Well Salon apparently disagrees with my assessment that the fight over whether Kevin McCarthy should be Speaker of the House is a tempest in a teapot.

Amanda Marcotte, one of Salon’s most ridiculous (and popular) writers warns that Washington’s outbreak of actual democratic debate and open disagreement is a threat to the stability of the nation.

[S]ome of these demands are alarming because they invite legislative chaos for the next two years, there’s one aspect of this very public fight that may be even more dangerous: The way that both the demands of the anti-McCarthy group and his concessions to them could signal to would-be domestic terrorists that they have the support of the Republican party. While the conflict between McCarthy and his Republican opponents seems at a stalemate as of Friday morning, both sides do agree on these security-related issues. Two years after Donald Trump incited an insurrection at the Capitol in a desperate bid to remain in power, the Republican-controlled House is making moves that read strongly as winking encouragement not just to the people who rioted that day, but to anyone who would follow in their footsteps.

I suppose somebody had to go there, because ridiculous hyperbole from our political class is very on-brand. We have already had Leftists calling Byron Donalds, a Black Republican Member of the House a White Supremacist because he floated his name as a possible candidate for the position of Speaker.

FWIW, @ByronDonalds is not a historic candidate for Speaker. He is a prop. Despite being Black, he supports a policy agenda intent on upholding and perpetuating white supremacy.

His name being in the mix is not progress—it’s pathetic.

— Cori Bush (@CoriBush) January 4, 2023

Representative Bush–one of the most radical members of the body who was all-in on defunding the police–started a firestorm with her take that White Supremacy is a rainbow coalition. This, apparently, is one of the new talking points of the Left, so of course Salon’s Marcotte had to one up the sheer idiocy of the commentariat.

Are the @latimes arguing that white supremacy is diverse & inclusive of all colours? Even @TitaniaMcGrath couldn’t match this. https://t.co/jG2kJ372wb

— Rita Panahi (@RitaPanahi) January 5, 2023

So why should I be surprised when a member of the commentariat compares dissent to terrorism? Of course it is. Any disagreement leads to, at least, “stochastic terrorism.” The Science™ tells us so.

It is striking how easily the talking points of the Chinese Communist Party have become accepted wisdom in the United States. Censorship is the byword of the Left, and all Establishment Washington is appalled that the House of Representatives is engaged in a spirited debate about who should lead the body and what the rules should be.

It used to be that we valued debate, reveled in disagreement, and expected compromise only after a hard fought argument over the best policies and path forward.

There has been more debate and discussion over the past three days than when the $1.7 trillion omnibus spending bill was passed.

— Mayra Flores (@MayraFlores2022) January 6, 2023

Now, unless everybody sits down, shuts up, and complies with the diktats of the Elite the world is on the brink of violence. Literal terrorism is the inevitable result of having an argument, so follow the Leader.

“At this point, the Republican party’s entire strategy is incitement,” Melissa Ryan, an expert in right wing extremism who writes the “Ctrl Alt-Right Delete” newsletter, told Salon. “They’re keeping the MAGA base constantly worked up with increasingly violent rhetoric.”

Funnily enough, the “MAGA base” isn’t exactly united in this fight. Sure, some are against McCarthy, but some are for him too. This argument is the result of massive disagreements about the best path forward after the disappointing midterm elections, and unlike most political commentators I think it isn’t so much a crisis as a healthy thing that disagreements are debated.

Sure, it can’t go on forever. But on the other hand, should McCarthy and the Establishment House members actually turn to Democrats to cement a coalition it would only prove that McCarthy’s critics were right. Nobody has a right to be Speaker–in a democracy you have to persuade people to follow you. The Chairman Xi model of governance is a warning, not a model for how things should work.

Am I in the dissenter’s camp? Not really. But I am not in the camp of people who believe that an apocalypse is upon us whenever a democratic debate emerges.

When I hear that the last precedent for a long fight over the speakership is a century old I am led to wonder: how well has that worked out for us? Has all this unanimity within the political parties been a good thing? Have we been well served by having a unified Elite?

How’s that national debt looking? Feel good about that compromise budget they passed after the midterms? Want more of the same?

Of course, I am not naive enough to believe that anything particularly good will come of this fight. It seems unlikely much will change for good or ill. Our government is too large, matters too much, controls too many resources, is too involved in the minutia of our lives and our economy for the inertia to be appreciably diverted.

But I fail to see how the open airing of dissent is a threat to democracy. Rather, it seems to be a rare example of democracy breaking out.

Too bad so many people find it scary.