If Jim Jordan Were a Democrat...

The "extreme, toxic radicalism" of House Republicans makes it's impossible to do a hypothetical about if the shoe were on the other foot. House Democrats do not nominate the equivalent to Jim Jordan.

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The Republican-led House struggles with the power it has to such an extent that they cannot yet elect a speaker, even after tossing Kevin McCarthy out. Jim Jordan couldn’t get it done on Tuesday, and his lack of discretion backfired on him and tossed cold water on the possibility of him getting the votes after he leaked the Scalise meeting.

This man is a hot mess and does not in any way resemble leadership material.

“Extreme, toxic radicalism of House Republicans”

Political historian and LSU journalism professor Robert Mann shared the thoughts of a friend of his about how it’s impossible to do a “If the situation were reversed” scenario. This is a critical point as Republicans and the media continue to allow Republicans to blame Democrats for not saving Republicans from themselves:

A friend who, because of his job, can't say these things, just made an excellent point to me about the extreme, toxic radicalism of the House Republicans. He said: 1/5

It's literally impossible to do an, "If the situation were reversed," about the House speakership election because Democrats don't nominate, much less elect, people as far to the left as Jim Jordan is to the right. 2/5

The leftmost Democrats in the House want a $25 minimum wage, bodily autonomy, equal pay for equal work, voting rights, a climate plan, and fully funded public schools. 3/5

There are no deniers. There are no conspiracy theorists. There are no violence supporters. There are no anti-Americans. There are no kooks, no nut jobs, no wackos. 4/5

There can be no, "Can you imagine how the GOP would react if the Democrats nominated XYZ for Speaker?" currently in the House who could possibly come anywhere close to Jordan's level of irresponsible, dangerous extremism. 5/5

Mann, it should be noted, just resigned from LSU on Sunday after a far right candidate and Trump-backed Jeff Landry won the race for governor, saying, “The person who will be governor in January has already asked LSU to fire me. And I have no confidence the leadership of this university would protect the Manship School against a governor’s efforts to punish me and other faculty members.”

Yes, the fact that a Trump-backed Republican already asked a university to “cancel” a well-regarded journalism professor speaks to this exact point. Politicians shouldn’t be abusing their power to that extent, and the fact that they are doing it so openly is even more disturbing.

False equivalence

Mann’s friend is right, and it’s important to note because there are a lot of false conflations being batted about in an attempt to save Republican face. Someone even told me to “sit down” when I expressed bewilderment at the media-accepted notion that Democrats were elected to babysit Republicans, because, they said, Nancy Pelosi once ripped up a Trump “manifesto of mistruths” during his State of the Union, which he began by refusing to shake her hand.

That, my friends, is a sad attempt at false equivalence. But better ones, like comparing the most extreme members of the House Democratic caucus to the leadership in the House Republican caucus, get by with nary a notice. Any district can elect an extremist. But only one party won’t nominate said extremist to run the whole chamber.

Today’s House Democrats do not allow extremists to control the body. Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi kept them in tight order for years and she prepped Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who is doing a great job so far in terms of keeping Democrats unified.