As the U.S. House of Representatives marks two weeks since it hasn’t had a permanent speaker, Democrats and their allies in the media continue to mock Republicans for being “unable to govern.”
But is that a fair assessment of the situation?
Admittedly, during the last two weeks, the debt ceiling hasn’t been raised, no omnibus spending bills have been passed, Ukraine hasn’t received any more money, and no one has reneged on releasing the January 6 tapes to the public.
I’m not too upset about that.
Yes, there’s been plenty of grandstanding (looking at you, Nancy Mace) and fist-pounding (Ken Buck comes to mind), and I think there’s merit to the claim Republicans prefer to be in the minority, but it’s nonsense to argue that the nation is in peril because the members of one party don’t vote in complete lockstep with each other.
Mind you, there are plenty of existential threats to the life we know as Americans, but that isn’t one of them.
Most observers (and I’m one of them) thought it imprudent for Matt Gaetz and his fellow dissidents to remove McCarthy with no plan for a successor, but the former speaker deserved to get kicked to the curb.
He folded on each of the previously mentioned issues of contention after promising to reign in spending and turn the page on transparency — both the debt ceiling increase and the most recent funding bill were supported by more Democrats than Republicans. And so, after he dared his critics to try to remove him for being, as he said, “the adult in the room,” Gaetz called his bluff.
Gaetz was one of the original holdouts to McCarthy becoming speaker earlier this year, and he only agreed to his election after rules were adopted to allow a vote to vacate the chair on the motion of a single member.
In other words, accountability matters. And that’s what I think this whole ordeal is all about.
Every member of Congress has an obligation to represent their constituents — not their party, not their donors, not their career. A member’s vote for speaker is part of that obligation, as it plays a big role in determining how bills are negotiated, which ones get a vote, and what hearings are scheduled.
It’s to be expected that members will disagree, even vehemently, about who the speaker should be, but differing opinions, if rooted in adherence to the same fundamental principles, are a strength of our republic, not a weakness.
As “Father of the Constitution” James Madison wrote in Federalist No. 10, when factions are pitted against each other, a consensus ameliorable to a majority of citizens is more likely to emerge. That’s exactly what we’ve seen among Republicans over the past two weeks, and it’s something that’s quite foreign to Democrats. Just ask RFK Jr.
Exclusively for our VIPs: Can Anyone in the GOP Caucus Win the Speakership?
Without a doubt, there are Democrats and Republicans more than willing to back a candidate for speaker simply to make a point, advance their bills, or wield power. Should such a candidate prevail, citizens will lose.
Citizens win when it’s politically expedient to do the right thing, and picking the right speaker is essential to creating that dynamic.
I’m okay with waiting two weeks for that to happen.
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