The normies (and Ukraine) get a break

MUCH of what has been happening in Washington and in American politics, in general, in recent months can be described as the fight between the normies and the crazies.

Or to put it in different terms, the battles between the centrist forces in each of the two major political parties and their respective extremist challengers – the “Woke” and Identity-Politics crowds in the Democratic Party and the Republican Party’s radical Trumpists.

Indeed, for six months Congress was deadlocked over a proposed military-aid package for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan as hard-core Republican obstructionists in the House of Representatives succeeded in blocking the passage of this vital legislation.

In a way, for a while it appeared that the most extreme Republican House members appeared to be firmly in control of their party.

Hence the influence of the members of the so-called House Freedom Caucus peaked when eight Republicans voted with the Democratic Party to remove House Speaker Kevin McCarthy – a Republican from California and a moderate conservative – from his job in October 2023.

The crazies in that caucus ousted the Speaker from power after he dared to negotiate with the White House a deal to modestly cut discretionary spending in exchange for an increase to America’s borrowing limit.

Mike Johnson, a Louisiana congressman, replaced McCarthy after several weeks of chaos in the House and kept the government funded with short-term spending bills.

But the Trumpist hard-right – with its large isolationist contingency, and under pressure from the former president and current candidate DonaldTrump – opposed a sensible deal for nearly US$100 billion in funding for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan in exchange for a restrictive immigration law that the Republicans had demanded.

But Speaker Johnson, who had initially voted against aid for Ukraine, had a change of heart. He introduced government legislation that he broke into several pieces, that included the military aid package worth US$95 billion but allowed the Republicans to reject the US$61 billion part of a bill that included spending for Ukraine.

Wow! It seemed that the normies got a break and a surge of bipartisanship has enabled Congress to pass critical legislation over the objections of the radical Trumpists who nevertheless vowed to continue making Speaker Johnson’s life miserable.

Indeed, Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican congresswoman from Georgia and a leading Trumpist, has once again threatened, this time to oust Speaker Johnson.

Guess who is now opposed to the idea and even had a few good things to say about Speaker Johnson? Trump himself. “We have a majority of one, ok?” he said on radio. “It’s not like he can go and do whatever he wants to do. I think he’s a very good person.”

The question now is whether this show of bipartisanship reflects the shape of things to come. According to reports, Speaker Johnson has rejected demands from the crazies to take steps to impeach Democratic President Joe Biden.

But then it seems that the radicals on the political left are now ready to project their power. Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the members of her “squad” comprising several members of the party’s progressive wing, are pressing President Joe Biden to cut military aid to Israel over its conduct in the Gaza War. But you can count on the Normies from both parties to prevent that from happening.