In the immortal words of Billy Preston in his 1974 song of the same name, “Nothing from nothing leaves nothing.”
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As is my habit on Friday morning I listened to the podcast of that most suave of demons, the Voice of Saruman himself (aka the ZMan). And he did not disappoint. This week he was banging the drum against the Stupid Party (aka the GOP). And as usual, he made some devastating points. The gist of his diatribe was that between the Democrats and Republicans in Congress, the districts have been gerrymandered to the point where each party has a death grip on 90% of the districts they currently control. And because of this partisan lock on particular Congressional seats, the Republican office holders really fear only one thing; displeasing the party bosses. Because it’s the party that gives them the money they need to run their campaigns and essentially only the party can remove them by primarying them. And for that reason, the will of the electorate is completely ignored in favor of what the party apparatus decides.
And so, the ZMan declares that the only way to break the GOP’s stranglehold on power is to vote them all out of office. This is similar to the present campaign to “zero out” the Tories in the British House of Parliament. If all the conservative voters voted for Labor (and less surely if they all just don’t vote at all) the Tories will be wiped out. Once that happens the establishment will be thrown into a panic and some kind of reform might take place. Of course, in the meantime while the progressives are in complete control all kinds of horrors will unfold but without a doubt the stalemate going on in their government will disappear. Who knows maybe Nigel Farage’s Independence Party might replace the Tories and actually reinstate representative government in England.
So, the ZMan has a similar idea. Although I’ll give him credit. He modified the idea enough to allow that conservative voters should split their vote. They should vote for Trump for President but not vote for a single other Republican. He reasons that regardless of whether Trump wins or not the huge discrepancy between Trump’s vote totals and the other Republicans will make the point that the Republicans have lost the confidence of the people and the system is completely broken. He even states that if Trump wins and the Republicans are wiped out in the House and Senate, he would hardly notice the difference in how he would govern. Now this isn’t accurate. If the Republicans were almost completely wiped out then the Democrats could easily remove Trump from office by impeachment. But I do admit it’s a pretty attractive idea. Vote for Trump but poke a thumb in the eye of Mitch McConnell and Mike Johnson.
Of course, I think about introducing a bit more complexity to this scheme which definitely has its points. I would hold off until 2026. In the meantime, I would want some authority, maybe Donald Trump or some independent right-wing group to produce a score card for members of Congress that would decide if they deserved to be re-elected or fired. This list would be provided to the Republican party with the ultimatum, either replace these lawmakers or have them zeroed out. And first off, the House and Senate Republicans should be provided with the names that must be immediately installed in their leadership positions to replace McConnell and Johnson and any of their cronies that currently thwart the will of the voters. And if this ultimatum is ignored then we go straight to full zero (with maybe a few exceptions for anyone I really like!).
Now would this really work? I think it would if the people completely lose faith in the election process. And that is why I would wait until 2026. If Donald Trump wins, this idea could help him tame the GOP. And if he loses in 2024, I think the backlash would power a zero movement that could completely disrupt the Republican party. Maybe it might even be Donald Trump who could lead the charge to zero out the Republicans. If not someone else would do. Maybe Tucker Carlson would like to organize an investigative team to vet each member of Congress and single out the zeroes for zeroing. Anyway, that’s my spin on an interesting idea.
A testcase for this strategy is going to take place in the UK later this year. The ruling Tories are already on track to lose two thirds of their seats in Parliament and even the 24% estimate for their post-election share may be generous. Nigel Farage’s Independence Party may get a chance to see if replacing a major party can be done in a large modern nation.