Joy Reid: We must stop electing people who just can’t do the job

Let’s consider the power of eight. 

Eight Republicans, that is: the band of eight who rejected Kevin McCarthy, going against hundreds of their fellow Republicans, all of whom voted to keep the speaker in place.

So, eight people can take over an entire institution, pulling the plug on the House doing its job.

There’s been a lot of chaos this week — hand-wringing and infighting — and it’s a scene that we should be really worried about. 

Daniel Ziblatt, co-author of the new book “Tyranny of the Minority,” told The Washington Post:

If you want to know what it looks like when democracy is in trouble, this is what it looks like. It should set off alarm bells that something is not right.

Ziblatt is a professor of government at Harvard, so he knows a thing or two about what this work entails — emphasis on the word “work.” This is work. They don’t call it public service for nothing!

But voters keep electing people who cannot do the job, which is weird, right? Because these are the people elected to make crucial decisions about health care, your child’s education, food safety, roads, bridges and jobs. It’s nose-to-the-grindstone work. 

Not everyone is built for it. Many people have hired or chosen people to do far less. Think about it!

Would you trust this person to run a small business in your neighborhood?

Criminals are going to be criminals. … If somebody wants to take you out and doesn’t mind losing their life, there’s not a whole heck of a lot you can do about it.

Would you trust this person to watch your kids?

[President Joe Biden is] the one who is robbing hardworking Americans to pay for Karen’s daughter’s degree in lesbian dance theory.

Would you even talk to this person about the weather?

With due respect, sir, the farmers in my district recognize climate change as summer, winter, spring, and fall.

What about letting these people make rules and set the budget for you and your family?

Now we have Nancy Pelosi’s Gazpacho Police spying on members of Congress.

Be honest: You wouldn’t hire any of these people to work for your business, do anything for your family, let them be in your house, rummaging through your paperwork, or anywhere near your kids! Because that would be a horrible idea — unproductive, risky, even dangerous. 

So why are so many American voters hiring this quality of person to manage the $6 trillion budget of the largest economy in the world? Why is one of the richest, most complex and highly advanced market economies on earth in the hands of painfully underqualified, unserious people?

All spending must emerge from the U.S. House of Representatives, per the Constitution, which is why the House has the power to shut down the government by not agreeing to a budget. No one else in the government can do this job. 

Be honest: You wouldn’t hire any of these people to work for your business, do anything for your family, let them be in your house, rummaging through your paperwork, or anywhere near your kids!

But the Republican Party has a hiring problem — because the folks who work for them do not understand that this is a job. To them, this is just fun, it’s a television show, it’s entertainment, it’s being famous. 

But it’s actually none of that. It’s funding the Pentagon. It’s managing the finances of the elderly and making sure that they can pick up their medicine. It’s ensuring public school kids get their breakfast and lunch at school. 

So to put this job in the hands of what is essentially a clown car of chaos agents feels like an American suicide. Even worse — a suicide that you get to watch on TV. Because that is what really matters to these people: lights, camera, spectacle. 

Which may explain why Donald Trump is considering a visit to the U.S. Capitol early next week, as House Republicans consider who should be their next speaker.

Trump is ineligible for the post under the party’s own rules barring anyone under indictment. But that hasn’t sunk in with the party, which could also just change the rules. 

Marjorie Taylor Greene just tweeted: “If Trump becomes Speaker of the House, the House chamber will be like a Trump rally everyday!!

“It would be the House of MAGA!!!’’

If Trump becomes Speaker of the House, the House chamber will be like a Trump rally everyday!!

It would be the House of MAGA!!!

— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 (@RepMTG) October 5, 2023

Aka, America would descend into a pit of chaos so deep, it would take a century to repair. It really is just a party for them — just a party, a circus, a rally. 

As Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer replied to Greene: “No thanks, we’re good. We’ve seen a Trump rally at the Capitol already.”

No thanks, we’re good. We’ve seen a Trump rally at the Capitol already. https://t.co/c7N2yN0GyX

— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) October 5, 2023

Touché. 

And that “rally” we saw on Jan. 6, 2021, wasn’t just entertainment for the bored, angry and unserious American far right. 

It was an an attempted coup.

This is an excerpt from Thursday’s episode of “The ReidOut.” It has been slightly edited for length and clarity.