Now Jim Jordan wants it. The guy accused of turning a blind eye to the sexual abuse happening on the wrestling team he coached, not to mention his connections with Jan 6. And Steve Scalise, the poor bastard who got his dick shot off by a left wing shooter at the Congressional ball game a number of years back.

And of course Trump would consider taking the job if he could encourage some nut to kill Biden and Harris and make him president again.

You may find this link of interest:

https://www.ncpedia.org/land-grants

The dems basically said “Eff around and find out.” It was like wearing a meat suit in a game preserve.

My point though was that McCarthy getting kicked didn’t happen solely because facist-minded republicans wanted it to, as you seemed to argue in the previous post titled “You’re too optimistic.” It also happened because Dems see a potential opportunity to possibly move the needle to the left in the House.

Just a taste: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matt_Gaetz

In America, the aristocracy did not have the right to own land, those who owned land WERE the new aristocracy. And if it wasn’t land, it was commerce and industry.

As long as the land was free, or new sources of wealth were opened up by the technology of the Industrial Age, the factories and railroads, the system continued to grow. Even the wage slaves brought over from Southern and Eastern Europe to replace the Africans had a chance to get a piece of the action. Many of them succeeded.

But when the frontier closed, around 1900, the population continued growing but the wealth suddenly became finite. Momentum carried us into the mid 20th century, about a lifetime, but ever since, that old continent of limitless resources and cheap labor finally dried up, and the boom times are now just a happy memory, a nostalgia for a paradise that never quite materialized in the first place. For a while, it seemed our overseas commercial empire would make up the difference, but we are now bumping into foreign competition, the Euros, the Russians, the Asians

The new aristocracy doesn’t want to share, and they’re not honoring any of their old promises either. And those who have been patiently waiting to step up and claim their share are now being squeezed out. And they’re just starting to realize this is as far as they, or their children, are going to get. In fact, they can sense they are starting to slide back. People may think they remember those ‘good ole days’, but their parents lived them, and all they remember was hard times and broken promises. I’ll be the first to admit, I’ve lived very well, but my parents worked their ass off for very little return. And the children of my generation will never, ever have the advantages I did.

That’s why they’re pissed off, and desperate for someone to blame it on. And that’s why the ‘middle classes’ are so seduced by fascism. They figure its their last chance to get what they were promised.

ER is correct, these things move in waves across history. Whether or not that tide can be counteracted is always in question.

https://www.thebulwark.com/new-poll-one-year-after-jan-6th-disturbing-support-for-authoritarianism/

I ran into a guy at a professional conference. He was a Miami Cuban, so we got to having a chat after-hours at the hotel bar.

We were talking about the Falklands War, and I happened to bring up how the Brits had cleaned the Argies’ clock, in spite of the fact that Argentina got to pick precisely the time of year that favored their forces, weatherwise. They had the element of surprise, land-based air support, shorter supply lines, and had been preparing for years. The Brits were caught off guard, had to send a hastily assembled force halfway across the planet, and had to supply them by sea. The UK forces were also configured for a NATO support role, not an expeditionary foray in the back of beyond.

My friend obviously was rooting for the Argentinians, because he remarked that the latter would have won easily if it had not been by treacherous support from the USA, that we provided the intelligence, communications and logistics that gave the UK all the advantages. He felt it was our obligation to help defend the New World from Imperialistic European aggression. You know, the Monroe Doctrine.

I agreed that US help was crucial, but the major factor was that the Argentine military was geared up primarily to kidnap and torture college kids, journalists and left-wing intellectuals. They were ill-prepared to deal with an opponent who actually got to shoot back, even if they were outnumbered, seasick and living on cramped ships bobbing around in the Southern Ocean as the weather deteriorated day by day. I didn’t have the heart to tell him the Monroe Doctrine wasn’t about our protecting the New World from white imperialism, it was about making sure only the USA was entitled to be the white imperial power on this side of the pond.

The man became furious. He claimed the Argentinians were engaged in a legitimate war against Communism, where anything goes, all those civilians who were disappeared from Buenos Aires were legitimate targets–Commie stooges and Fidel Castro followers.

So I asked him; “What’s the difference between a left wing dictatorship and a right-wing one?”

His reply was classic. “A left wing dictatorship will turn everything upside down, meddle in every aspect of your life. And they will wreck the economy. A right wing dictatorship will let you live your life. They’ll let you keep your business, your property and your money, they’ll let you travel abroad and educate your kids anywhere you like. As long as you leave them alone, they’ll leave you alone. The economy will boom, your business will prosper, and if you help them, they’ll cut you in on a piece of the action and you will flourish.”

He was right. And that’s what fascism is: The dictatorship of the middle class.