The more time that goes on with the election for the Speaker of the House the more concessions that Kevin McCarthy will give to a tiny 4.6% crazy faction of the ENTIRE House of Representatives. This micro-minority will not give McCarthy the Speakership until he gives them all the power. We Democrats will end up with a Speaker who is completely beholden to the most extreme MAGAs faction that represents something akin to a fascist element in our country. How about we don’t let this happen.
The best thing for us to do is to find a Republican that in some marginal way would be willing to work with us to govern. According to Wikipedia there is a group of Republicans who are committed to being “moderates,” anti-Trump and anti-MAGA. They are the Republican Governance Group, originally the Tuesday Lunch Bunch and then the Tuesday Group until 2020. I put "moderates" in quotes because they are to the right of most Americans. Robert Reich says that some 40 Republican Representatives from purple districts might be willing to vote with Democrats for a Speaker. These members along with all the Democrats would put a “moderate” in the Speaker’s chair. No matter how distasteful this may be to us it would be better than having a MAGA fanatic in that seat or having McCarthy doing all their bidding.
Just look at what McCarthy has considered to conced to already:
(1) A rule allowing any member to force a vote ousting a speaker.
(2) The Freedom Caucus gets two (possibly three) seats on the powerful House Rules Committee that oversees the amendment process.
(3) The use of spending bills to defund particular programs and fire or reduce the pay of federal officials.
(4) Considering to hold votes on a balanced budget.
(5) Considering term limits.
(6) Considering more border security.
(7) Considering not increasing the debt ceiling.
I propose Ohio Representative David Joyce be nominated for Speaker of the House. Joyce is the chair of the Republican Governance Group, with its 40 something members. I believe if David Joyce is nominated many of his group will vote for him. Joyce, being a committed moderate, might be willing to agree to share power with the Democrats. If not that he may be willing to promise to keep stupid stuff like Hunter Biden’s laptop or hearings on Anthony Fauci from moving forward. Whatever we get from Joyce will be better than whatever we get if McCarthy or other MAGA nominee gets into the Chair.
If Joyce is nominated and a non-trivial number of Republicans can be persuaded to pledge their vote for him, then Democrats should should vote for him. Out of all of the 222 Republican Representatives in Congress surly six moderates could be persuaded to vote for a fellow Republican. Especially since there are way more moderate Republicans who have been closeted by the MAGA era. Given the opportunity we may get a flood of Republicans who more than anything want to silence the MAGA Republicans much less want to allow them to hold 90% of their Republican Party hostage to their inanities.
(Even though I came to the conclusions expressed here before knowing that Robert Reich held similar leanings, my argument here paraphrase his arguments closely. McCarthy’s considered concessions come from Robert Reich’s written arguments.)