TLDR: Mike Johnson hates proxy voting in congress. Some republican wanted to allow new parents to be able to use proxy voting. One of them is trying to force a vote on it
Mike Johnson tried changing the rules to not allow that, but 9 republicans joined dems to block his attempt. He’s pissed about it and canceling tons of votes because of it
For those uncertain, it means that suddenly Johnson isn’t so sure he has the votes to pass his agenda, and now the Republican party will meet behind closed doors to negotiate or intimidate members try to bring the “rogue votes” to heel.
I predict more and more votes in both the House and Senate are going to go this way as the rats begin to flee the MAGA sinking ship. As ashamed as Democrats should be of their performance and platform last election, Trump and Congress (and DOGE) have already done some deeply unpopular things. And I think threatening social security might be the straw (or in this case, the thermonuclear device) that breaks the camel’s back.
The swing voters and non-voters, surprise surprise, it seems voted in ignorance of MAGA’s very clear plans to destroy as much of America’s institutions as possible. Institutions relied upon disproportionately by the Republican base and the ignorant swing voters. In my humble opinion, main stream media and social media needs a lot of the blame here for sane-washing last election cycle.
Now we get to see if the DNC leadership sees this as a natural pendulum swing and sits back and continues to learn nothing, or if the growing discontent in the party will continue to gain steam and the leadership continues to get pressure to change.
Hopefully the progressive element in the party continues their momentum. Getting the DNC chair and Schumer’s recent blowback are glimmers of hope.
Much as I would love a true progressive party, in the current system I think we have to settle for a democratic party acting as a coalition of anti-Republican/MAGA factions until we can fix our fptp voting system.
my rep is the democrat cosponsor and i couldn’t be more proud