House Leadership Crisis Continues [Updated]
Jim Jordan is trying to bully his way into office. It almost certainly won't work.
CNN (“Senior House Republican says GOP members ready to block Jordan“):
A number of House Republicans are in talks to block Rep. Jim Jordan’s path to the speakership as the Ohio Republican tries to force a floor vote on Tuesday, according to multiple GOP sources.
One senior Republican House member who is part of the opposition to Jordan told CNN that there he believes there are roughly 40 “no” votes, and that he has personally spoken to 20 members who are willing to go to the floor and block Jordan’s path if the Ohio Republican forces a roll-call vote on Tuesday.
“The approximately 20 I’ve talked to know we must be prepared,” the member said. “We cannot let the small group dictate to the whole group. They want a minority of the majority to dictate and as a red-blooded American I refuse to be a victim.”
But another GOP source familiar with the matter said that Jordan has had positive conversations with members and believes by Tuesday evening he will be elected speaker of the House. The House is expected to hold a vote for the next speaker on Tuesday at noon, according to an email from House Minority Whip Katherine Clark obtained by CNN.
The GOP source said that Jordan may decide to go to multiple ballots on the floor if necessary.Republicans are expected to meet behind closed doors Monday evening.
Yet there is still sizable opposition to Jordan. The GOP member says there are some Republicans who are critics of Jordan and not willing to back him – and there are others angry at the hardliners who took out Kevin McCarthy and sunk Majority Leader Steve Scalise and don’t want to reward those moves by electing Jordan, who is their preferred candidate.
“I know of many hard nos. …We can’t reward this behavior,” the GOP lawmaker said. “We can’t let a small group be dictators.”
The Republican conference nominated Jordan as speaker last week after Scalise dropped his bid for the role. Scalise had initially been selected by the conference as its nominee – after he defeated Jordan 113-99 in the conference’s first speaker vote – but more than a dozen Republicans said they would not vote for Scalise, forcing him to withdraw.
Now Jordan is facing the same problem from Republicans angry at McCarthy’s ouster and a small faction of the conference refusing to get behind Scalise after he won the first vote. After Jordan’s nomination, he held a second, secret vote in the conference on whether Republicans would support him on the floor. Fifty-five Republicans voted no.
NYT (“Jordan Activates Right-Wing Pressure Campaign in Push to Win Speakership“):
Representative Jim Jordan and his allies have begun a right-wing pressure campaign against Republicans opposed to electing him speaker, working to unleash the rage of the party’s base voters against any lawmaker standing in the way of his election.
Even after Mr. Jordan, the hard-right Ohio Republican, won his party’s nomination for the post on Friday, he remained far short of the 217 votes he needed to win the gavel, with scores of his colleagues refusing to back him.
In efforts to close the gap, lawmakers and activists close to him have taken to social media and the airwaves to blast the Republicans they believe are blocking his path to victory and encourage voters to browbeat them into supporting Mr. Jordan.
It is an extraordinary instance of Republican-on-Republican fighting that underscores the divisions that have wrought chaos inside the party, paralyzing the House of Representatives in the process. Several of Mr. Jordan’s supporters have posted the phone numbers of mainstream G.O.P. lawmakers they count as holdouts, encouraging followers to flood the Capitol switchboard with calls demanding they back Mr. Jordan — or face the wrath of conservative voters as they gear up for primary season.
“You want to explain to your voters why you blocked Jordan?” Representative Anna Paulina Luna, Republican of Florida, wrote on X. “Then bring it.”
The strategy is reminiscent of the bullying tactics that Mr. Jordan and his allies have used over the past decade to pull the G.O.P. further to the right, and borrows a page from former President Donald J. Trump, who is backing Mr. Jordan.
It is also an approach that helped propel the House G.O.P. into its current leadership crisis. Republicans last year fielded several extreme-right congressional candidates who were popular with the base but ultimately could not win general elections in competitive districts, leaving them with a razor-thin majority in the House. A new generation of hard-liners has been able to exploit the tiny governing margin, dethroning one speaker and scuttling the bid of his heir apparent.
Mr. Jordan’s closeness with the former president has given him unparalleled cachet with the party base, and his backers were counting on that to help him prevail in a vote that could come as early as Tuesday.
