It's A Sh*tshow!

Two term Republican House lawmaker Jake LaTurner of Kansas is out. He is fed up with Republicans acting like idiots. He is one of the youngest members to retire.

Rep. Jake LaTurner (R-KS), 36 entered politics in 2021 to do something for the constituents of 2nd Congressional District. A staunch supporter of the former president, LaTurner wanted to be a voice for Kansans who felt that his policies mattered not the Democratic incumbent. 

After watching the shitshow of former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy being ousted and the threats of ousting current House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), I guess it has taken a "toll" on him.

He and many more other lawmakers are departing from the House of Representatives.

The "little guy" Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC) is no longer seeking reelection. The former House Pro Tempore who was a loyal ally of McCarthy saw frustration when House Republicans pressured Johnson on the sham impeachment inquiries into President Joe Biden. Also being bitten by a rabid Fox, not just the animal has drove him to retire.

He like LaTurner are quietly fuming at Reps. Majorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), Lauren Boebert (R-CO), Nancy Mace (R-SC), Jim Jordan (R-OH), James Comer (R-KY), Matt Gaetz (R-FL), Byron Donalds (R-FL), Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) and numerous others causing chaos.

The 118th Congress is the laziest in history. They only came together when it comes to funding the Israeli regime in its genocide of Gaza and the West Bank. Both Republican and Democratic members surpassed the definition of insufferable. 

The very fact they are willing to give billions to Israel while it violating international law and is widely condemned for its actions is very definition of cruelty and culpability.

They have passed over 60 bills so far this year. Biden laments that a Republican majority and Donald J. Trump returning to the presidency could spell disaster for Democrats.

Even if Biden does win and Democrats retake the House or hold the Senate, they will have Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) slowing down legislation. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ) and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) have slowed down legislation and caused frustration among several members. They both are retiring. It is a waste of time to have either party in charge.

Trump has set America in decline with his rhetoric and constant disgraceful actions while in office or on the campaign trail. Biden is continuing it by holding on to the status quo.

To date, the 118th Congress that began its work on Jan. 3, 2023, has enacted a total of 64 bills, less than one-fifth of the legislation that was passed by any of the previous four Congresses. Even that sluggish pace constituted a grind.

Members described once-routine House matters that are now fraught with melodrama, from passing bipartisan appropriations bills to electing a House speaker. “The things that I’m most proud of that were the hardest to do were negotiating the debt ceiling, passing the National Defense Authorization Act and reauthorizing and reforming FISA,” Mr. LaTurner said, referring to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. With an arid chuckle, he added, “Those things would have been just normal business in the past.”

Many of the 2024 retirees echoed LaTurner’s sentiments. Few of them came to Washington expecting that performing rote tasks like keeping the government operating and maintaining America’s credit rating would amount to career highlights. Referring to this year’s bipartisan Senate immigration bill, which Speaker Mike Johnson has avoided bringing to the House floor for fear of angering the far right, former member Ken Buck lamented, “We won’t deal with the tough issues. The border is a tough issue. The Senate passed a great starting point, and we just walked away.”

Accompanying the increasingly joyless slog of governance are other mounting hardships. Since 2009, the salaries of both House and Senate members have been frozen at $174,000 — high pay for the average American but challenging for members maintaining residences in both Washington and their home districts. Aware of the low estimation in which the public holds Congress, they have repeatedly voted to deny themselves cost-of-living increases. “Sometimes you wonder if members should just wear sackcloth,”  Sarbanes said.

Though none of the 20 people interviewed for this article would acknowledge that financial considerations played into their decision to retire, one of them, Rep. Larry Bucshon, a seven-term Indiana Republican, said, “I think recruiting qualified people is getting more difficult and I do think you’re seeing some people leaving because of the pay situation.”

Another exiting member, Rep.Tony Cárdenas (D-CA) admitted, “It weighs on us, it does. And you know, Congress shouldn’t be a place where only the wealthy can serve.”

Even as Congress has become less rewarding, it has become a more dangerous undertaking. Nearly everyone interviewed had received at least one death threat in recent years, some of which had resulted in arrests.

“It’s something you have to take into consideration nowadays, that if you’re going to run you’re going to face threats,’’ said Rep. Grace F. Napolitano, 87, a California Democrat. “ If it had been that way when I first ran in 1998, my family would have been against it.”

For House Democrats, the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol represents a life-threatening nadir that has been difficult to move past. “I still experience trauma from Jan. 6,” said Rep. Ann McLane Kuster (D-NH), who said she was leaving Congress because of the cavalier attitudes of some in the GOP about the day. “I feel as though it’s impacting my ability to work with my Republican colleagues,” she said.

In contrast, Chris Stewart, the former Republican member from Utah, said Jan. 6 was not at all a factor in his decision to leave Congress. “Democrats are from Mars and Republicans are from Venus,” he said. “We fundamentally view the day differently. Honestly, it didn’t have an impact on my feelings about Congress or how I approach my job.”

Notwithstanding her decision, Kuster remains a member of the centrist New Democrat Coalition and had staked her six-term career in a purple district on being a politician who was willing to work across the aisle. Her views are common among the 20 interviewed, including many who named each other as legislators they were proud to have partnered with, like practitioners of an ancient ritual now facing extinction.

Most of them insisted that the calling remained a noble one that they would recommend to an ambitious niece or nephew, though not without caveats.

“If I’d grown up 30 years later, I don’t know that I would have made the decision I did,” said Rep. Dan Kildee (D-MI), who in 2012 won the seat that had been held by his uncle, Dale Kildee, for the previous 35 years. “Because it’s different now. You have to brace yourself for a level of anger and personal disdain that was always a part of the political world, but never at this level.”

Kildee added that he hoped for a new generation of willing legislators.

Buck concurred. “It’s important not to turn the government over to the crazies,” he said.