Republicans: We’re going to punch ourselves in the face.

Democrats: No. Don’t.

Republicans: <punch themselves in the face by ousting McCarthy>

Democrats: …

Republicans: Why didn’t you stop me from punching myself in the face?

And yet, for some reason, these people keep getting elected. The truth is that there’s nobody there who is capable of even remotely up to leading that party, especially with the Freedom Caucus with their thumbs on the scale. It’s messy, it’s ugly, and it’s impeding our ability to govern.

This podcast episode get’s right to the heart of the current political unrest in the House of Representatives (brought to you by the Republicans, no matter what they might say).

The “shell game” is a standby in movies featuring someone deceitful. And why shouldn’t it be? The game features the dealer, who places a ball (ostensibly) beneath a cup and then shuffles the cups around. One generally has a 0.33 chance of finding the ball under the cup—with a fair dealer. But all too often, the dealer isn’t fair and manages to palm the ball before shuffling begins. This means the player has a 0.00 chance of finding the ball under any cup.

But at Right and Freedom, we deal in politics, not games of chance. So why mention cups? Well, if you look at it a different way, a crooked dealer’s only job is to convince the player that the ball exists under the cups that they are shuffling around. Just like…wait for it…the evidence required to impeach Joe Biden. In this context, McCarthy is the dealer, and you, the American people, are the patsies…I mean players. And right now, McCarthy and the Republicans are doing what the crooked dealer does: try to convince you that evidence is there when, in fact, it’s not.

This week, the House Republicans decided to pass a law Rules issued by the executive branch concerning more than $100 million must get reviewed by the legislative branch. Though unlikely to pass the Senate, this performative legislation is problematic in multiple ways. For one thing, it’s a clear overreach of constitutional authority for the law-making branch to interfere with the executive branch’s operations. If Congress want money to be used in a certain way, then it should say so in the bills as passed. But there’s a second, more nefarious, possibility.