While Friday’s votes were secret ballots, by Saturday, right-wing activists appeared to have identified about a dozen holdouts against Mr. Jordan as top targets for their onslaught.
The Messenger (“Rep. Crenshaw Knocks Jim Jordan Speaker Supporters’ ‘High-Pressure Campaign’: ‘Dumbest Thing You Can Do’“):
Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, is supporting Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, for speaker of the House, but he’s not too impressed with the tactics some of his fellow House Republicans are taking in campaigning for Jordan.
Appearing on CNN’s State of the Union with Jake Tapper, Crenshaw knocked what he referred to as a “high pressure campaign” being proposed by some colleagues to ensure that they vote for Jordan for speaker.
The next House speaker vote will be held Tuesday.
“What I would really recommend to Jordan’s allies too, is a lot of them have mounted this high-pressure campaign,” Crenshaw told Tapper on Sunday. “They’re going to whip up Twitter against the people who are against Jordan.”
The Texas congressman called the strategy the “dumbest thing you can do.”
“That is the dumbest way to support Jordan, and I’m supporting Jordan. I’m going to vote for Jordan. And as somebody who wants Jim Jordan, the dumbest thing you can do is to continue pissing off those people and entrench them,” he said.
The Hill (“Turner: If GOP can’t elect Speaker then ‘deal will have to be done’ with Democrats“):
Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio) said Sunday if House Republicans cannot elect a Speaker soon then a “deal will have to be done” with Democrats in order to get the chamber running again, as it nears two weeks since Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s (R-Calif.) historic ousting.
Asked on CBS News’s “Face the Nation” if there is a possible alternative scenario in which Republicans will need to work with Democrats to find a “mutually acceptable Speaker,” Turner responded that while he prefers a Republican solution to electing a Speaker and supports Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), a few hard-line GOP members may force a bipartisan deal.
“I think Jim Jordan will be an excellent Speaker. I think he’ll be able to get to 217. If not, we have other leaders in the House. And certainly, if there is a need if the radical, you know, almost just handful of people in the Republican side, make it unable … to be able to return to general work on the House, then I think obviously, there will be a deal [that] will have to be done,” Turner said.
The whole thing is amateur hour. The radicals ousted McCarthy with no plan to replace him. And, having angered the rest of the caucus, they’re now doubling down in a way that ensures they will not vote for their preferred candidate.
I fully agree with the faction that refuses to reward the nuts. But it does seem we’re at the point where the only way to avoid the inmates running the asylum is to reach across the aisle and attract some Democratic votes for a more broadly acceptable candidate. That will almost certainly not play well in the more rabidly red districts but, at some point, there’s no point in getting elected if you can’t govern when you get to Washington.
[Update: From Matt]
Rather than starting a new post, I wanted to add to James’s great summation of the current Jordan push with a report from Newsweek about Fox News host Sean Hannity getting involved in whipping up the vote:
Sean Hannity’s Fox News show is reportedly involving itself in trying to get Republicans to elect a new House speaker, including by asking moderate GOP lawmakers why they aren’t supporting Ohio congressman Jim Jordan for the role.
Axios reporter Juliegrace Brufke revealed an email from a member of Hannity’s production team named “Stephanie” sent to some House Republicans seeking a response as to why they aren’t backing Jordan for House speaker.
https://www.newsweek.com/sean-hannity-fox-email-jim-jordan-opponents-house-speaker-1834850
[…]
One House member said that Fox News’ Hannity show has “gotten involved in the efforts” to elect the speaker and end the deadlock in the lower chamber by sending emails asking them why they aren’t supporting Jordan.
For anyone familar with the text messages that emerged around the aftermath of the 2020 election and January 6th will probably not be surprised that Hannity is inserting himself into this process. It’s another example of how Fox News hosts, if not the channel itself, is deeply intertwined with Republican Party Politics.
It would be a very good thing for the country if Republicans worked with Dems to get a Speaker in place, but I am very skeptical. I suspect Jordan’s tactics will work, as there aren’t any significant number of non crazy republicans (ie Jordan supporters) who have any backbone. Of course they will cave.
I watched Mike Turner on Face the Nation yesterday. He’s a weasel. He tried again to blame Democrats for ousting McCarthy. And then turned around and tried to make equivalency between Trump keeping and lying about classified documents and classified documents found and turned in at Biden’s house. BTW, it seemed that all the weekly news shows were covered by Republicans. Where are the Democrats on the Sunday shows?
