy the people that they're supposed to be protecting.
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They're going to continue to ship tax dollars to foreign wars that we have no interest in being
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involved in. Nobody wants to be a part of this who's part of the MAGA coalition. And I'm sorry,
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but if the Republican party is just the party of rubber stamping the Democrats ideology, if they are just
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as Michael Malice says, just the left going the speed limit, if that's all that the Republicans can be,
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then they deserve to lose power. And the people who should be removing them for power should be
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their vanguard, should be the MAGA coalition, should be people who don't want to continue to
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see this. If you don't put pressure on leadership, if you don't show them real consequences for falling
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short, they will continue to do so. Now, again, you can quibble over whether or not you like Matt
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Gates. You can make decisions about whether or not you think that McCarthy's inability to bring
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certain things forward was enough for him to remove. Those are fair talking points. You can have
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that discussion. But if you do not understand that the MAGA coalition will continue to be outraged
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and will continue to push back against this kind of stuff, then you don't understand what Trump was.
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And you don't understand the magnitude of change that needs to occur. I'm all for better governance.
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But you need to understand that the system has to be shaken to its core before this happens.
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This is not about small little changes to what's going on that are going to fix this. You're not
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going to have a slightly better appropriations process or slightly better different committee
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assignments. And all of a sudden things will snap into place. There needs to be a major fear of the
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base, a major fear of falling short of what real conservatives want. Okay. What real people on the
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right want. If you do not have that fear instilled in these representatives of the fact that if they
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do not deliver, they will be removed from power, then nothing's going to happen. If you do not as a party
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have the ability to discipline the leadership and say no to them, if you as a movement can't go to your
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leadership and say, you will get removed if you do not do these basic things we want you to do.
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If you can't display primary loyalty to the United States, if you're wearing other countries'
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flags, I want you out. Period. That's it. That's all I care about. I'm sorry. And that should be
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sufficient. That's enough. That's not a ridiculous stance to take. If you cannot show primary loyalty
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to the United States and the people you are supposed to represent, if you are not willing to go to bat and
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shut down corrupt institutions that are applying the law incorrectly, that are using this biased
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justice system to attack your very voting base and your main candidate for president, if you do not
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have the ability to do that, if you do not have the dedication to do that, then I'm sorry, but you
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deserve what's coming. Until you grasp that, your own base is going to continue to throw you out. I hope
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they do. I hope his message is sent. You have to care about these people. Yes, I understand. Some
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of the people who come in with the Freedom Caucus and the MAGA coalition, they're not the most
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professional. They don't have the biggest strategy. That's fine. Guess what? The professional people
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with the strategy have failed over and over and over again. Sorry, but you need some discipline. Yes,
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I'm behind having a real professional set of guys who can get things done. But that only matters once you
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are dedicated to this cause. And until then, you deserve to be stripped of power and you deserve
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MAGA coalition members. You deserve conservatives. You deserve real right wingers be coming after and
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saying, you have to get this stuff done. You have to stand on these principles. You have to represent me.
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And if you don't do that, you are out of power. This is something that the conservative movement has to
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do. This is something that the right has to do. You're not willing to go after a completely corrupt,
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completely useless leadership, then nothing will ever change.