What’s with the latest acts of aggression in congress lately ?

27 comments

1. The Republican party is in shambles right now and has no direction or plan. Due to this we are seeing a bunch of infighting.

2. We’re becoming a more divided country by the second, these recent aggression are just a side effects of that. The same things happened during the prelude to the Civil War.

3. Republicans.

4. I’m no expert, but it looks like if a lot of districts elect people who advertise themselves as loose cannons, you get a roomful of loose cannons.

5. Its just par for the course, violence is common in congress.

   There was this instance back in the day where a pro-slavery Democrat from South Carolina, used a walking cane to attack Senator Charles Sumner, an abolitionist Republican from Massachusetts.

   This book lists over 50+ such incidents just during the lead up before the civil war.
   [https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374154776](https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374154776)

   Hell there was a duel where they killed each other in 1838.
   [https://history.house.gov/Historical-Highlights/1800-1850/A-fatal-duel-between-Members-in-1838/](https://history.house.gov/Historical-Highlights/1800-1850/A-fatal-duel-between-Members-in-1838/)

   In 1798…
   Griswold struck Lyon repeatedly about the head, shoulders and arms, while Lyon attempted to shield himself from the blows. Lyon then turned and ran to the fireplace, took up a pair of metal tongs, and having armed himself thus returned to the engagement. Griswold then tripped Lyon and struck him in the face while he lay on the ground, at which point the two were separated. After a break of several minutes, however, Lyon unexpectedly pursued Griswold again with the tongs, and the brawl was re-ignited.

6. Don’t forget that Mike Rogers (R-AL) had to be physically restrained from attacking Matt Gaetz on the House floor back in January.

7. Cornered rats can do some batcrazy stuff.

8. Remember when congressmen would have literal duels?

   We should go back to that

9. It’s nothing new.

   [The Caning of Senator Charles Sumner](https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/minute/The_Caning_of_Senator_Charles_Sumner.htm)

10. The clown of reality TV became president and it’s been trashy reality television ever since. See also: Republicans

11. Some districts elect jackasses specially because they run on being a jackass. And now they’re acting like jackasses.

    It’s that old adage – elect clowns, expect a circus

12. It’s what happens when you elect clowns to congress

13. They want attention. And unfortunately we’re giving it to them.

14. Some states elected clowns and now they are trying to put on a circus.

15. Somewhere along the line it became ok to throw out all sense of professional decorum in favor of being a shithead. I blame many things: Newt Gingrich’s tactics, 24 hour news cycle, and oh yeah, electing a Saturday morning cartoon villain to the highest office in the land

16. Democracy basically means government by the people, of the people, for the people; but the people are retarded.

17. It’s called “Traitor Trump Disease”. It’s full of hate and when you hate you want to hurt! It seems to affect only Republicans🥹

18. Fuck them all, I just want them to make weed and prostitution legal across the country.

19. Politics is stressful and tensions flair. You have a room full of a-type personalities all trying to assert dominance all the time. Honestly, I’m surprised Congress is as peaceful as it usually is. It seems like it would be more volatile. It seems to be the Republicans turn but let’s not pretend the Democrats haven’t done similar. They also make a lot of threats.

20. It’s all perfectly rational. These people will be successful at fundraising and likely, campaigning on examples of themselves being aggressive lunatics, even within their own coalition. The incentive structure of our politics is seriously broken.

21. It’s not a happy environment conducive to making deals. It takes masterful diplomacy to get even the bare minimum done.

22. Voter stupidity is finally starting to reflect itself in Congress’ members.

23. A certain party starting with the letter R is starting to freak out and fall apart

24. Lack of mature adult-level impulse control, poor-to-absent mature adult-level decision-making ability, rabid “individualism,” intentional and willful degradation of adult-level critical thinking skills, organic brain damage. The possibilities are as wide and as varied as the opportunities for performative outrage broadcasting.

25. We want that action they get in Bulgaria!

    You know when it started though? When someone shouted out to Obama “Lie” during the state of the union address. When you violate a norm the first time, it leads to more.

26. Our political figures have had a tendency to be a little wild from the beginning. The first Secretary of the Treasury was killed in a duel by a political rival. We elected a president that had been in at least 5 duels and had bullets from those duels in his body. He also beat a would be assassin with his walking stick when the man’s gun didn’t fire. We had more than 70 instances of violence between congressmen in the 1800s during the lead up to The Civil War. Peaceful times in the halls of government may actually be outliers.

27. Preston Brooks nearly beat Charles Sumner to death in the middle of Senate in 1856