@MarkedMan: “I suspect Jordan’s tactics will work, as there aren’t any significant number of non crazy republicans (ie Jordan supporters) who have any backbone. Of course they will cave.”
You know, maybe they will. But one of Jordan’s supporters said exactly this in the press — sorry, I read it in passing a couple days ago and have no link. He said that Jordan will win because moderates are spineless and will always give in when they’re pushed.
Honestly, if he were trying for a no vote I don’t know what better he could have said…
Seems like there are a number of Republican House members who feel otherwise.
So far all I hear is “not Jordan”. I’m not hearing any real plan or seeing a viable alternative candidate. I fear it will come down to Jordan or ongoing chaos, and the “moderates” will cave.
While I think it would be good for the country if the Republicans reached a deal with the Dems, I think it would throw the Democrats into turmoil. Not for the Speaker deal itself, but for the ability of Repubs to peal off Dems in future votes. Once the dam is broken, it is broken. I’m more than OK with that, as long as neither side can get back on the “Only votes from my own party counts” treadmill to hell.
@wr:
Remember, these Repubs are so spineless that when a failed President sent a mob to literally kill them they still ended up kissing his rubbery ass…
The moderates may be spineless, but they care about getting reelected, and caving to the right may harm their chances–especially those in the Biden districts.
(George Santos doesn’t count. Honestly, judging from his behavior over the past year in which he’s eagerly cozied up to the far right and doesn’t act like he’s remotely interested in appealing to moderates, either he’s totally insane or he knows he’s toast and is preparing for his post-Congressional career on the right-wing grift circuit.)
@MarkedMan: I disagree. Rubber is generally supple and firm.
@Kylopod:
They need to get through the primaries before the Biden voters matter, and the Republican Base is 97% Pure Crazy (TM).
I’m watching this while getting ready for my son’s wedding – which is a model of calm, controlled organization and efficiency compared to what’s going on in Rep-land right now – and there’s a part of me that thinks that if the anti-Trump “moderates” had shown any resistance in the past few years they wouldn’t find themselves in this predicament. The Jordan supporter who said they always cave in is quite right and it’s up to the moderates to prove him wrong – for the first time. And they’ll have to do it without the Dems rushing in to pull their chestnuts out of the fire.
“If not, we have other leaders in the House.” – Mike Turner
Nearly peed myself laughing at this. Republicans have 10000 problems and “too many leaders” ain’t one of them.
“I know of many hard nos. …We can’t reward this behavior,” the GOP lawmaker said. “We can’t let a small group be dictators; we tried that already, and it didn’t work.”
Fixed that for him.
@Kylopod:
When the dirt starts coming out, MAGA is going to be in the position of defending a groomer and molester while constantly screaming about them. Cognitive dissonance only goes so far and it won’t take much to make the No stick; he can’t afford to lose any votes to “moderates” worried they’ll lose an election.
The way to “win” is simple: expel a few of the troublemakers to make examples out of them in exchange for the votes of Dems in red leaning districts. Show them that they don’t run the show or you will never be rid of their ilk. Get rid of Getz for doing this, Boebart for her recent scandal and Greene because you KNOW she’s next to start something. Give up a few concessions and boom, you’ve retained power for your party and likely helped you keep your seat next round. It won’t fly because it does require having a spine but it’s the only way MAGA doesn’t get wrecked in the next year. This mess have proven the Power of the Lone Nut and all it takes is one angry MAGAt to start this all over again. They will burn it down in their tantrums so it’s time for the GOP to put their Big Boy pants on and either give the Dems what they want or kick out the ones keeping them from governing.
There’s little point in having power if they can’t use it to further their own goals, after all….
How much faith to put in Repubs who claim they are adamant in voting against Jordan but will only say so off the record? I don’t know the exact number, but it is definitely negative…
If (very big if) the outcome is a cooperation agreement between Rs & Ds… and it succeeds for some length of time… that would likely be the fracture line down which the Repblican party breaks for good.
The culmination of the southern strategy.
@JohnMc: As long as there’s an America, there will be bigots and people who pander to them in return for political support. Probably longer, truth be told.
