Local opinion: Mike Johnson and Juan Ciscomani should be sidelined

Politics is the difficult art of compromise. Our country is presently floundering because the Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, is bonded with a group of MAGA fanatics (e.g., Marjorie Taylor Greene, Matt Gaetz, Lauren Boebert) who explicitly reject compromise. Johnson is abetted by muted self-described ‘centrists’ such as Juan Ciscomani, who seem to believe that governance means winning an election, versus writing legislation, holding hearings, compromising, and finally, at the end of an exhausting process, obtaining approval from the House, the Senate, the President and (often) the Supreme Court.

This is not the time to flit from one election to the next.

Congress should have passed a budget last year. They have failed multiple times, and they will probably fail again at the end of this month.

Congress should have passed aid for Ukraine months ago. This failure has caused enormous damage. Legislation recently passed in the Senate, and this is supported by Representatives McCaul, Turner and Rogers, the Republican chairpersons of the committees on foreign affairs, services and intelligence, respectively. Mike Johnson refuses to give the legislation a hearing, let alone a vote. This is a lifeline for Vladimir Putin, who just liquidated his main opponent, Aleksei Navalny. The House is out of session. This is unconscionable.

Congress needs to address the situation at the border. Ciscomani routinely claims he has done his job because the House passed legislation last year. Earth to Ciscomani: the legislation is meaningless unless it is also passed by the Senate, signed by the President and (likely) approved by the Supreme Court. This is the crux of governing, finding common ground.

In the case of immigration, common ground is scarce. On the one hand, progressives have to acknowledge that immigration is a massive burden for schools, housing and public services. On the other hand, Republicans have to appreciate that immigration buttresses the economy. In the background, climate change is superheating the tropics, creating off-the-scale hurricanes (such as the Acapulco tropical storm which morphed into a category 5 hurricane in hours), massive flooding (such as the 2022 floods which inundated Feb. 3 of Pakistan), months-long wet bulb temperatures exceeding human limits, to mention a few items, all of which are triggering human suffering and migrations that will overwhelm the highest wall and deepest alligator infested moat that Trump can imagine.

We are dealing with an intractable problem that cannot be managed with platitudes.

Meanwhile, Mike Johnson is content to do nothing because he wants to preserve border chaos as an issue which Donald Trump can exploit for the next election. This is disgusting.

Congress needs to focus on accomplishing something right now. Forget about the next election.

There is a way forward. House Republicans should acknowledge that their control of the floor depends on MAGA fanatics, and hence they cannot effectively govern. Johnson should be removed; he is an impediment. There is a potential governing block consisting of House Democrats and a group of Republicans who are committed to constructive governance. One of these Republicans will have to run for Speaker and openly court Democratic support. It is a sad fact that this person will be putting their job on the line, similar to Liz Cheney in the last legislative session. However, there are multiple Republicans in leadership positions who are retiring this term; one of these should step forward.

Above I have mentioned a short to-do list which most Democrats and Republicans can agree upon: we need a budget, we need to support our allies, we need to address the border. The MAGA extremists, and their enablers such as Mike Johnson and Juan Ciscomani, should be sidelined. We need a workable governing group in the House that is capable of compromise.