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CNN was purchased by the Ellison family (along with CBS), you think they are still a trusted news source?
There really needs to be some way for the minority party to step in and do the work if the majority cannot function.
In Canada we call an election.
The problem is that the American system isn't parliamentary. There isn't a button to push to reset Congress.
Well, there might be one button...
Well, you might say that is one of the problems.
Like in a bowling alley, when the ball doesn't trip the sensor and the pins don't reset...canada has that for government?
I want one!
It's called a "confidence vote". It's not every bill, and I forget what makes it confidential, but if budgets and big things don't get passed parliament has no confidence in the government and an election happens. The two states of governance are A: a majority government where the ruling party has enough votes to pass anything they like. And B: a minority government that would have to make concessions and entice the other parties to vote with them. Minority governments are better IMO because they theoretically represent more people.
One thing I've never understood: y'all declare you have no confidence in the government but you have enough confidence to trust it to run a fair election?
It's a vote on something that the government must pass to keep control, such as a budget; if they don't get the votes, then it's "no confidence in this government" therefore now the GG calls the rest of the leaders in to try to form another government. If that fails, then the GG forces an election. Elections are entirely separate from governance and changing the rules is very difficult so it doesn't get fucked up easily.
We have rules too, but the despot in chargge tramples on the rules, and his toadies in Congress and on the Supreme Court let him. He already had Musk and his DOGE goons get rid of most of the career government workers who normally carry out the rules. Elections are supposed to be run by the various states, and that's given us hope for changing control of Congress at the midterms in November, but he is trying to wrest control of the whole election process.
In any other shithole country with these problems, the world would deploy UN observers to help keep your elections fair. I think it's going to have to get worse to get better.
There are many layers and interpretations of confidence there that you mix up. I'm assuming this works somewhat like where I live. Its the confidence that the government is in a functional state/working somewhat efficient vs the confidence of fair elections. There are mamy ways where parties can essentially block progress or the government in general. That's somewhat fine and can be an important instrument to use (especially when in the opposition). But that doesn't necessarily mean that the people causing it want to get rid of fair and free elections. Some kind of "shutdowns" and other grind locks can be very detrimental to a government and there need to be a mechanic to be able to solve them. In this case: We have no confidence the current parliament with the current distribution of seats is working as it should be. We tried everything, we need to restart.
Since it's a quite drastic process, it's not something invoked lightly.
Under the current circumstances, with an administration that's actively working to restrict and gerrymander away the voting power of anyone who's not on their side, and firing many of the nonpartisan government employees who might get in their way by refusing to rig the process and results, I don't think we can have enough confidence in our government to call a vote of no confidence, even if it were in our Constitution.
That's a good answer. I was just going to quote Elections Canada: "Elections Canada is the independent, non-partisan agency responsible for conducting federal elections and referendums."
The moment a bill doesnt pass it instantly triggers our government dissolving and a new election, up here.
They can oust the speaker with a very small number of defections that would achieve a majority. There's no motivation for the minority factions within the majority to do so though - the only chance they have of passing their hardline agenda is by refusing to give the majority the ability to do anything. This isn't a problem if you have a much larger majority but they're barely holding onto the title right now.
Unfortunately, the rebels are on the far right. They may vote to oust Johnson, but they’ll never vote to give Jeffries or any other Democrat the speakership. We’d be back in the endless cycle of Speaker votes that brought Johnson into power.
Exactly. Even if it's just a couple of republicans, there are enough who don't like Johnson that it could happen...
Then 12 or 15 votes later, the rpublicans look like morons...again.
Too bad establishment republicans have neither the spine, or the moral fortitude to not roll over and assume the position.
Republicans are conservatives, authoritarians, the most important thing for them is adherence to the group. If they valued anything else more, they wouldn't be Republicans.
There is. They can find enough willing defectors from the majority faction to become the majority themselves, vacate the chair and install someone else as speaker. If you're talking about a way for the minority to seize control of the chamber against the will of the majority, well, I challenge you to find a way to describe the rules for how that should work in a way that isn't easily gameable.
The problem is that would be extremely short lived, even if it succeeds. And it won’t succeed because from the perspective of most of the minority republicans, democrats are far, far, worse.
The Democrats could help put someone like Cassidy into the speakership. (But, you know, from the house.)
Someone who doesn't say they're running the protection program. Someone who will exercise the power of Congress as a co-equal branch of government. Someone who will stop ceding congressional power to Trump. Hell, maybe even someone who would help restore the independence of independent executive agencies.
Likely would be someone on the way out, but good enough for now. I feel like all that isn't asking for much, just the basic duty of the job.
Honestly... Well regulated state militias were supposed to exist for a reason. The founding fathers weren't able to see the technology of the future but they were able to see the oppression of the future. They wrote the Constitution with their terms at their time. Modern politicians have chosen to abandon most aspects of the Constitution. But they were in there for a reason.
The founding fathers envisioned that every state, every community, any brotherhood or fellowship of men and or women would have a standing army that they could summon anytime to stop federal overreach, as well as the overreach of the corrupt and shiftless. that is the entire purpose of the second amendment.
i suppose this is when the bipartisan housing bill that dipshit refused to sign gets vetoed.
Could be the whole plan. An unsigned bill becomes law if Congress remains in session, or gets the "pocket veto" if they leave, isn't that the rules?
Too bad they got the master surveillance and internet censorship bipartisan Bill through before this happened
Priorities, naturally. And the very very very first thing they ever did was a tax cut for billionaires...
Absolute scumbags.
The senate version is too far apart, and it would have to be fixed in conference. Which they can't do if the house isn't in session.
GOP have really shown us how well they don’t know how to govern effectively.
It isn’t as much as not knowing how to govern as much as they just don’t want to. They are managing a power shift away from those that do. Only there to grab power and if they can also fit some grift in they will.
If democrats were smart...they'd take advantage of republican disunity and move to vacate the speaker's seat...
Jeffries may not be my favorite democrat, but he did manage to keep the party together for how many votes last time?
I keep forgetting that Johnson isn't even the most extreme of them. He's still a giant weasel.
His job is just to have a haircut that makes it seem sensible to do whatever it is that they want to do.
The Most Fabulous Squeaker of the House, Mikey ‘Mouse’ Johnson, ladies & gentlemen!
this post was submitted on 30 Jun 2026
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