@KM: A good comment, but I wonder about this:
True – but “so far” in this case is very, very far.
@KM: And how does
work, exactly?
I’m a Democrat. If I am living in Fitzpatrick’s district, for instance, and he votes to expel Gaetz, I am going to thank him for doing the right thing for once in his life and then when election time comes around I am going to remember the other hundreds of times he had a chance to do so and went with the MAGAts instead. And then I am going to vote Dem, as I always do.
These spineless want it both ways “moderates” are not the heroic do the right thing figures you make them out to be and one vote won’t ever change that.
@MarkedMan: the actionable path would seem to, if what I have read is correct (thus caveated) back in the McCarthy saving scenario, to not actually vote for a Republican Speaker but merely have a strategy of if person X (least objectionable to them, i.e. non-MAGA at least) is put up, then a percentage or even all Democrats vote Present (perhaps as a show of unity).
That being more of adhering to a traditionalist “No interference, no objection” mode.
While at same time not removing their implicit power to destroy such by choosing not to do so in a future. Leverage sans engaging in active support.
@Jay: In short, unless said R acts like a D it is insufficient. That of course is the party political partisan approach, which is not likely the sort of vote that is changeable in reality. This is not of course the only kind of vote out there. Not to argue that the evoked strategy would attract votes, maybe depending on certain specific consituencies demographics.
@Kylopod:
His only hope (slim as it is) is to attach himself to the crazies. At a minimum, it makes him important for the moment (and I think it is fair to say that he likes attention).
Apropos of not much, I have to say that photo at the top is great. I love the lighting and the composition as well as the focus and depth of field.
@Jay:
Perhaps I should have been more clear – DINOs or Dem Lite in red leaning districts like Manchin (Senator, I know but best example I could think of right now). The ones who want to appear “reasonable” or “the good one” compared to the nut screaming about bans and bathrooms. The ones who we know weren’t gonna vote D on every issue because of the voters back home so why not take advantage of it?
If you’ve won as a D in a red district, you either pulled off a remarkable Get Out the Vote or your voters picked you because you were the lesser of two evils for them. We have got to have at least one of the later kind hanging around that would like to get some red cred with the moderates back home; I’d prefer my listed 3 but I don’t think sacrificing Gaetz in this plan is a deal-breaker for many in the House. With all the stupidity currently running around, why not try this particular brand and see if it works? Reaching across the aisle!
@KM: “If you’ve won as a D in a red district, you either pulled off a remarkable Get Out the Vote or your voters picked you because you were the lesser of two evils for them. ”
Or because a right-leaning Supreme Court in a very blue state decided redistricting must be done to elect the maximum possible number of Republicans.
But since our beloved governor was stymied in her attempt to place another conservative on the court — following the lead of her mentor Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat who hated nothing more than the idea of other Democrats having power — and there is now a majority on the court that actually reflects the state and has called for redistricting to do the same, I’m pretty sure that a lot of those Republicans who squeaked out Congressional victories are facing an even tougher time than they were.
A this point, the idea to clone P.T. Barnum and nominating him for speaker, begins to sound plausible.
@Steven L. Taylor:
I was just thinking about the “this is my moment” photos of McCarthy and Scalise, and the amazing speed with which they became outdated. Hopefully, Jordan’s will age out even more rapidly…
It appears that Jordan is winning, as some key “leaders” of the anti-Jordan side fold. How Josh Marshall sees this playing out:
@MarkedMan: Yeah, he also put out a dear colleague letter talking about unity of the republican party. To me that sounds like a fig leaf for some of the remaining hold outs to switch their votes to the already winning candidate. Also one could read that as a veiled threat to punish any holdouts tomorrow.
On Friday I thought he was going down in flames, but apparently his lobbying campaign was more effective than I gave him credit for.
Will there be a change of rules under Groomer Gym, or do the rules Kevin agreed to remain?
If the latter, then the Democrats can, and should, file a motion to vacate every week. At least after the House has a chance to deal with the emergency in te Middle East.
@Steven L. Taylor:
I call this shot “weasel surrounded”
But seriously, composition and lighting are indeed great.
Can we stop pretending there are reasonable Republicans? It’s bullshit. The GOP has three wings: Morons, Cowards and Liars. The morons actually believe Trump’s lies, the cowards pretend to believe Trump’s lies, and the liars exploit Trump’s lies for political advantage. The GOP is completely defined by its relationships to Trump’s lies. There is no moderate, centrist, rational GOP.
