There is an entire real world thing going on while the theater of politics goes on in Washington. The events of this week saw the House of Representatives vote on expelling George Santos. Fortunately for him, the vote failed. The vote failed largely because there was a block of Democrats that voted against the measure. Even if it had succeeded I am sure he would have busted out the “well, my name is not George Santos. It is actually Jethro Simpson so I can stay as long as I want.”

The idea is that since he has not been convicted of anything or levied a successful ethics penalty in the House of Representatives then voting for his removal would be a dangerous precedent. That kind of thinking has the added benefit of foresight and willful blindness all at the same time. Yes, such a move could be used in the future to expel a member that should not be expelled. However, I don’t think a single person would come out and vouch for this guy whatever his name may be.

If you were to shoot the 30+ Democrats would truth serum I am sure a part of them wanted to keep Santos around. Santos is a living, breathing reminder of the GOP’s slide into moral bankruptcy. You can fund raise off of that. You can easily defeat him as over 70 percent of Republicans in his district want him to resign. Resignation would be a rare sign of propriety for someone that we can’t even credibly name at this point. If he were to resign now you could get a fresh Republican on the ballot and possibly retain the seat. Obstinance is a pure act of selfishness on Santos’ part. Of course, he has gotten through life with a kind of bluster that conmen frequently exhibit. Maybe he just assumes it will all work out as it always has.

The whole spectacle points to two very troubling issues in our politics. In the short term, we are incapable of governing when so many people within our government or morally and intellectually useless. We have a government shutdown looming mid-month. We have crises in the Middle East and in Eastern Europe. We have the economy, environment, and so many other alarming situations brewing and we can’t even get the mechanisms of government to function.

The wider or more troubling issue is the nature of our elections themselves. No, this isn’t about voter fraud. That’s yet another made up issue to get the rubes riled up over phantoms of the opera. The issue is who these people are voting for. It’s one thing to vote for an idiot like Tommy Tuberville. That is alarming by itself, but when you have people like Santos and Lauren Boebert that can’t even perform the basic tasks of a member of Congress you have to wonder what in the hell people are looking at.

There is a very troubling undercurrent happening when you are telling voters we have to immediately expel the person YOU just voted for. You are essentially saying that they were never fit in the first place. Well, that brings two immediate questions to the forefront. First, how in the holy hell did they get on the ballot? Secondly, once they are there shouldn’t a majority of the people be able to identify a crook or half-wit when they see one?