Post

the tea party was really a seminal shift in how the median congressperson behaved in person you stopped needing to be a successful schmoozer and started needing to be a totally unreasonable lunatic to win your primaries, and social media has only accelerated this

Dave Levitan@davelevitan.bsky.social

My theory that as members of congress are increasingly batshit it will increasingly select for even more batshit people who can tolerate the job is doing pretty well

19/12/25, 1:08 am238 reposts1.3K likes

I'mTheProblemIt'sMe

@spin4srv.bsky.social

Koch brothers started buying state legislators in the 70s which led to increased gerrymandering which made only primaries count pushing partisans to the extreme

Cosmological 🏺

@cosmological.bsky.social

This and gerrymandering making primaries the real race in most districts

pinkybum.bsky.social

@pinkybum.bsky.social

The Tea Party was just the culmination of the toxic ethos that Gingrich started.

@lethaldose50.bsky.social

Aided nicely by gerrymandering so the batshitters don't need to act sane and suffer no accountability.

Regina Schrambling

@gastropoda.bsky.social

#complicitmedia helped, front-paging Teabaggers to undermine first Black prez.

@lakecounty1975.bsky.social

Correct. The Tea Party protests were treated as authentic, game-changing and were gushed over for months. The No Kings protests involved more than 2.5 times the percent of America's population and were barely a 48 hour story.

Regina Schrambling

@gastropoda.bsky.social

And the obvious racism by the Teabaggers — Obama as a witch doctor? — was totally normalized.

@petekeeley.bsky.social

There have always been batshit House members. They just have a megaphone now

Yeah, there are slightly more, but the big problem is they have more reach and power now.

@sunflowerspirit.bsky.social

Started by the Koch brothers and mislabeled as grassroot. They brainwashed people so they didn’t have to pay taxes. And here we are.

Jeremy Pober-geist 👻

@jpober.bsky.social

There was a brief period where politicians who were like that on TV but faking it were up and coming, but almost all of them got primaried by the real deal. Ted Cruz is one of the last survivors and it's because his TV persona is so obnoxious that it's hard to believe he voluntary chose to play it.

ridingbikes.bsky.social

@ridingbikes.bsky.social

Personal opinion: ranked choice voting might help change this dynamic.

@bigfatbartolocolon.bsky.social

Instead of someone they want to have a drink with, voters prefer someone their opponents would hate to have a drink with

Goth Rat Summer [6'7"]

@sciencehippies.bsky.social

I'd argue that patient zero is Newt Gingrich.

@brubaker.bsky.social

IT FUCKIN SUUUUUCKS

@christopherburns.bsky.social

Yep. After the nation dared sweep a Black man into the highest office in the land in a landslide, they went berserk. I remember all those Tea Party guys spouting “I was not sent here to comprise” before they’d even been sworn in. They all said it, and they all meant it.

@christopherburns.bsky.social

*compromise

@peace-23.bsky.social

Well said👏🏽

which, combined with the rise of gridlock and a total collapse of even meaningless bipartisan messaging bills, means you spend all your time trapped in a building with people you would otherwise cross the street to avoid, not getting anything done it's a shit job!

“Exquisite Class” Posts

@embittered.bsky.social

Exciting to see Crockett be the test bed for the dem version of this (I’m sorry everything about her screams grifter who loves the camera)

@rdubwiley.bsky.social

Needing to run every two years when you're essentially taking regular flights between home and DC every few weeks absolutely blows.

Will Code For Pizza

@markshatraw.bsky.social

I had a chat with a reporter who had just spent some time with a now-former Congressman and the vibe I got was the guy would've run headfirst through a brick wall to escape. The vibes were foul and this was ~2012

John Boehner once handed out literal checks from the tobacco lobby on the floor of the House and he could not fucking WAIT to quit his job and retire to go drink wine in 2015 it got very bad very fast

Will Code For Pizza@markshatraw.bsky.social

I had a chat with a reporter who had just spent some time with a now-former Congressman and the vibe I got was the guy would've run headfirst through a brick wall to escape. The vibes were foul and this was ~2012

Will Code For Pizza

@markshatraw.bsky.social

He's now a weed lobbyist. Maybe he's onto something.

he's an evil man but he's smarter than most of 'em

@chasmat.bsky.social

but at least the pay is a fraction of what you'd make exploiting your connections in the private sector, a job which you could have tomorrow with a single phone call

Cacao Byproduct

@cacaobyproduct.bsky.social

man we're gonna have a ton of one or two-term politicians who leave to just corruptify aren't we

@chasmat.bsky.social

the terms, they limit themselves

@suasponte2023.bsky.social

I still blame Newt Gingrich for telling GOP congresspeople to go back to their home stares for the weekend instead of getting sauced with their fellows across the aisle.