"The constitution over the cult. Democracy over demagogues. Economic opportunity over extremism. Freedom over fascism. Governing over gaslighting. Hopefulness over hatred. Inclusion over isolation. Justice over judicial overreach. Knowledge over Kangaroo courts. Liberty over limitation. Maturity over Mar-a-Lago. Normalcy over negativity. Opportunity over obstruction. People over politics. Quality of life issues over QAnon. Reason over racism. Substance over slander. Triumph over tyranny. Understanding over ugliness. Voting rights over voter suppression. Working families over the well connected. Xenial over xenophobia. Yes we can over you can't do it. And zealous representation over zero confrontation." "We will always do the right thing by the American people. So let us not grow weary of doing good for the american people will reap the benefit of the harvest if we do not give up. God bless you. God bless the House. And God bless the United States of America!"
Said Minority Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries after Kevin McCarthy finally won the Speakership.
I'm seeing some criticism of this speech, but it's kind of a shoe-fits-wear-it situation. Republicans shouldn't react with How dare you say that about us!
I mean: "Knowledge over Kangaroo courts." Republicans should say Then I trust you will join us in the investigation of the kangaroo court that was the January 6th "investigation."
Go down the whole list of paired things and cite instances of Democrats choosing the negative side — Freedom over fascism? Governing over gaslighting? Hopefulness over hatred? It would be easy.
And in the future, use the refrain: But you said House Democrats will never compromise your principles. Remember, you said you would never choose ugliness over understanding....
... which reminds me: this post gets the "civility bullshit" tag. Jeffries is calling for civility as his party moves to the minority position.
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118 comments:
That is sound advice, Professor!
Xenial?!
They don't exactly put brevity over bloviation.
They'll never compromise their principles as they have none!
Democrats have principles? Who knew. American values over autocracy? This from the party of "I have a phone and a pen"? What a farce.
Has more projection ever been packed into so small a speech?
x over y; x over y; ad infinitum
The speechwriter never learned that something clever can become banal if you overuse the formula. Maturity over Mar-a-Lago is catchy, but the punchline got buried.
I don't usually use such language, but it's such a dick move.
Reminded me of Pelosi's disgusting gesture of theatrically ripping up Trump's State of the Union speech. Such brazen contempt not just for Trump but for me as a voter and fellow-citizen. I was finally convinced they really do want me to just shut up and submit, and failing that, die.
While it is political posturing silliness, I thought the phrasing was impressive and impactful.
Nice rhetoric, but all fucking lies of the most pernicious sort.
The truly horrible thing is that the average lefty believes those lies. Jefferies knows better.
Dems will always put Blacks over Whites
Women over men
Teacher Unions over teaching.
Trans over TERFs
Non-working families over working families
(modifier) justice over justice
Ramming through that $1.7 trillion dollar monstrosity in a lame duck congress, which nobody was allowed to read sounds an awful lot like "autocracy" to me.
He’s so blatantly full of shit it’s coming out of his ears. Your typical small democrat/communist/fascist hack. At least he’s colored huh? Cause that’s all that matters about this typical piece of DC garbage.
Are you gonna believe your lying eyes or the fabulist Jeffries?
When you think of garbage, think of Hakeem.
Quality of life?
Who let in 5m illegal aliens and enough fentanyl to kill 193k Americans.
The Mexican cartels control our Southern border. A chaotic humanitarian crisis created by the Dems.
It note his powerless arse. That is the best thing to say when the democrat media asks.
Someone has been watching Sesame Street
Every Republican should have gotten up and turned their backs on this asshole. But instead, they will cave and let them have whatever they want..as usual.
He is a racist, socialist asshole.
All you need to know...
Knowledge over Kangaroo courts.
Should be knagaroo courts.
I'm pretty happy with the process. The people that want change finally levered some change. There is also an outside chance we just witnessed the Republicans pull off a Democrat class gaslighting by making this contest of wills, an exercise of compromises already agreed to, last past the stroke of midnight Jan 6 avoiding a day of Democrat/media J6 anniversary celebrations and transitioning into the weekend.
Jesus. What a pile of horseshit (if I can say that). The thing about the Dems is that they are chronic projectionists. You can always tell what they're about to do to you, or what they just did to you by what they're accusing you of doing.
