Fewer than half of House Republicans bothered to attend Speaker Mike Johnson’s retreat

It’s wild what a few short months of actually getting to know a person can do to your opinion of them. That’s what House Republicans seem to have learned since October, when they replaced the glad-handing Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., with smarmy fundamentalist Rep. Mike Johnson, R-La., for the Speaker of the House role. Johnson’s election was treated like a big win at the time. Republicans were unified in cheering and chanting “Mike! Mike!” like they were celebrating a championship-winning quarterback, instead of a guy who serves creepy youth pastor vibes.

Johnson’s popularity lasted as long as an embarrassing dance craze, however. It hasn’t been five months and already Johnson’s colleagues are pulling the Mariah Carey “I don’t know her” bit. Tuesday, CNN reported that fewer than 100 House Republicans bothered to RSVP for their congressional retreat in West Virginia this week, meaning that less than half the caucus showed up.

  • @reddig33
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    719 months ago

    If the party splits, maybe we’ll finally get a push for ranked choice voting.

      • @[email protected]
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        129 months ago

        Lol if a GOP schism is what finally kills FPTP in the US… well, it’d be an unexpected win from an unexpected source, but I’d take it.

        • @SteveCC
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          69 months ago

          Right, IMO First Past The Post being good enough has led to more partisanship, extremism and polarization. It has increased the power of money and decreased the power of We the People.

      • @ChonkyOwlbear
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        9 months ago

        I tried way too long to remember which candidate’s initials were RCV. I need to go to sleep…

        • @SteveCC
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          19 months ago

          Ranked Choice Voting

  • Optional
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    699 months ago

    Note that Ken Buck is a Tea Partier. He’s tapping out because MAGA is too shit-for-brains even for him.

    The author of the “Blue Lives Matter bill” said these motherfuckers are the worst.

    • Jesus
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      359 months ago

      I wonder if the State of the Union was the tipping point for him. You had MTG, looking and behaving like Randy Marsh at a kid’s baseball game. That’s where the party is now.

  • @[email protected]
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    509 months ago

    The one saving grace is that you can always, always trust fascists to begin in-fighting at a moment’s notice.

    • partial_accumen
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      339 months ago

      When a group joins together based on “purity” against all others, they eventually look at each other and find each other’s purity lacking.

      • @[email protected]
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        129 months ago

        Purity about who to hate, which of course leads to more and more hate that is eventually directed to others in the group!

      • peopleproblems
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        99 months ago

        See that’s you step in and fan the flames. Make up shit.

        I’m so white I burn when it’s cloudy. Look at Mr. Sun Tan showing off his impure equitorian flesh trying to say his idea is the best when he clearly lacks the brains to try.

        Listen to Mr. Squeak. His balls never dropped quite right, and his kids are “y’know what I mean”.

  • @Zombiepirate
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    419 months ago

    These same people were griping to Politico last month that Johnson’s presentation at the last weekend retreat ignored pertinent-to-members issues like how to win re-election and grow their majority. Instead, “Johnson effectively delivered a sermon” about “declining church membership and the nation’s shrinking religious identity.” They’re just mad that they have to suffer the lives they’re seeking to forcibly inflict on the rest of us.

    After fifty years of pushing for theocracy these dim bulbs have finally actually thought about the ramifications.

    • @whereisk
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      169 months ago

      They don’t give a shit about theocracy or anything else, they only care about power and money, there is no core idea they won’t abandon and their rhetoric is as bendy as a wet noodle - they simply didn’t sign up to lose, and this guy doesn’t look like he’s helping them win.

      • @CharlesDarwin
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        19 months ago

        Mike Johnson is suuuuuch a creepy weirdo that even the magats are getting the willies from him.

  • Nougat
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    329 months ago

    When your whole “thing” is hate-based, this is inevitable.

    • @whygohomie
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      129 months ago

      Purity-based movements that use hate as a weapon inevitably end in circular firing squads.

  • @MegaUltraChicken
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    199 months ago

    Good. We hate them too. How about every single member of the GOP fucks off?

    • FuglyDuck
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      69 months ago

      except that one guy that…uh… did something. Uh.

      never mind. maybe he’s just an imaginary sock puppet.

      oh well.

      • @[email protected]
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        59 months ago

        Even the Republicans that have been primaried for not going along with the MAGA cult are terrible people who just hit their limit of being terrible.

  • @AllonzeeLV
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    9 months ago

    The Republican brand is hatred, and has been as long as I’ve been alive.

    Not exactly stable bedrock for fostering cooperation.

    • @CharlesDarwin
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      19 months ago

      Cruelty is the point and it is nearly inevitable they are going to turn some of that on each other.

  • @AshMan85
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    129 months ago

    Good, gooood. Let the hate flow within you!

  • @Eldritch
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    109 months ago

    It was never a good thing that everyone else had a monopoly on this. Sadly I think this self loathing still won’t cause the need introspection.

  • @Potatos_are_not_friends
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    99 months ago

    Oh no. Looks like they’re gonna Jan6 and nazi parade/send death threats to each other now?

  • @[email protected]
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    9 months ago

    In a pit such as the GOP, it’s hard to know where one snake ends and another begins. But I’m all for it devouring itself all the same.

  • @foggy
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    49 months ago

    Fracture baby, fracture.

  • @CharlesDarwin
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    19 months ago

    This is one of the least surprising outcomes. How many mean girls get along?