#1588 The Shutdown That Wasn't And The Chaos That Is: The far-right of the GOP has been intent on not governing for a long time and eating their own, like McCarthy most recently, is their go-to maneuver.
Best of the Left - Leftist Perspectives on Progressive Politics, News, Culture, Economics and Democracy
Jay Tomlinson
4.5 • 3.4K Ratings
🗓️ 13 October 2023
⏱️ 60 minutes
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Summary
Air Date 10/13/2023
Understanding the historical context of the civil war within the GOP as they have just fought their way out of being able to govern at all with an empty Speakership in the house that is grinding congress to a halt.
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SHOW NOTES
Ch. 1: Shutshow - Today, Explained - Air Date 10-2-23
The US government is open for business at the cost of Ukraine aid. Semafor’s Jordan Weissmann explains how we got here. And White House communications director Ben LaBolt explains how the Biden administration is justifying the compromise.
“It’s a crisis entirely of Kevin McCarthy’s own making,” says our guest Sasha Abramsky, the West Coast correspondent for The Nation.
At a virtual town hall, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) spoke about the ouster of Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) from the Speaker role, which every Democratic lawmaker in the House voted for.
Ch. 4: The House that Newt Built: The Rise of Matt Gaetz Part 1 - UNFTR - Air Date 10-7-23
Max struggles to understand exactly what Matt Gaetz is after, but has his suspicions. Regardless of the right-wing endgame, this week’s fiasco was made possible by Newt Gingrich in the 1990s.
Ch. 5: Through the Gaetz of Hell - Straight White American Jesus - Air Date 10-6-23
Brad begins with an analytical discussion of political nihilism in order to provide a window into the chaos in Congress created by the ouster of Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
Ch. 6: The House that Newt Built: The Rise of Matt Gaetz Part 2 - UNFTR - Air Date 10-7-23
MEMBERS-ONLY BONUS CLIP(S)
Ch. 7: Why Our Politics Are Stuck In 2016 - FiveThirtyEight Politics - Air Date 9-25-23
In this installment of the FiveThirtyEight Politics podcast, Galen Druke speaks with American politics professor Lynn Vavreck to help make sense of how we got here.
Ch. 8: Who Will Replace Kevin McCarthy - The Brian Lehrer Show - Air Date 10-6-23
Since a faction of far-right Republicans ousted Kevin McCarthy as speaker, Luke Broadwater, congressional reporter for The New York Times, talks about the candidates vying to replace him.
Ch. 9: It's Now Or Never For The GOP Candidates - FiveThirtyEight Politics - Air Date 9-28-23
The crew reacts to the second Republican presidential primary debate in this late-night podcast.
FINAL COMMENTS
Ch. 10: Final comments on what divides the parties from each other and from within
MUSIC (Blue Dot Sessions)
SHOW IMAGE:
Description: A caricature of former Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy standing in front of the seal of the U.S. House of Representatives.
Credit: “Kevin McCarthy - Caricature” by DonkeyHotey, Flickr | License: CC By 2.0 DEED | Changes: Cropped
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to this episode of the award winning best of the left podcast in which we shall |
| 0:07.2 | take a look at the historic context of the civil war within the GOP as they have just fought |
| 0:13.5 | their way out of being able to govern at all with an empty speakership in the house that |
| 0:18.3 | is grinding Congress to a halt. |
| 0:21.1 | Sources today include today explained democracy now, a virtual town hall with AOC on effing |
| 0:28.0 | the Republic, straight white American Jesus, and 538 politics, with additional members |
| 0:33.9 | only clips from the Brian Lairer show and 538 politics. |
| 0:44.4 | There are a few different things that the Freedom Caucus wanted and I should be specific. |
| 0:48.2 | Yes, it's the Freedom Caucus, but because Republican politics are infinitely complicated, |
| 0:53.1 | it's like a fractal. |
| 0:54.1 | You keep looking and they're just repeated patterns forever. |
| 0:57.3 | Some of the hardliners in the Freedom Caucus, some are not like gates, but he's sort of |
| 1:01.3 | temperamentally aligned with them. |
| 1:03.0 | He's freedom curious. |
| 1:04.2 | He's freedom curious, some like Marjorie Taylor Greene have been booted from the Freedom |
| 1:08.3 | Caucus because she was too close to leadership at points, she was too close to McCarthy, but |
| 1:13.2 | then she became a pain for him later on. |
| 1:15.2 | I mean, this dynamic is especially fascinating because Marjorie Taylor Greene is one of the |
| 1:19.4 | most pro-Trump pro-magga members of the House and the Freedom Caucus has long been considered |
| 1:25.0 | like one of Trump's top allies in the House. |
| 1:27.6 | Anyway, let's just talk about what they actually were looking for. |
| 1:30.5 | They wanted a lot. |
... |
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