Republicans are the party of distraction and disruption that revels in chaos and glorifies anarchy. So say the Democrats. And so say many members of the House Republican caucus who believe that the chaos in the House is directly related to the fact that there are no consequences for causing mayhem on the House floor and blowing up important votes.
Republican Party discipline has disappeared and with it any hope that the GOP's slim House majority could accomplish anything meaningful.
Republicans are also hindered by their attraction to "outsider politics." The "maverick" label has fallen into disfavor thanks to the smearing of Sen. John McCain. Instead, outsider Republicans now call themselves "anti-establishment." Any ideas coming from the Washington insider crowd are rejected out of hand, regardless of their efficacy.
The chaos and dysfunction are as bad as they've ever been.
“For a body that creates laws for the American people to live by, Congress lives in a lawless society to where members can do whatever they would like that goes against conference rules, and still have the ability to maintain the committee assignments — to still get, you know, whether it’s fundraising or extra dollars from leaders wherever it may be,” Rep. Max Miller (R-Ohio) said.
If it were just the usual sausage-making to make laws, it might be excused. But the rebels don't care about making laws or passing laws. They're very big on "gestures" and "signals." It's meaningless drivel, but it gets their names on the news and many of them use the futile gestures to fundraise.
“When you discipline people, they learn from their mistakes. I mean, it’s called life. And if you don’t discipline people and members of Congress, you’re gonna get this result, which is privileged resolutions being brought to the floor every day, taking cabinet secretaries down to $1 — I mean, this isn’t helping the American people,” Miller said.
They forced votes through privileged resolutions to formally reprimand other members and to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. Hard-line conservatives pushed their colleagues to adopt aggressive amendments on must-pass spending bills and torpedoed votes on legislation if they were not considered.
Democrats are much better at playing the discipline game.
“Democrats are good at carrot and the stick — you know, we reward you with the carrot or we hit you with the stick. We’re not very good at that as Republicans,” Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) said. “We’re independent. We go out to do our thing.”
On the other hand, perhaps what the Republicans need is someone like former speaker Nancy Pelosi who whipped Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) into line.
AOC is not very bright and Pelosi knew it.
"Nancy doesn’t have much patience for people who don’t know what they don’t know," a Democrat close to Pelosi told Politico in 2021 when AOC went to war with the speaker. AOC wanted to primary any Democrat who didn't support her $50 trillion "Green New Deal." Pelosi stomped on her.
At a private meeting of the Democratic caucus, Pelosi’s tone was scolding. “So, again, you got a complaint? You come and talk to me about it,” she told her troops sternly. “But do not tweet about our members and expect us to think that that is just OK.” She said her agenda was to help children, even when it was hard to do. “Some of you are here to make a beautiful pâté,” she told them, “but we’re making sausage most of the time.”
Appealing to the better angels of their nature won't work with most of the GOP rebels who have blocked good legislation because it wasn't perfect enough and insist on adding toxic amendments to legislation that guarantee that a bill won't pass.
The bottom line is that there are some Republicans in Congress who aren't interested in governing. And the fact that they have the power to shut down the government, kick the speaker out of office, and block legislation necessary for national security is all due to the inability of Republican leadership to enforce discipline.
