Blame the System Not the Individual

Blame the System Not the Individual

Al Ritter 

Yesterday John Boehner was voted in as the next speaker of the House of Representatives. 25 Republicans didn’t vote for the Ohio Congressman, and that was surprising to me that so many would knowingly put their political careers in peril.

If you somehow believe that voting in a Speaker of the House is merely a simple vote and life goes on you are either naïve or you have over simplified the process. To begin with both sides of the aisle vote in this election, and the Speaker of the House doesn’t even need to be an elected official at all! Although these are the rules the probability of that happening are slim to none. 

Because the Speaker of the House makes recommendations for assignments to committees the system is ripe for cronyism. This is nothing new, Nancy Pelosi wielded the same power with the same viciousness aimed to weed out all who weren’t loyal to her. Those she saw as disloyal were relegated to minor roles in committees and sub committees, thereby reducing that individual’s possibility of climbing up through the ranks. 

John Boehner is no different, he knew before the vote was even taken who his loyal friends were and who his Conservative enemies were. He is already formulating his retribution to those he considers “unfriendly.” He also knows that a vote of “present” or missing the vote all together is assign that that person isn’t 100% loyal to him. 

Understand this …….only 3 new Congressional Republicans voted against Boehner Obviously the others were warned ahead of time that if they didn’t vote for Boehner their future careers in the House would be in question.  

Folks this election has NOTHING to do with us it is merely an internal power struggle within the House. Does this dilute the signal we had sent to Washington in the mid-terms? Of course it did! Am I personally upset about this internal election? Damn right I am! 

John Boehner and Mitch McConnell have both blatantly and disrespectfully spit in the eye of every Conservative voter in America, but the question is how can we change this in the future? Obviously if we can’t have an effect on the outcome of an internal House vote then we need to that individual, but even that is no guarantee we as Tea Party voters will be represented in the next Congress. 

However what we CAN do is get more and more Tea Party Conservatives elected to both the House and Senate so their numbers will be sufficient to force the GOP to make moves farther to the right and actually include them in decisions. 

Don’t be mad at individuals who didn’t vote against Boehner because they know how that system works and what it takes to obtain a position of the GOP hierarchy so that they will eventually wield some degree of power.