Speakerwatch: Dissent Rises

As many predicted, opposition to John Boehner remaining Speaker of the House is growing. Just today, Marlin Stutzman, Dave Brat (who ousted former majority leader Eric Cantor in 2014 primary, and Steve King.

Before now, opposition was the usual suspects of GOP Rebels like Thomas Massie, Louie Gohmert, Ted Yoho and company. The presence of Steve King is a positive sign for dissenters. King (R-IA) is one of the few open dissenters who is not a member of Justin Amash's Liberty Caucus. His move to the opposition signals a potentially stronger rebellion than seen in 2013.

The vote is tomorrow. There are sure to be more House Republicans officially declaring their opposition to Boehner by then, with nine already in the camp. While it may be a small rebellion, it's already appearing to be stronger than the 2013 attempt, bad news for Boehner.

Speakerwatch: A Challenger

With opposition to John Boehner growing daily, the burning question of his replacement has filled the air. The strategy of the opposition in 2013 was not to unite behind any one particular candidate, but simply get enough votes against Boehner to force another ballot.

Ideally, a challenger would eventually arise, Boehner would concede, and there would be a new Speaker. The lack of a figure to unite behind in 2013 may have contributed to the failure of the rebellion.

A challenger has arrived: Louie Gohmert (R-TX) has officially announced his challenge to John Boehner. 

Gohmert is one of the growing contingent of liberty Republicans in the House of Representatives, and a member of the House Liberty Caucus. 

The Speaker election should resemble another attempt by Liberty Republicans: Raul Labrador for Majority Leader. While the past two power struggles were in favor of establishment Republicans, the climate favors the conservatives.

Speakerwatch

Over the past several days, there have been more and more representatives that have publicly voiced their intention not to vote for John Boehner to retain the Speakership. Several more have hinted at their true feelings. There was, of course, the ultimately fruitless attempt to oust Speaker Boehner in early 2013 (spearheaded by Raul Labrador and Justin Amash), but this attempt seems to be gaining more steam and popular support.

A list of those opposing (or likely to oppose) Boehner follows.

1. Justin Amash (R-MI): One of the most prominent liberty Republicans in the House of Representatives, and one of the few to oppose Boehner in 2013, is almost certain to oppose Boehner. In a recent interview, he had this to say.

"I'm deeply troubled by what I think were some misleading statements by the leadership team about the "cromnibus" and the process that brought it to the floor. I'm not going to put that on Speaker Boehner, but the leadership as a whole. And I want to have these conversations with the speaker before we have the vote for speaker and I haven't made a decision yet about what I'll do, but I need to see that things are moving in the right direction."

While hardly an outright declaration, Amash is likely to oppose.

2. Thomas Massie (R-KY): Massie, a sophomore Republcian, opposed Boehner in 2013, and has again publicly declared his opposition.

3. Jim Bridenstine (R-OK): Bridenstine, who also voted against Boehner previously, has declared his intention to do so again.

There were a total of 9 other Republicans (12 total) who revolted in 2013. 10, including the three above, were re-elected. I've been unable to track down an exhaustive list, but they include 4) Raul Labrador (R-ID), 5) Tim Huelskamp (R-KS), and 6) Walter Jones (R-NC).

More Republicans are likely to officially announce opposition prior to the vote, and many who don't are presumed to oppose Boehner regardless.

Potential Shakeup in House Leadership

The 2014 election cycle was an interesting one, especially for Republicans. The party's victory in the Senate, and a further majority in the House, puts them in a unique situation to effectively move forward their own legislative agenda.

For many conservative members of the party, there is one major detriment to advancing their agenda: The Speaker of the House, John Boehner.

Many have criticized Boehner, allegedly citing his acquiescence to Democrats in Congress, including  many of the more conservative members of the Republican Caucus. Some, including Justin Amash (R-MI) and Thomas Massie (R-KY), have publicly voiced potential support for another Speaker.

The idea isn't as farfetched as it was two years ago. Former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor lost his primary - to Dave Brat, an ideological ally to Boehner's detractors.

If this revolt comes to fruition, the burning question remains: Who would take up the Speaker's gavel?

The Rebel Alliance of the GOP

There's been a lot of hubbub recently over so called "Tea Party" challengers to Republican incumbents across the state, many of whom lost to their more moderate, establishment counterparts. Many within the Republican Party see this as a good thing, after all, some crazy far-right wing nutjob couldn't ever win past a primary, right?

I don't like the term Tea Party. Well, I used to, in its earliest days. I think as the movement grew and expanded, it became less and less meaningful. What started as an ostensibly grass-roots movement (funded by the Koch brothers, which for some reason gets a lot of people riled up) against government excess has become, for a large part, a meaningless stamp used to get elected.

There's no shortage of challengers from the right claiming the Tea Party moniker, but I don't think that's the best word for it anymore. What instead, then? How should the libertarian-leaning wing of the Republican Party be described in a way that's actually accurate and meaningful?

Justin Amash (who is so transparent he posts an explanation for every vote he casts on Facebook) and his supporters coined the term "Rebel Alliance" as a description of these politicians; those who, when elected, refused to play along with the leadership in violation of their principles.

Justin Amash's personal vehicle

The "Rebel Alliance" is a fairly consistent group of two dozen or so Senators and Representatives in Congress. Some of the most prominent Senators include presidential hopeful Rand Paul (R-KY), Mike Lee (R-UT), and Ted Cruz (R-TX). The House has a few more prominent names, most notably Justin Amash. Justin Amash took over the mantle of Ron Paul as the House's libertarian leader, often standing alone as the only one to vote "No" on one of the many ridiculous bills that manages to pass through Congress. However, he's slowly gaining allies, the strongest of which is Thomas Massie. Often, these two stand alone voting against a bill. There are many others in the House who are frequently allied with them, like Paul Broun, Jeff Duncan, or Tim Huelskamp.

This small Rebel Alliance has grown every session of Congress, and will continue to grow, despite minor primary victories coming in. These principled few represent essentially the last hope for stopping the horrific growth in debt and government that has been continuing unchecked for decades. Many libertarians gripe and complain about some minor ideological impurity found in some of these men, or loudly proclaim they'll never support anyone besides a Libertarian Party candidate.

In an ideal world, yes, we'd have a perfectly pure, nationally viable, Libertarian candidate. But we don't live in a perfect world. I see this branch of liberty Republicans, this Rebel Alliance, as the best way to bring libertarian ideas to the mainstream and make a genuine difference.

Return

I haven't written anything in this space for a very long time.

At one point this was essentially a training ground for writing, used frequently by my young self. A lot of the posts were...not the best. Immature, poorly researched, poorly written; everything that one would expect from a teenager's blog. I've since deleted or archived all the posts that were on here, on the basis that I'd like a fresh start.

So, what does that entail?

I plan to make this a space to post my thoughts regarding politics and current events, both global and domestic. I might also occasionally write book reviews about whatever I've just read, or maybe just thoughts that spring from that.

A bit about me. I'm a rising sophomore majoring in economics at a private college in southern Michigan, currently off for the summer. I've described myself as a libertarian and a classical liberal. I was a huge supporter of Ron Paul during his presidential runs, and currently a big fan of Congressmen Justin Amash and Thomas Massie, along with Senator Rand Paul.

I am a proponent of the Austrian school of economics. My favorite authors include Frederic Bastiat, Ludwig von Mises, and F.A. Hayek.

Anyways, I don't really know how this is going to pan out, or how frequently I'm going to post. If, for whatever reason, you've stumbled across this...enjoy.

- Horatio Aldunez