Republican Revolution Of 1994

The House Speakership Continues Downhill Under Republican Control

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The Speaker of the House of Representatives is second in line of succession to the Presidency under the Presidential Succession Act of 1947.

Sadly, under Republican majority leadership periods, the Speakership has been going steadily downhill in competence, accomplishments, and even common decency.

In the past thirty years since the Republican “Revolution” in the midterm elections of 1994 under President Bill Clinton, we have had now six Republican Speakers, and only one Democratic Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, who was a true star and extremely accomplished leader from 2007-2011 and 2019-2023.

The rest of those years, we have had one disaster after another from the following chronological list of Republican Speakers:

Newt Gingrich 1995-1999
Dennis Hastert 1999-2007
John Boehner 2011-October 2015
Paul Ryan October 2015-2019
Kevin McCarthy January 2023-October 2023
Mike Johnson October 2023-Present

Each one was horrendous and divisive, but Mike Johnson seems to have lowered the reputation of the office ever further.

Hopefully, Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic House leader will ascend to the Speakership in January 2025!

Fareed Zakaria CNN Special From May 2021 Updated: “A Radical Rebellion: The Transformation Of The GOP”

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The Welfare State–Secularism—changing racial situation.

Fareed Zakaria on a CNN Special today, updated from May 2021, entitled “A Radical Rebellion: The Transformation of the GOP”, presented an analysis of the disaster that the Republican Party has become:

in an era of conservatism attacking the concept of the Franklin D. Roosevelt New Deal and the Lyndon B. Johnson Great Society;

allowing Right Wing evangelical Christianity and theocracy to take over the party in the name of God;

and working against the reality that the white majority face a future in America of minority racial groups together being a majority of the population in about 2040-2045.

He covers from the John Birch Society in the 1950s;
to William F. Buckley, Jr and the National Review;
to Barry Goldwater and the conservative takeover in 1964, leading to massive victory of Lyndon B. Johnson and the Great Society;
to Richard Nixon and the “Southern Strategy”in 1968;
to Jerry Falwell and the “Christian Coalition” and the “Moral Majority” in the late 1970s and early 1980s;
to Ronald Reagan and the “Reagan Coalition” in the 1980s;
to Pat Buchanan’s challenge of George H W Bush in 1992;
to Newt Gingrich and the “Republican Revolution” of 1994 and after;
to the promotion of right wing propaganda and lies by Fox News Channel starting in 1996;
to George W. Bush and Dick Cheney in the 2000s;
to the Tea Party Movement rise under Barack Obama’s Presidency;
to the rise of Donald Trump in 2015-2016;
to the “Big Lie” about the Presidential Election of 2020;
to the January 6, 2021 US Capitol Insurrection;
to the present extremism in the Congressional and State Republican parties in 2021;
to the constant threat to women’s rights, including abortion;
to the right wing rejection of Gerald Ford, George H. W. Bush, Bob Dole, John McCain, and Mitt Romney as not conservative enough;
and the growing racism, nativism, antisemitism, Islamophobia, misogyny, and homophobia that have become alarming realities for the future of American politics!

Past Bipartisan Actions: Can This Happen Again As Joe Biden Hopes For, Or Is This A Mirage?

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In the past, despite political party conflict on beliefs and principles, we saw bipartisan actions and crossing party lines to accomplish major goals.

Here are four examples of such situations since World War II where a President of one party and a Congressional leader of the opposition party cooperated, and brought along other votes from their party to back the President of the opposition party.

When Democratic President Harry Truman was in office, and the Cold War with the Soviet Union was evolving, Truman was able to gain key Republican support from the Republican Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in the 80th Congress, Senator Arthur Vandenberg of Michigan, for the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan in 1947-1948.

When Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower was in office, he was able to work cooperatively with the Democratic leaders of both houses of Congress from 1955-1961 on many matters. Speaker of the House Sam Rayburn and Senate Majority Leader Lyndon B. Johnson, both from Texas, worked across the party lines in many situations, particularly on the first Civil Rights Acts (1957 and 1960) since Reconstruction after the Civil War.

When Democratic President Lyndon B. Johnson was in office, he was able to gain support of Republican Senate Minority Leader Everett Dirksen of Illinois on gaining necessary support on the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and Medicare passage in 1965.

When Republican President Ronald Reagan was in office, he was able to come to an agreement with Democratic Speaker of the House Thomas “Tip” O’Neill to protect Social Security long term by a bipartisan agreement in 1983.

Since the 1990s and the hardline partisanship of the Republican Party and then Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich in the Republican Revolution of 1994, we have seen unwillingness by that party to have any willingness to cross party lines, and his early efforts were also pursued by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell right up to the present!

So President Elect Joe Biden’s publicly expressed hopes for bipartisan actions in these disastrous times to be accomplished, is it a mirage? We shall find out soon!

Essential That Congress Pass Law Banning Government Shutdowns Now!

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The Republican Party is guilty of provoking government shutdowns as a regular tactic in the past 25 years, since the time when Newt Gingrich and the Republican Revolution came to power in the 1994 Midterm Elections under Bill Clinton.

It has undermined respect in our government, and hurt many people in the process, and it should never happen again.

Any attempt of any President to force a government shutdown should be opposed by both parties, ready to override a Presidential veto by a two thirds vote.

Since Federal Government workers are not permitted to strike, therefore the Congress has a responsibility to make it illegal to ever disrupt the nation as it has, due to Donald Trump, Mitch McConnell, and the Republican Party unwilling to keep their oath of office.

Effectively, they have been committing lawlessness, and hopefully, many will be wiped out of Congress in 2020.

Newt Gingrich: The “Flame Thrower” Thinks He Can Unite America! The Master Of Deception And Duplicity!

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Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich is clearly ahead in many public opinion polls for the Republican Presidential nomination, and contends he can “unite” America! Is there any more ridiculous assertion than that from the original Congressional “flame thrower”?

Newt has made his career on dividing people, using nasty tactics, a “taking no prisoners” approach, a master of deception and duplicity, issuing reckless statements, advocating unethical and illegal ideas, and fooling people when he actually practices what he preaches!

Ask those who were part of the Republican Revolution of 1994, when Gingrich led the GOP into House control, as to whether they support their former leader and comrade, and you then know how much they became disillusioned with him, and brought ethics violations against him in 1998, and forced him out as Speaker of the House after a tumultuous four years.

Ask those who know him best as to his hypocrisy, and willingness to sacrifice anyone in his mad quest for attention and power, and you discover he has few friends in the political establishment.

As President, he would be full of ideas and talk more to the people than anyone in modern Presidential history, but he would very quickly be seen as abusing his powers as President, alienate Congress even if it was a Republican majority, engage us in multiple foreign wars as George W. Bush did, expand federal authority over our lives in social terms and eavesdropping, and make the Supreme Court so right wing that it would be a hopeless situation for anyone who is not rich and powerful, for the next thirty years!

Newt Gingrich may be engaging personally, but he is obnoxious, egotistical, narcissistic, infuriating, and dangerous to the reputation of the Presidency, and the civil liberties and civil rights of the American people!

He must be stopped at all costs as a threat to America’s image in the world and to our own self image. He would be worse than Richard Nixon, although in some ways, he resembles the former President in tactics and mentality!