No one comes close to the monumental gaslighting that they and their media division do to the entire country (with the aid of the FBI and CIA and that is now very clear). Hence, no one does authoritarianism like they do. Nobody comes close to hosting Kangaroo courts like they do. My God...the nerve of this guy. Normalcy? Reason? Substance? From Democrats?
I'm glad I got to read this. Whatever else, this guy should never be the Speaker of the House. I hope the Republicans hold the House for the next 20 years. Let him sit on the side for his career. I smell a wannabe tyrant waiting in the wings.
xenial: [adjective] of, relating to, or constituting hospitality or relations between host and guest and especially among the ancient Greeks between persons of different cities.
Same Greek root as xenophobia. But you know he didn't come up with that on his own. And you know he can't be that bright if thought the ABC thing was clever or appropriate. Plus, the parts of speech don't match up.
This was more interesting:
Xennials is a portmanteau blending the words Generation X and Millennials to describe a "micro-generation" or "cross-over generation" of people whose birth years are between the late 1970s and the early 1980s.
Sort of like the "Late Boomers" -- someone tried to call them "Generation Jones" -- who were so different from the Early Boomers. What the difference between the micro-generation born in the late 60s or early 70s and that born in the late 70s and early 80s is, I couldn't begin to tell you.
"Benevolence over bigotry."
Jeffries, following the advice of Sam Wanamaker, should have unleashed the triple alliterative improv...
"Beaner bronco buster? That was a triple alliterative improve. You don't hear those too often... That was fantastic...
Okay, moving on, we're in the bordello."
Leftist projection is a cliche but there it is.
Just want to know if any Dem had to be restrained from assaulting another Dem.
Remember when the Democratic "Peace Caucus" wrote a letter objecting to the reckless provision of arms to Ukraine? They were shut down, forced to rescind it, and all dutifully voted for the arms money?
All hivemind cake for the cake eaters.
All politicians lie. Dems are very experienced. Lies woven into an elaborate tapestry seeking to dazzle.
I think that the Democrats prefer obvious lies. It just muddies the water and thereby dilutes criticism of their own authoritarian ways. It works.
"Freedom over fascism."
The Democrat party is the party of censorship. That's the very definition of fascism - shut up or else; obey us!; no dissent allowed!
Every other aspect of fascism comes from trying to enforce those beliefs. People don't like to be told to shut up and will resist. It takes physical force to shut them up. Sometimes it's using a mob to shut down a speaker. Other times, it's an antifa "protest." Or, a government official, Adam Schiff comes to mind, that pressures a social media company to silence critics of the Democrat party.
It's "Democrat" Party, not Democratic Party because the party bosses don't believe in democracy. They are the party of smears, slavery, segregation and fascism.
At last our long national nightmare is over!
He said words so now the good little college-credentialed and believe the words and not think about what Democrats actually do. Decades of work by professors and teachers to train students to hear the pretty words and ignore reality are coming to fruition.
"The reason of this is that, being automatic, they [the prevailing methods of education] lead neither to the discovery of truth nor to the detection of error. It is easy to juggle with words, to argue in a circle, to make the worse appear the better reason, and to reach false conclusions which wear a plausible aspect. But it is not so with things. If a cylinder is not tight the steam engine is a lifeless mass of iron of no value whatsoever. .... Hence it is that the mind is liable to fall into grave errors until it is fortified by the wise counsel of the practical hand."
—Charles H. Ham, Mind and Hand: manual training, the chief factor in education (1900) (1886)
An even dumber version of the Lightbringer. A Dollar Store Obama…
Wait...this string of slogans is a speech? By the Minority House Leader his very own self? Presumably prepared with forethought and feedback in order to establish himself as a thoughtful and articulate figure deserving of respect and votes?
Wow.
Humanity's long struggle to achieve moral perfection has finally been realized. He sounds like some Ayatollah extolling the virtue of his religion and its followers. I don't think Jesus made such claims for Himself and his disciples. What a shame they're in the minority. Can you imagine the joy and justice we would presently be experiencing if the Dems were still in charge of the House.....If this had been said by a Republican it would come back to bite him in the ass, but this extravagant dollop of horseshit will pass unnoticed by the opinion makers.
