“The confusion that is in our government, where the ‘Republicans’ and ‘Democrats’ can’t seem to agree: Partisan politics is sentencing ‘democracy’ to death.”
—The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan “The Time and What Must Be Done,” Part 2
Government dysfunction, utter confusion, and political paralysis are all adjectives describing the state of America. From the look of things, the world’s number one economic and military power and once envy of the world is everything but a United States of America but is in contrast, a self-imploding dis-United States.
Bitter partisan politics once again has become front stage with a “Satan casting out Satan” drama that played out in the chambers of Congress when the Speaker of the House—who is third in line to the presidency—was unceremoniously ousted. The act added more chaos to the existing chaos on Capitol Hill and America’s downward spiral.
Eight Republicans and 208 Democrats expelled House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif), in a contentious political climate steeped in deep divisions. The vote was orchestrated by a group of far-right lawmakers who opposed Mr. McCarthy in a bitter power struggle within the GOP. He was the first speaker to ever be voted out of office in the institution’s 234-year history in a 216-to-210 vote that reflected the deep polarization in Congress.
It took only one motion to vacate by a lone lawmaker to set off the Oct. 2 move. Florida Republican Matt Gaetz introduced the motion against Mr. McCarthy, a staunch political foe. Republicans had animosity toward the former speaker for cooperating with House Democrats to prevent a government shutdown. Mr. Gaetz contended there was also a secret side deal allegedly between Mr. McCarthy and President Joe Biden on long-term funding for Ukraine, which Mr. McCarthy denies.
The former speaker was handed his pink slip two days after rallying GOP lawmakers to pass a bill funding the U.S. government until November 17 as a temporary band-aid to avert a looming government shutdown on Oct. 1. A shutdown means a disruption of government services and thousands of federal workers told not to work if Congress fails to fund 438 government agencies. Only essential workers would remain, but almost all workers would go unpaid.
“The need to change course is urgent,” said Democrat Minority Leader Hakeem Jefferies, in an Oct. 6 Washington Post Op-ed on moving forward and reversing the partisan mess. He blames the political quagmire on “Maga extremism” among the Republicans.
“Congress is in the midst of a Republican civil war that undermines our ability to make life more affordable for American taxpayers, to keep communities safe and to strengthen democracy,” he said. Rep. Jefferies of New York, who supported vacating the speaker chair, is calling for rule changes and reversing practices that brought Washington to this point.
“House Democrats remain committed to a bipartisan path forward, as we have repeatedly demonstrated throughout this Congress by providing a majority of the votes to prevent a government shutdown this month and avoid a catastrophic default on America’s debt in June,” said Rep. Jeffries.
For now, lawmakers are up against the fast-approaching November deadline to fund the government for the next year. And absent a speaker, legislative business in the House is stopped.
At Final Call presstime, House Republicans set up an Oct. 10 candidates forum before an expected vote for a new speaker on Oct. 11. However, potential replacements face a tough road to capture the 218 votes needed to become the next speaker. Last January it took 15 rounds of voting for Mr. McCarthy to secure the seat.
In the running vying for the vacated gravel is Rep. Steve Scalise (R.- La.) and Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio). Other names floating around are also Minority leader Jefferies and former President Donald Trump. However, Mr. Trump released a statement that he is backing Rep. Jordan for speaker.
Meanwhile, North Carolina Republican Patrick McHenry was appointed interim speaker as Republicans wrangle over who will lead their caucus and the House in a battle expected to linger for weeks.
The crisis has thrust the troubled country into more disarray and political upheaval. However, this latest malfunction is only part of the story.
At the same time, former President Trump is embroiled in a multitude of legal cases, dividing his time between multi-state court appearances and campaign appearances for the 2024 presidential race. He has been slapped with 91 charges across four criminal cases comprising 44 federal charges and 47 state charges—all felonies.
Yet despite this massive stack of charges, Mr. Trump remains the GOP front-runner by 51 percent ahead of other candidates in the 2024 presidential primaries and is only single-digit percentage points on the heels of President Biden, according to polls. The former president was also recently in federal court.
On Oct. 5 attorneys for Mr. Trump asked a judge to toss out a federal indictment accusing him of conspiring to overturn the 2020 election. His attorneys argued that because the charges relate to actions he took as president, he should be “absolutely immune from prosecution.”
