'That’s not an optimistic vision': Analysts criticize House GOP’s 'lack of governing philosophy'

During Sunday's episode of MSNBC's Velshi, host Ali Velshi pointed out that if House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) decides to work with House Democrats on a resolution, a government shutdown could be averted, but doing so is "ultimately what undid Kevin McCarthy," and left the House without a speaker for three weeks.

"So Johnson's been on the job for less than a month," Velshi said to Lincoln Project senior advisor Stuart Stevens. "You're a strategist. Talk to me about how could this possibly play out."

Stevens replied, "Look, the problem is, there is no reason to, for these people to come together. You really saw this the other night in the debate. There is no optimistic vision. There's no unifying theme. We've had that in our politics a lot, be of passionate conservatism, be of hope and change. You don't have that, you have this kind of "Make America Great Again" out there — which nobody really knows what that means other than, like, those of us who are majority white, should settle grievances. That's not an optimistic vision. So to organize anything like this, to bring people together, think of it like a sports team. You're standing there, you're in a locker room, what do you say to say, 'Okay, let's do this together, for a greater good.' And there is no greater good that they're concerned with. that's just sort of a hollowness at the core of where the Republican party is, which is a lack of governing philosophy."

POLL: Should Trump be allowed to hold office again?

Velshi replied, saying to MSNBC's Rachel Maddow Show producer Steve Benen, "Steve, let's talk about this, because I was covering the war in Israel when this all went down, and I had to admit that I had not really heard much about Mike Johnson ever before. My optimistic view of it was that the guys knew, maybe he doesn't have the baggage within the party that McCarthy has, hasn't had the missteps. Maybe he's the guy they can coalesce around for some kind of vision that Stuart's talking about. But that hasn't happened. The vision hasn't been presented — the optimistic view hasn't been presented. No one has coalesced around anything. What happens now?"

Benen said, "Well, I think it's important to understand why this is unfolded the way it has. I think you're right. When Mike Johnson got the gavel, there was an opportunity — there was an opportunity for them to kind of turn the House Republican conference off and back on again. This was going to be a new day in GOP politics. But the problem is, the divisions that existed under McCarthy haven't been resolved. No one's changed their minds, no one has necessarily shifted focus in such a way that they would win a new constructive governing party. It's the opposite. They're continuing to be divided against themselves. They're continuing to fight amongst themselves. And they can't figure out, to Stuart's point, what kind of vision they're going to try to pursue. So with that in mind, the problems that existed before — think of it this way — the new House Republican party is the same as the old Republican party. The divisions haven't been resolved, and there's no reason to think that's going to change any time soon."

Watch the video below or at this link.

'Not an optimistic vision': Analysts criticize House GOP’s 'lack of governing philosophy'youtu.be

READ MORE: Nevermind the House GOP drama — pay attention to what they’re proposing