There is no GOP agenda because the only agenda in a cult is support for the cult leader. Are the cowards and liars members of this cult? Irrelevant. Was every communist on-board with Stalin? Unlikely, but it did not matter because the cult leader was the alpha and omega and whether you had accepted Stalin as your personal savior or not, if you were a communist in the USSR your actions were all in support of Stalin’s cult of personality.
Morons, Cowards and Liars are all elements of the Trump cult of personality. There is nothing else to the GOP.
I find everything–EVERYTHING–about this situation appalling.
Jordan has been credibly accused of looking the other way while students were sexually assaulted.
He’s a bully.
That FOX News is injecting itself into this–I want everyone to take a minute to think about what would be said if, say, CNN or the NYT had a prominent journalist doing what Hannity is doing. JFC.
This simply is not acceptable, and I hope those Republicans who are getting calls from Hannity’s office are screaming this at the top of their lungs.
Jordan has the temperament of a man who makes enemies who really hate him. I don’t think he bullies his way into the speakership.
@Gustopher: I’ve got no opinion of my own as I only know what I’ve read, but FWIW a Josh Marshall considers it all but done.
The only thing I have an opinion on is that all that matters are the reps publically stating they won’t support him. Off the record comments essentially mean, “I’m going to cave, but I’m mad about it. “
@Michael Reynolds: Other than providing emotional outburt satisfaction, this seems a fairly useless action – pretending whatever.
By reason of constiuencies structure in USA, the specifics of geography, the electoral voe, and politial structure, there is this party grouping, they are the necessary interlocutor barring a coup d’état…
And even in Stalinist Russia fractions emerged and were splittable. Rather evidently the Republican party has nothing like the mechanisms of enforcement of party line as Stalin (or Mao). You do self-harm to yourselves in not looking for cleavages and wedges, and lumping them indifferently.
@Michael Reynolds:
This.
The most obvious example of this right now is Nancy Mace (R-SC). She trolls Democrats with occassional ‘centrist’ remarks concerning abortion, but she always comes around to the MAGA talking points. She’s not Marjorie Taylor-Greene or Lauren Boebert, however she has enough skills to allow the main stream media commentariat to describer her as moderate or centrist.
This is not complicated, she’s a South Carolina Republican, that’s kind of a clue as to where she’s going to be on all the prominent issues of the day. Nikki Haley and Tim Scott are the same, their national ambition forces them to pretend to be centrist. There’s a lot of cowardice going on right now.
The Hill is reporting that Jordan is gaining support and there are (only) around 10+ holdouts.
There’s a good article in POLITICO of all places noting we’ve been in similar territory before. Under Roosevelt Congress was largely deadlocked by a coalition of conservative Republicans and Southern Democrats.
In the early 60s,
This ended due to Kennedy’s assassination and LBJ’s adroit exploitation of it. Democrats won majorities in both Houses and moderate to liberal Republicans joined with liberal Democrats to actually govern. (Once upon a time there were moderate Republicans who were actually moderate, not just slightly more presentable.)
And almost all of those GOPs had won a GOP primary.
But I fear the real lesson of this article is “Vote Blue, no matter who”. This isn’t likely to end well unless Republicans spend a few cycles in the outer darkness weeping and gnashing teeth.
@Jen:
Crap. Only another half dozen to club into submission. Expected, but crap.
@Lounsbury:
You’re wrong.
There were no relevant or exploitable schisms in Stalinist USSR til Stalin died. True that Trump cannot (yet) actually murder dissidents, but that’s setting the bar too high. No one in the GOP needs the threat of a one-way trip to the gulag to knuckle under, the threat of electoral defeat is more than enough to ensure obedience. Hell, the threat of a Trump tweet is more than enough to impose discipline.
The only man still in the GOP who has the balls to criticize Trump is Chris Christie, currently polling at 2%. There are no factions, there are no dissidents, these are not brave or principled people, they sell their souls cheap. The mere threat of being primaried is all it takes to collapse Republican spines because they don’t believe in anything but holding onto their tiny slice of power.