"retail lawyer said...
Dems will always put Blacks over Whites
Women over men
Teacher Unions over teaching.
Trans over TERFs
Non-working families over working families
(modifier) justice over justice"
Always have to keep the slaves on the plantation. #SocialismIsSlavery
Hakeem Jeffries can go fuck himself sideways. I know what he represents, and am not fooled by such a speech.
"Just want to know if any Dem had to be restrained from assaulting another Dem."
Dems only assault non-Dems, Readering.
And they don't bother restraining each other, either.
You can always see what losers the Republicans are by the way they respond to the Democrat attacks. Last month, John Bonerhead actually showed up to praise Nancy Pelosi when she retired as speaker, despite Pelosi operating as a 100 percent partisan "Fuck you Republicans" speaker.
She rammed through two hyper-partisan impeachments, kicked republican members off committees, and refused to follow prescedent and allow McCarthy to pick the minority members for the J6 committeee.
This current guy Akim jeffries continues the tradition - trashing the R's and McCarthy. And McCarthy will respond with,
"I will be the speaker for all the House and I look forward to working with my Democrat collegues to pass legislation that is good for America".
A TOTAL LOSER. They aren't "turning the other cheek" because they're christians. They're doing it because they're wimps and have been bought off.
"Red state politicians, and the media empire behind them, selling regression as progress, oppression as freedom.
"And as we know too well, there is nothing original about their demagoguery.
"All across the nation, anxiety about social change has awakened long-dormant authoritarian impulses.
"Calling into question what America is to become, freer and fairer … or reverting to a darker past.
"Instead of finding solutions, these politicians void of any new ideas, pursuing power at any cost, prey upon our fears and paranoias."
Calif. Gov. Gavin Newsom gave a similar speech yesterday.
Keep in mind that 100% of the Dem Reps were just fine with Hakeem Jeffries as the Speaker of the House--and as their Minority Leader.
And it is the "extremist" Republicans that are supposedly the threat to the Republic.
@Limited Blogger wrote: "Has more projection ever been packed into so small a speech?"
Indeed. That's a perfect mirrorball of projection. It's the Chicago Bean sculpture of a speech -- shiny and reflective and distorted all at once.
The left's ability to reason short-circuited with the arrival of Trump, and their public speech remains in a wishful place where they are always right, right for all time, and all debates are closed. Never mind that they contradict most Democratic Party goals and objectives of a generation ago. Anxiety. Inability to deal with the stresses and dangers of the world. Fear of failure.
https://theculturetrip.com/north-america/usa/illinois/articles/brief-history-of-the-chicago-bean/
Blech!
I could picture Eddie Murphy reading the exact same speech on SNL. It would be a hilarious parody.
Beasts of England @ 10:57: "...A Dollar Store Obama."
Word.
Just want to know if any Dem had to be restrained from assaulting another Dem.
Why? Dems assault Reps all the time (and the other way around, but considerably less often); is it ok as long as you're not doing it to your own kind?
(Eliding the fact that Dems do assault other Dems in the real world at literally criminal rates.)
Unfortunate the speaker fight is over. The more they focus on themselves, the less they focus on everything else.
His speech was all bullshit. None of what he said is true.
But truth doesn't matter in America today. Give us a break.
Hakeem Jeffries wipes his ass with the Constitution.
Gibberish over governing.
Did someone say shoe? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ja1CuACuEOM
Moses Pray ( As played by Hakeem Jeffries ): “You know what that is, principles?”
Addie Loggins: “No, I don’t know what it is, but if you got it, it’s a sure bet they belong to somebody else!”
With credit to Paper Moon.
The fear of open conflict is a large part of why our country has all the problems which it has. Give me a week-long battle for Speaker which gets resolved when both sides make concessions, rather than back room maneuvering.
A steaming barrel of lib bovine scatology. Also, GFY. He and his ilk are ignorant fascist twits. KMA,LMHB, and bugger off.
Palmerism preceded McCarthyism. Whitmerism.
Diversity (i.e. color judgment, class-based bigotry) [Inequity, Exclusion] (DIE)
Political congruence ("="). Protect Marriage Act, indeed. Once you practice to scalp babies, civil unions for all consenting adults.
