Republican Party seems divided...

[heironymouspasparagus]

Just before elevating her status in the MAGAsphere by treating Congress to dick pics, Marjorie Taylor Greene gave the world this gem:

"Joe Biden had the largest public investment in social infrastructure and environmental programs that is actually finishing what FDR started, that LBJ expanded on, and Joe Biden is attempting to complete," Greene said. "Programs to address education, medical care, urban problems, world poverty, transportation, Medicare, Medicaid, and labor unions - and he still is working on it."

https://twitter.com/JoeBiden/status/1681424737384435713?s=20
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2023/07/19/biden-tweet-marjorie-taylor-greene-fdr-lbj/70429797007/

She just accidentally made the best case possible for Joe!

[Hoss]

Just before elevating her status in the MAGAsphere by treating Congress to dick pics, Marjorie Taylor Greene gave the world this gem:

"Joe Biden had the largest public investment in social infrastructure and environmental programs that is actually finishing what FDR started, that LBJ expanded on, and Joe Biden is attempting to complete," Greene said. "Programs to address education, medical care, urban problems, world poverty, transportation, Medicare, Medicaid, and labor unions - and he still is working on it."

https://twitter.com/JoeBiden/status/1681424737384435713?s=20
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2023/07/19/biden-tweet-marjorie-taylor-greene-fdr-lbj/70429797007/

And the Biden campaign made use of it.

https://youtube.com/shorts/y1Rwwb6Qaas?feature=share

[patric]

On Tuesday, Ohio voters overwhelmingly rejected Issue 1, a ballot measure designed to take power away from voters. It's just the latest in a series of examples of how the Republican Party's hostility toward abortion rights may be unwittingly motivating even moderate and center-right voters to support abortion access.
Issue 1 would have raised the threshold of victory for public referendums in the Buckeye State from 50 percent plus one vote to 60 percent, and make it more difficult for citizens to get a referendum on the ballot in the first place.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/ohios-failed-ballot-measure-shows-gop-is-going-streisand-effect-on-abortion-access

Why does this sound familiar?

https://www.readfrontier.org/stories/how-oklahoma-is-making-it-harder-for-citizen-led-measures-to-get-on-the-ballot/

[tulsabug]

Why does this sound familiar?

https://www.readfrontier.org/stories/how-oklahoma-is-making-it-harder-for-citizen-led-measures-to-get-on-the-ballot/

Well I did nazi that coming.

[patric]

Well I did nazi that coming.

During an election night news conference, Republican Senate President Matt Huffman vowed to use the powers of his legislative supermajority to bring the issue back soon, variously blaming out-of-state dark money, unsupportive fellow Republicans, a lack of time and the issue's complexity for its failure.

He never mentioned respecting the will of the 57% of Ohio voters across both Democratic and Republican counties who voted "no" on the Republican proposal.

The striking contrast illustrates an increasing antagonism among elected Republicans across the country toward the nation's purest form of direct democracy — the citizen-initiated ballot measure — as it threatens their lock on power in states where they control the legislature.

Historically, attempts to undercut the citizen ballot initiative process have come from both parties, said Daniel A. Smith, a political science professor at the University of Florida.
"It has to do with which party is in monopolistic control of state legislatures and the governorship," he said. "When you have that monopoly of power, you want to restrict the voice of a statewide electorate that might go against your efforts to control the process."

According to a recent report by the nonpartisan Fairness Project, Ohio and five other states where Republicans control the legislature — Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Missouri and North Dakota — have either passed, attempted to pass or are currently working to pass expanded supermajority requirements for voters to approve statewide ballot measures.

At least six states, including Ohio, have sought to increase the number of counties where signatures must be gathered.
The group found that at least six of the 24 states that allow ballot initiatives have prohibited out-of-state petition circulators and nine have prohibited paid circulators altogether, the group reports.
Eighteen states have required circulators to swear oaths that they've seen every signature put to paper. Arkansas has imposed background checks on circulators. South Dakota has dictated such a large font size on petitions that it makes circulating them cumbersome.

Sarah Walker, policy and legal advocacy director for the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center, said Republicans in Ohio and elsewhere are restricting the ballot initiative process in an era of renewed populism that's not going their way. She said conservatives had no interest in amending the ballot initiative process when they were winning campaigns in the 1990s and early 2000s.

"Since then, you've seen left-leaning organizations really developing their organizational skills and starting to win," she said. "The reason given for restricting the ballot initiative is often to insulate the state from outside special interests. But if lawmakers are interested in limiting that, there are things they can do legislatively to restrict those groups, and I don't see them having any interest in doing that."

Aggressive stances by Republican supermajorities at the Ohio Statehouse — including supporting one of the nation's most stringent abortion bans, refusing to pass many of a GOP governor's proposed gun control measures in the face of a deadly mass shooting, and repeatedly producing unconstitutional political maps — have motivated would-be reformers.

That prompted an influential mix of Republican politicians, anti-abortion and gun rights organizations and business interests in the state to push forward with Tuesday's failed amendment, which would have raised the threshold for passing future constitutional changes from a simple majority to a 60% supermajority.

Another example is Missouri, where Republicans plan to try again to raise the threshold to amend that state's constitution during the legislative session that begins in 2024 — after earlier efforts have failed.

Those plans come in a state where state lawmakers refused to fund a Medicaid expansion approved by voters until forced to by a court order, and where voters enshrined marijuana in the constitution last fall after lawmakers failed to.
More:  https://tulsaworld.com/ap/national/the-failed-ohio-amendment-reflects-republican-efforts-nationally-to-restrict-direct-democracy/article_61fd5653-0c7e-5e89-a5b2-84e66ba93ea8.html

[patric]

GOP rejected motion to go down list of candidates and keep voting until they find someone who can get 217 votes

After Rep. Tom Emmer dropped out of the speaker's race, someone made a motion to just start going down the list of candidates who came in behind Emmer — starting with Rep. Mike Johnson — and voting on whether they should be speaker until they find someone who can get 217, sources tell CNN.

But the motion was rejected, sources said.