What many miss in all this is that the Republican Party’s core beliefs are all dead letters, and were before Trump. Low taxes do not yield growth, money does not trickle down, regulation is necessary as evidenced by the fact that every successful country on earth is some version of a regulated capitalism, and more guns just means more murder. The GOP is desperately searching for a new set of victims (Trans? Drag Queens? Teachers? Kathy Griffin?) the oppression of which will yield sweet, sweet campaign funds. They’re going hard on social issues because they have nothing else. The erstwhile party of the rich is now the party of snake handlers, misogynist incels and wannabe Nazis.
@Michael Reynolds: I thought the 3 wings were guns, taxes, and Jesus. What changed?
@Michael Reynolds:
You think he has balls, I think those balls are teeny-tiny. Within the past few days Christie has said that if he had to chose between Trump and Biden, he would vote for Trump. Such is the Christie commitment to democracy.
@Gustopher: He might bully his way in, but I can’t imagine him having any staying power. I don’t think he’s strong enough to survive a fight and his record in the house, such as it is, doesn’t show a principled political warrior. He’s no Nancy Pelosi.
But he may be a nancy boi.
@Just nutha ignint cracker: Anyone who has paid any attention to the House Judicial Committee under Jordan has got to wonder seriously if he’s up to the Speaker’s job.
The party that elected Trump, supports Trump, worships Trump is not going to support Jordan? Not believable. This is what the radicals wanted all along and they are the ones most closely aligned with Trump.
Steve
@Michael Reynolds: You are experiencing quite the derangement syndrome if you are actually seriously comparing a Republican party which has no control mechanism for its brand or party membership with Stalin and his system, which literally sent party members to the Gulag – although there were devisions and certainly exploitable, but yes most particularly when the pitiless Stalin approach was shut down. Comparing Trump twits to Stalinest rigour is beyond ridiculous, although it does show you have no experience with real totalitarian systems.
I suppose it is emotionally cartharsis to rant on about how the enemy are a bunch of amoral big meanies, but fairly useless otherwise.
I have to say, James, your sublede– “It almost certainly won’t work.”–is a remarkable burst of optimism in the face of 8 solid years of this bullying tactic absolutely working in the GOP.
@Neil Hudelson: Well, I hope he’s right. It ain’t lookin’ good, though.
I am curious about something. We know what a rabid attack dog he is, and how ferociously he postures and smears.
The question is whether he negotiates in good faith. I have never heard of him negotiating at all, but that’s not the same as negotiating in bad faith. Do we know anything?
If the groomer gets picked, I’d start planning for a government shutdown to last between November 2023 and February.
@Kathy: What happens in February that will break the log jam? Or are you talking February 2o25?
@Just nutha ignint cracker:
I figure that’s when the Cheeto gets it the shutdown is unpopular, and he starts saying Gym ought to be shot for treason.
@Jay L Gischer: Why do you think he’s trying to get the job to negotiate? At least the debt limit is no longer in play.
Jim Jordan, Speaker of the House?
If there is one thing that we can count on in GOP politics, it’s that there really does not appear to be a bottom…
I’d feel a lot more confident in the prediction “this won’t work” if there was even one of the moderates willing to stand up and run against him. I would guess a cabal of moderates afraid to be publicly known as such would be who will lose.
@charontwo:
That’s the problem with many of the never-trump Republicans. they think a Democrat would be worse.
I wonder what universe they live in.
@Michael Reynolds:
There were factions inside Stalin’s inner circle. Butcher Joe would play them against each other. The thing to keep in mind is the 1930s terror had a powerful, permanent effect on everyone. even though the quality, and quantity, of repression eased after 1945, and much focused on the Jewish population*, the fear that things could get worse in a hurry was ever present. Proof: Stalin died of natural causes, not of a 9mm brain hemorrhage.
If you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend The Death of Stalin. A lot of what happens is fiction, or is presented in a simplified form. But it’s hard to tell. Some things are so ridiculous as to seem like bad satire, but they did happen. Like the delay in getting the butcher medical attention.
*Largely because Israel sided with the West in the cold war.
I don’t think that is right Kathy, most if not all never trumpers would vote for Biden. It is not right to call Christie a never Trumper.
@Kathy: They live in a universe where Democrats and liberals are people who hate America and want to destroy “our way of life.” It’s easy to suss out once you realize the givens of the discussion.