Albinophobia. Lower the Rainbow banner.
Transgender conversion therapy (e.g. grooming, confusion, corruption).
Pedophilia, friends with "benefits", and other forward-looking viability regrets.
Shared responsibility through progressive prices and other redistributive change schemes (e.g. Obamacares).
Academic debt, carryover, and price shifting (e.g. Bidencares) with progressive returns.
Immigration reform in lieu of emigration reform. English as a second language.
Wars without borders (e.g. both world wars, second Iraq war, World War Springs in progress).
Novel Green deals.
Feminism/masulinism and other class-disordered ideologies.
Social progress. Social justice. Social liberalism.
Cargo cult science with empathetic appeal (e.g. masks, non-sterilizing vaxxxines, climate cooling... warming... change).
The wicked solution. Planned Parenthood. Planned parent/hood. Planned childhood.
The Pro-Choice ethical religion denies women and men's dignity and agency, sequesters "burdens" of evidence in darkness, and normalizes human lives as negotiable commodities.
"Triumph over tyranny." How did he restrain himself from making that "triumph over Trumpism"?
Jesse did it better.
Unfortunate the speaker fight is over. The more they focus on themselves, the less they focus on everything else.
Yes, The Constitution was designed for the limited governance of a moral people, and to mitigate the narcissistic progress of others to run amuck.
regression as progress
Progress is an unqualified monotonic process. Regress is progress is regress. Show me your principles, and make them equal, not politically congruent ("="); reconcilable, not equitable.
"All across the nation, anxiety about social change has awakened long-dormant authoritarian impulses.
The governance scale runs from least to most intrusive. The left-right nexus is leftist.
They're doing it because they're wimps and have been bought off.
Go along to get along for equity and inclusion in overlapping and convergent special and peculiar interests in a 3/5 compromise, NOW the 1-2 compromise, and other politically congruent ("=") constructs.
Lies, all the way down.
Been there. Done that.
America's present need is not heroics, but healing; not nostrums, but normalcy; not revolution, but restoration; not agitation, but adjustment; not surgery, but serenity; not the dramatic, but the dispassionate; not experiment, but equipoise; not submergence in internationality, but sustainment in triumphant nationality.
Warren G. Harding
That’s why I love Althouse posts. I read it, get the gist and a one sentence answer comes out of my mouth. This time it was:
f/k me. Seriously?
“Go down the whole list of paired things and cite instances of Democrats choosing the negative side…”
No.
That’s what knowledgeable, reasonable grown ups do. So I’m not going to take the “play niceies” advice while listening to a bunch of mendacious, manipulative masochists trash “my side”.
So. Done.
Hakeem Hypocrite Supreme Jeffries. He does have that lean and hungry look--just another lying weasel. At least he doesn't have Schiff's bug eyes--but that's about the best you can say about him.
Is this parody? If so, it's brilliant.
Sounds like a great speech to quote from in the future. Glad Jeffries decided to put it in the Congressional record. Now follow Alinsky and use his words against him.
Republicans shouldn't react with How dare you say that about us!
Really? Why not? With all due respect, Madam Professor, it’s not as though you’re a winnable vote.
As to Jeffries, he was just reminding us that Democrat and demagogue are closely related words.
The freedom caucus accomplished what months of negotiation could not. They threatened McCarthy's lifetime goal of being Speaker. When they were attacked by the fascist left, they stood firm. When even idiot Sean Hannity attacked Rep Boebert, she did not bat an eye and continued to argue her point over his bombast. Congratulations to them. I fear it will make little difference but they did make their point.
This is close to a parody of the stereotypical rhyming cadence of black “civil rights leaders”. If the Babylon Bee had written this speech, and put it in the mouth of a black politician, woke assholes would denounce it as racist.
But it also harkens back to senile Joe’s “we choose truth over facts”, and every politician’s standard: “My opponent says we can’t afford to do X, but I say we can’t afford NOT to do x!”
Now we know his skill set.
It would have been better with a some church organ and a bit more of the swagger he was holding back. Maybe some "Yeah!!" from crowd in between letters.
"Remember the Maine, Plymouth Rock and the Golden Rule!!"
What a con man
"House Democrats will always put American values over autocracy. Benevolence over bigotry."
