After watching many hours of House proceedings it occurs to me that the strangest aspect of the 118th Congress is the number of times I've watched a Republican offer an amendment (like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene is doing as I write this) which is then opposed in the ensuing floor debate by a GOP committee chair (and it just happened yet again).
These rogue amendments are almost always offered by members of the "Freedom Caucus" and the opposition is sometimes led by a Republican trying to shepherd a piece of legislation through to a vote. Often, the GOP Chair and his Democratic counterpart essentially "team-up" to counter these largely doomed amendments that usually go down to defeat during the final vote.
The Freedom Caucus-ites know their hot button-based amendments have no chance of passing, but they do afford them the opportunity to loudly hold forth on the House floor and to succumb to fits of performative outrage. As such, it's a perfect chance to generate post-able content and to get under the skin of your "enemies." It is entirely likely they believe they are winning bigly regardless of whether or not their amendments pass. In fact, the failure to pass is almost a bigger win because it proves that you are fighting the good fight against a corrupt system beholden to evil interests. It’s a great way to “build your brand.” There’s even a good chance MSNBC will play a clip to stoke their audience’s outrage over your outrageousness. And that’s the biggest win of all.
ALSO: While we’re on the topic of performative outrage, I will be live-blogging tonight’s Presidential Debate over on Facebook. The shindig starts at 9pm Eastern/6pm Pacific and you can find and join the thread by clicking here. If nothing else, you can follow the debate without watching it and, therefore, get the gist without having to listen to those shrill and tired voices. Or, if you find you simply cannot look away from the car crash, you can type out your own fits of outrage and add them to the thread I’ll be building in real-time.