For those of us who are learning the rather peculiar language used in government (especially in Congress and in law), I thought that perhaps some explanation would be good to have. Even if you have “heard of it” before, a refresher can be good for you. My father tried to teach us this stuff, but we were kids at the time and our eyes tended to glaze over after a while. Don’t get me wrong. Both of us enjoyed learning about law and my sibling even has an Ivy League degree in it. We just had other interests, too.
The “discharge petition” is a method (not a piece of paper, although there will be documentation of the event) by which members of a committee or caucus can get their measure past the gatekeepers and out to the next stage of the process for a vote. It DOES require a majority of the votes of the members of whatever group you are talking about to force the issue. Since the Democrats are in the minority, of course, that they MUST convince at least some of the Republican members to vote with them. This means that some members of the Republican side suddenly cannot eat, walk, work, or (presumably) do anything without their new BFFs. They’re getting calls from the White House, the Cabinet, lobbyists, their side, and the Democrats morning, noon, and night. Until this is decided, the pressure will only mount.
These things ARE NOT tried very often, and even when they are, they have a low success rate. That’s only about a 10% success rate. There’s a reason that politicians don’t like to try to use them. Politicians want to be seen as winners and they would prefer that image to be 100% of the time if possible, but that’s not going to happen. This kind of success rate? Ummm, no. If you know you are not going to be running again, then you can risk it, but most of those folks and certainly Joe Biden ARE running to retain their seats so it is a problem that they would rather not have.
BUT
This case is different. If the economy should go into default, there will be finger-pointing every which way. The Republicans will seek to blame Biden, the Democrats will blame McCarthy and the Insurrection Caucus, the Berniecrats will point in both directions at the same time, while the Greens will hold hands and have a collective meltdown. The entire WORLD is holding its breath, for the love of all that’s holy, and MTG, Gaetz, and their little club wants to play a childish game of white line chicken?? (Will no one arrest them and put them in prison with the rest of the Jan 6 traitors so they can harmonize right along with the choir? Unbelievable.) If our country defaults, the rest of the world will go ‘pop’ as well, and then we’ll all be in a “mell of a hess”. But maybe they are figuring they’ll make a fortune on it? Who knows?
We cannot assume that “saner heads will prevail” in this or anything else now. We have literal CHILDREN running portions of our government. They are emotional CHILDREN. Trump has tantrums. He throws his ketchup loaded food at the walls. He craps in his pants. He has to be reassured every single day that he is the best ever. That’s a CHILD. McConnell sulls up and won’t do anything unless he can have his way. That’s childish. McCarthy is being childish with his demands. Boebert, Gaetz, and Greene scream from the House floor like children at the President, then complain that they feel intimidated by the mere presence of a black man. Give me a break. Such butterflies. They’re showing their emotional maturity to be about that of a five year old.
I guess the discharge petition has to be tried unless we can find people with some modicum of maturity on the other side of the aisle. I don’t know them well enough to recommend where to look. The prospects look pretty bleak to me.
Wright4Georgia 