Just not house Democrats folks... that does explain Pelosi and Schumer's version of Democrats...
All of them.
readering: "Just want to know if any Dem had to be restrained from assaulting another Dem."
Mike Rogers of Alabama is another total GOPe squish establishment suck up who has always been an entitled very soft wussie. Possibly due to his background and upbringing.
So not technically a Dem attacking a republican, but the next closest thing to it. Picture a John Boehner in a very feminine slapfight and thats what you get with a Rogers who spends all his time trying to figure out how to serve his "betters" on the establishment totem pole.
Is calling him 'minority leader' racist?
If not, why not?
Discuss...
All across the nation, anxiety about social change has awakened long-dormant authoritarian impulses.
He doesn't say whose authoritarian impulses are awakened:
"The people don't like what we are. doing to them, so we are just going to have to bypass democratic institutions and ram our policies down their throats by executive orders!"
readering is shocked that individual members of Congress could have meaningful disagreements and that those disagreements mattered. The Democratic representatives have been so cowed by leadership that disagreements are impossible.
It's never a good idea to start your first sentence with an obvious lie. But then again, he is a politician and lying is what they're good at.
"You don't expect me to keep any of those promises, do you?" - Charles Foster Kane.
A list of the concessions supposedly achieved by the hold outs.
Pretty good list. Hope it comes to pass.
As usual the Dems go public 180 degrees opposite from the truth. I recall that is part of their instruction manual : always accuse the GOP of doing what we are doing. That confuses people and in a few months of media coordination repeats of the line it becomes the accepted Big Lie Fact.
We all know that Hakeem was not elevated to his current position on merit. He is marginally more intelligent than a goldfish in a bowl after its owner's return from a trip to Mt. McKinley.
Yancy Ward and Rollo: Yes and Yes again.
Well, now we know that Hakeem Jefferies watched enough Sesame Street to learn the alphabet. Pity he didn’t pay attention to The Count as well.
"House Democrats will always put American values over autocracy."
You mean, like Nancy P, all collegial and democratic and inclusive in there management of the House?
"Benevolence over bigotry."
Except toward deplorables and white men, since they deserve it.
"The constitution over the cult."
Wait, what? There must be some mistake. The Constitution is racist and, like, 100 years old.
And so on. Even by Dem standards, he's pretty brazen. IOW, a good fit.
What a pile of steaming garbage.
I don't know what's worse ... if the left actually believes the crap he spewed or if they expect the rest of us to believe it.
Here's a link to the speech.
"I'm seeing some criticism of this speech, but it's kind of a shoe-fits-wear-it situation. Republicans shouldn't react with How dare you say that about us!"
They should answer "I know you are, but what am I?"
What's the proof of impending assault vs an in your face dress down?
Note the restrainer covered his mouth.
Also not known is Crenshaw's words that went with his odd hand gestures as he stood a good distance from Gaetz. Looked a bit jaunty/cocky IMHO.
He sounds like he wants the letter M stricken from the English language.
Ctrl-F on his speech for drugs, crime, inflation, war, homelessness, jobs, trade, border, immigration, and free speech came up empty.
Projection
The Ds really F-ed the beginning of this session.
Thank you Althouse for highlighting the D screwup with this post. The lame stream media is trying to hide the truth re the situation. The deep state is trying to push the idea that the Rs were whack while the Ds were not-garbage. But Althouse and we readers here are too smart to be knock off of the important story. Ds are garbage. Say it loud. Say it always. Never gets boring!
principles of perplexity, selectivity, dysphoria
Tim in Vermont, do you know what the disagreement was? The chair of the Armed Forces Committee was provoked to violence because he believed the decisive "present" vote was to wrangle a subcommittee chair. I was only shocked that it ended without a hair out of place.
Speaking of rhetorical use of pairs, this speech was reminiscent of that time in 2000 that Jeffries compared himself to his Democratic primary opponent in a race for the New York State Assembly and brought up, out of the blue, his opponent's religion while insisting that religion wasn't an issue:
“The issue in this race is not age - yes, the assemblyman is older, I'm younger. It's not religion - yes, the assemblyman is a practicing Muslim and I grew up in the Cornerstone Baptist Church.” (The New York Times)
Yet, before Hakeem Jeffries could conclude his closing statement, Assembly Member Roger Green interjected:
“Practicing Muslim? Where'd that come from? Are you trying to polarize our community?”