Meanwhile, President Biden has recorded his first positive poll rating in five months in a new Rasmussen Reports survey, which found 49 percent of Americans approve of his conduct in office while 48 percent disapprove. There have been reported murmurings in some circles that Mr. Biden should consider stepping aside his bid to run in 2024 due to his age. He is 80. Mr. Trump is 77.
According to polling aggregate site FiveThirtyEight, this is the first time more Americans have approved than disapproved of Biden since a YouGov survey published in May, though it remains an outlier with most surveys giving Biden a negative approval rating, reported MSN.com. Mr. Biden is also dealing with an impeachment inquiry launched at him over alleged influence peddling while he was vice-president in the Barack Obama administration, involving business dealings of his son Hunter Biden.
Political analysts and observers said all these situations are only examples of a nation going the way of former empires that were diseased and rotted from within.
The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan and his teacher, the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad of the Nation of Islam, have long warned about the state of America and its degeneration.
“The confusion that is in our government, where the ‘Republicans’ and ‘Democrats’ can’t seem to agree: Partisan politics is sentencing ‘democracy’ to death,” Minister Farrakhan said in part 2 of “The Time and What Must Be Done,” series of hour-long talks broadcasted in 2013.
“It is those who ‘run’ the country; those who are the legislative branch of the country who are supposed to represent the People (their “constituents”)— yet they are ‘bought and paid for’ by special interests, and by those who control the policies and direction of our government,” said the Minister.
He spoke of “a new world, a new message” and a “real change” to come. “We know that we are at ‘the end of this system of things,’ we know we’re at the end of this ‘time,’ we know that America is in ‘decline’—and when America goes down, she takes the world down with her,” he added.
We are witnessing the unraveling of a consequential nation, said Abdul Haleem Muhammad, the Southwest Regional Representative of the Nation of Islam. “Because there’s an old world going out and a new world coming in, as the Honorable Elijah Muhammad told us in his writings,” he said.
Student Minister Abdul Haleem Muhammad said a new vision for America that repudiates the flawed vision of the Founding Fathers of America must be given. Part of the flaw of America’s inception was the exclusion of the very people who are becoming the majority in America, non-Whites, and women.
For Black people who have placed hope in the Democratic party and its leadership, the Student Minister advises a reset toward doing for self and getting out of the way of the fate of America.
“They need to revisit the Teachings of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad and reconsider ‘The Muslim Program,’ particularly Point Number Four of ‘What the Muslims Want,’ which is separation,” he continued.
God is forcing Black folks to reason with why He (God) came, explained Student Minister Muhammad. “He came to set us free and make us an independent nation … redeem us and bring America down as past rebellious, oppressive nations.”
“So Black people are going to have to reconcile their feelings and their thoughts with what God Almighty gave to His Mahdi, the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad, and now the Messiah, the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan,” he said.
For political analyst and author Wilmer Leon, Black folks in the midst of America’s fall should be especially concerned. “As African Americans, we should be very concerned,” said Mr. Leon. “Because America right now is demonstrating that it is in a serious state of flux. Not only domestically, but internationally as well,” he added.
“The Empire’s dying,” explained Mr. Leon. “And as the Minister (Farrakhan) warned us years ago, we don’t have anything of our own to fall back on,” he reasoned.
Mr. Leon said the chaotic politics between the ultra-conservatives and the “MAGA” people versus the GOP standard bearers is a thing of White folks. “As far as we’re concerned, that’s really inside baseball,” he argued. “Because the one thing at the end of the day that they’re all going to rally around is the fact that they’re White,” he said.
There is a law that no political or social system founded on injustice can stand. The law of justice and reciprocity is at play that returns in proportion to what was sent forth. America and the White world will end up in a state of loss and ruin. The Bible says the bottom rail shall move to the top and the top rail to the bottom. America, the once “dread and envy” of the nations, is becoming an object of pity and headed for devastation and ruin.
“The Honorable Elijah Muhammad told me that one day you will see these leaders in the back of pickup trucks in chains, being driven through the streets of America—and the American people throwing garbage and other objects at them,” said Minister Farrakhan in part 53 of “The Time and What Must Be Done.”
