The ouster of Kevin McCarthy as speaker of the House is emblematic of dysfunction that poorly serves our nation. The idea that the California Republican could be booted from leadership for working with the other party is a shameful testament to the discord that reigns in Washington, D.C.
To be clear, McCarthy was ill-suited to serve as speaker after Republicans took control of the House in January. He made a series of concessions to extremists in his party out of a desire to win the top position in the House, showing neither the leadership nor the fortitude necessary to shepherd important legislation. Even then, an unprecedented 15 ballots were needed to elect him as speaker.
Those same extremists now are appalled that McCarthy worked with a Democratic White House and Democrats in the House to avoid a government shutdown last weekend. Following that bipartisan deal, members of his own party sought to oust him as speaker, using a new rule that a single member could move to vacate the position.
In the end, both McCarthy and the MAGA faction of his party got what they wanted. McCarthy got to be speaker — albeit briefly — and the hardliners in his party received more power than their numbers would warrant. The result is the first ouster of a sitting speaker of the House in our nation’s history.
Therein lies the existential problem with American democracy as currently practiced in Washington, D.C. — far too much attention is afforded to extremists on both sides. Whether it is Reps. Matt Gaetz and Marjorie Taylor Green on the right or Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar on the left, the style of performative politics frequently is confused for substance.
Social media outrage has replaced thoughtfulness as the measure of statesmanship. We are worse off as a nation because of it.
Meanwhile, it is impossible to separate the theatrics of McCarthy’s ouster from the substance-free bluster of Donald Trump. Whether Trump created this era of extremism or merely reflected it will be left for historians and sociologists to decide in the future.
Following McCarthy’s ouster on Wednesday, Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Skamania, said in a statement: “What this country needs is somebody who can govern, and Kevin hasn’t been that leader. I didn’t vote for Kevin to become speaker back in January, and I didn’t vote for him today. Instead, I voted for a new direction for the U.S. House of Representatives – one that serves the interests of normal Americans, not political extremists.”
That might be wishful thinking, but it is long past time for a majority of Congress to embrace that philosophy. It is long past time for moderate representatives to make clear that the extremists in their midst do not reflect the values of a vast majority of Americans.
That is evident in the numbers. The Freedom Caucus, a group of far-right representatives who placed a bridle on McCarthy’s power and led the effort to oust him, includes 46 of the 221 Republicans in the House. That means 175 Republicans and all 212 Democrats do not embrace the extremist positions that are currently guiding our governance.
In selecting a new speaker, moderates should assert their position as the all-too-silent majority. Moderate Republicans could nominate somebody who is palatable to Democrats and who will treat the Freedom Caucus as the impotent minority it is.
In an age of party-first politics, that seems unlikely; but at some point, reasonable members of the House must recognize that dysfunction is not the same as governance.