One nearby holdout also accused the Chair of drinking, but maybe that was just a jest.
God bless you. God bless the House. And God bless the United States of America!"
That's a huge upgrade from God damn the United States of America.
I like patriotic black people, sue me.
St. Crow,
He delivers the happy talk while they burn it all down.
Enjoy.
rendering,
Unless you were there, please link to your source for Rogers' comment.
https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2023/01/07/mike-rogers-restrained-video-house-floor-vpx.cnn
Apple Pie, Motherhood and the American Way!
x over y times y over x equals unity!
Frankly, I'm none too happy about the resumption of business as usual in the halls of Congress. It would have been better to deadlock the whole thing rather than elect Kevin McCarthy to the Speaker's chair, he's from California, fer Christ's sake! I mean, what the hell is CA, anyway? A post-apocalyptic wasteland, that's what. Doubt me? Have a look at Los Angeles and San Francisco, nothing but drug-addled parasites, sexual perverts, and radioactive mutants as far as the eye can see! Remember Victoria from Pasadena? I do. She was human enough a while back, but now... Now, she's some kind of brain-sucking octopus. Not her fault, really. She just stayed put when the gittin' was good. It's not like you can see them millisieverts comin' at ya.
Granted, McCarthy's from the 20th District, which isn't quite as nasty as L.A., but how do you think they shrivel those grapes, huh? Longwave radiation, bub, that's how. Nobody's checked him out with a Geiger counter, have they? And what does he look like underneath that fifteen thousand dollar suit? He could be covered with osteoderms and have tentacles growing from his armpits! Nobody knows. If there's one thing true about post-apocalyptic wastes it's this -- don't trust anyone (or any-thing!) not wearing a clean dosimeter badge.
Quaestor - LOL. At least we can laugh a bit as we walk into the apocalypse.
I thought it was a Republican speaking. Because all of the fascism, tyranny, etc comes from the democrat party.
Just one question. Who is Ray Epps?
Just one question. Who is Ray Epps?
Did Mr Jeffries use his phonics to force the I, K, and Q terms to alliterate properly?
They'll never compromise their principles as they have none!
Yet we vote for those crooks.
Well, someone votes for them.
Alliteration over aeronautics.
Bi-sexualism over bibliography.
Consensualism over corruption.
The democrats will always chose liberty over limitation! They are just trolling. Don't take the bait. LOL.
Jeffries needs to put down that bong. He's hallucinating--or he is in the wrong party.
I admit that my first thought was along the lines of “Democrats have principles — who knew?” But then I thought about it and realized that they really do have principles. Here are a few:
The planet earth is overpopulated. We need to kill off 94% of the world’s people, starting with Republicans .
White people are evil. No white personal ever got ahead through hard work; they only ever reach success through white privilege and by keeping down people of color.
No matter how dark their skin, all Asians are white. Besides, they are too smart and work too hard so it’s okay to discriminate against them.
Abortion should never be restricted in any way, and should be extended to include babies born alive.
Jews are even more evil than ordinary whites. They should all be shipped off to Israel, except for wealthy Jews who contribute to the Democrats and other left-wing causes. Then the mullahs of Iran should nuke every square inch of the place.
We do not need to disarm urban street gangs. We need to disarm people who might shoot back at urban street gangs.
Union bosses are great; the rank and file not so much. Except for teachers. We need more bad poets and fewer good plumbers.
That’s an incomplete list, of course, but even people who get their news exclusively from left-wing sources like NPR or the New York Times will find themselves forced to agree with my assessment.
St. Crow
ha ha ha
I now hear the birds sing and it gives me joy in my heart!
unless it's those fucking crows.
"The constitution over the cult."
Constitution: Don't let my name come out your mouth.
The tragedy is that people believe this rhetoric, even when faced with daily evidence to the contrary - using a narrow and distorted view of individual incidents to support their need to follow Democrats. Simply, republicans and their followers are racists because democrats say so.
That fool is worse than Nasty Nancy and Barry & Michelle combined, thank the Lord we won’t have to listen to him.
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