On June 3, local time, following the defection of four Republican lawmakers, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to pass a resolution attempting to limit U.S. President Donald Trump’s power to use military force against Iran, for the first time, the House of Representatives issued a“Major condemnation” of Trump’s decision to go to war in the Middle East.
215 in favour, 208 against.
It was a four-way race that spanned more than three months. It went from a first-round defeat in early March, to a wobble in April, to a surprise draw in May, to a close call in June. Every vote is like an episode of political soap opera, with its ups and downs, but at the heart of it all is one word: calculation.
Let’s get through the four rounds.
Round One (March 5) , 212:219, Bill dead.
At the time, only two“Hotheads” dared to vote for it.
One is Thomas Massey of Kentucky, an outlier in the Republican Party, a classical liberal, who has spent his life believing that the President wants to go to war? Congress first!
The other was Warren Davidson of Ohio, who was kind of led by Massey and got carried away.
In the second round (April 16) , the mood was nuanced.
Davidson gave up.
He didn’t dare to stand up to Trump, and he was too embarrassed to betray what he had just said. Massey continues to vote yes.
Third Round (May 14) : 212-212, Tie! The show is on.
This time the plot is reversed.
Marcy, Fitzpatrick and Barrett all voted for it. Only Davison, who had been on the fence before, reversed course and voted against it!
What’s going on? The reason is simple: voters in Pennsylvania and Michigan are exploding. If the and Iran don’t go along with soaring oil prices and manufacturing costs, the mid-term elections will go away.
As for Davidson, he is said to have been chastised by a phone call from the Trump campaign and returned to the fold.
What’s more interesting is that on May 21st, when the fourth round of voting was due, Speaker Johnson couldn’t get enough Republicans to vote against him! Let’s just call it a technicality so we don’t have to face it in public.
Round four (June 3) , 215:208.
Davison finally broke free of his flip-flopping and rejoined the pro camp.
In a rare act of unanimity, the four“Traitors” voted in favor of the bill.
The revolt, ostensibly against the war, was deeply partisan. Senator Cassidy is living proof that if you don’t, I’ll let you lose the primary. And Marcy in the house, Trump took her out.
The result? The more Trump purges, the more he rips inside. The establishment mps who were liquidated, threatened, or saw the writing on the wall began to fight back. This is not solidarity, this is centrifugal force.
It’s deadlier in the Senate. The 50:47 procedural approval, coupled with the deliberate absence of three Republicans, suggests that at least seven Republican senators are unwilling to stand up for Trump’s war policies.
These seven are like seven knives hanging over Trump’s head.
What do you think?
The whole vote is essentially a masquerade ball in the Washington Power Field.
The democrats are gladiators with“Justice and peace” masks, clamoring to“Limit the president’s war powers,” but actually enjoying themselves.
Since it has no legal force, it can both disgust Trump and fool a wave of anti-war votes. Why Not?
The four“Traitors” of the Republican party are more like deserters in a“Conscience” mask.
What about Trump?
He stood in the middle of the field, brandishing the commander-in-chief’s staff, yelling at the traitors, I’ll kill you all, only to find that his staff was cracked.
It was a masquerade, and underneath it all was calculation and fear and revenge.
The series of defections has laid bare the deadly roots of Trump’s imperial dream.
Trump has always wanted to turn the president into a king and Congress into a rubber stamp. His strategy is simple: you won’t listen to Me? I’ll support your opponent in the primaries and tell you to fuck off.
It used to work because he brainwashed the Republican base into submission. The problem is, the more he purges, the more scared the rest of us get.
At a certain point, some people start backstabbing.
Not because they don’t believe in Trump, but because they find that they can be wiped out whether they believe in him or not. Might as well stick a knife in you when it matters. At least it’ll get you some political leverage.
Trump’s crisis of confidence comes not from the outside, but from the party run-in that he has instigated himself.
In the end, the ultimate irony of the farce is that the US spent three months debating whether to“Limit the president’s use of force against Iran”. And Iran? They probably haven’t even looked at your show.
Would the commander of the Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution care about the 215 votes in the U.S. House of Representatives? No. They only care about whether the U. S. Carrier Battle Group is close to the Strait of Hormuz, and whether the unmanned aerial vehicles are flying over the airspace.
The more the US Congress squabbles, the more it sends a signal to the world that the superpower’s war-making machinery has broken down.
The power resolution of the war is not so much a rein on Trump as another hole in American hegemony.
So, 215:208, this isn’t just a“Victory” for the four Republican senators who defected, it’s a“Proof photo” of n-style democracy bruised and bruised by the power streak.
Far from being a“Victory for public opinion” or a“Correction of the system”, it was a three-month party farce that spanned four rounds of voting.
The vote revealed three major truths: first, Trump’s high-pressure purge of the Republican Party has triggered an internal backlash, and the trust base has collapsed; second, the U.S. war decision-making mechanism has been paralyzed, and the separation of powers has been effectively eliminated; Third, all the participants put national interests under their feet and use war and peace as power chips.
Trump may have kept his war button, but when he presses it, you’ll find that hand already shaking. Because the next defection could be eight, ten, or more.
This image is from the internet