Quote of the Day

What’s fascinating about the new [U.S.] House majority, what makes it a great story, is how it embodies all the worst elements of what the Republican Party and conservative movement have become: anti-democratic, corrupt, unmoored from principle, ungovernable, uninterested in governing, cruel, and destructive – while also being comically absurd.

– David Kurtz
Excerpted from “The Arsonists Plan to Investigate the Firefighters”
Talking Points Memo
January 3, 2023

Related Off-site Links:
At Least 3 House GOP Leaders Who Dodged January 6 Committee Subpoenas Plan to Haul In Witnesses for Their Own Investigations in the 118th Congress – Warren Rojas (Business Insider, January 2, 2023).
118th Congress Convenes as GOP’s Kevin McCarthy Struggles to Clinch House Speaker Role – CounterPunch (January 3, 2023).
McCarthy’s Tacit Vote of Confidence in George Santos Is a True Sign of Trumpian Times – Sasha Abramsky (TruthOut, January 3, 2023).
The End of a Hopeless, Hapless Republican Party – Robert Reich (RobertReich.Substack.com via Common Dreams, January 3, 2023).
Will GOP Voters Ever Wake Up to How Much GOP Lawmakers Screw Them Over? – Thom Hartmann (Common Dreams, January 3, 2023).
Rep. Adam Kinzinger Says He Believes Justice Department “Will Do the Right Thing” and Charge Trump Over January 6 – Summer Concepcion (NBC News, January 1, 2023).
Trump’s Next Coup Has Already Begun – Barton Gellman (The Atlantic, December 6, 2022).
Get Ready for the Coming Impeachment of Joe Biden: The GOP Is Ready to Again Beclown American Democracy – Jeet Heer (The Nation, November 4, 2022).
Trump’s Second Term Would Look Like This – Jonathan Rauch (The Atlantic, August 29, 2022).

UPDATES: Welcome to the MAGA Crackup – Charlie Sykes (The Bulwark, January 3, 2023).
“The GOP Is Irretrievably Broken”: House Adjourns After McCarthy Fails to Win Speakership – Common Dreams (January 3, 2023).
Burning Down The House – Dan Rather and Elliot Kirschner (Steady, January 4, 2023).
Did Kevin McCarthy Open the Door for Pro-Insurrectionist Republicans to Block Him as House Speaker? – Democracy Now! (January 4, 2023).
It’s Official: McCarthy Loses a Fifth Round – Dana Farrington (NPR News, January 4, 2023).
This Was Supposed to Be Kevin McCarthy’s Moment. Instead, GOP Chaos Reigns – Domenico Montanaro (NPR News, January 4, 2023).
Kevin McCarthy Is Elected House Speaker After 15 Votes and Days of Negotiations – Barbara Sprunt and Susan Davis (NPR News, January 6, 2023).
House GOP Passes Bill to Slash IRS Funding in First Act of New Congress – Erin Doherty (Axios News, January 10, 2023).
As Republicans Start Investigating Biden, the White House War Room Is Ready to Fight – Tamara Keith (NPR News, February 27, 2023).

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Chauncey Devega on the Ongoing Danger of the Trump Cult
• Progressive Perspectives on the U.S. Midterm Election Results
• Historian Nancy MacLean: The Threat to American Democracy Is at “Red-Alert”
• Jelani Cobb: Quote of the Day – September 4, 2022
• “Come for the Racism, Stay for the Autocracy”
• William D. Lindsey: Quote of the Day – August 12, 2022
• “How Can One Overreact to a Mortal Threat to American Democracy?”
• A Deeper Perspective on What’s Really Attacking Democracy
• Republicans Pose an “Existential Threat” to American Democracy
• The Big Switch
• The Republican Party in a Nutshell
• Republicans Don’t Care About American Democracy
• “The Republican Party Has Now Made It Official: They Are a Cult”
• “We Must Challenge the Entire System”

Image: Kristen Solberg.