The GOP's Historic Tussle over Speakership is not "Embarrassing"
McCarthy's inability to grab the gavel without a fight shows we are inching closer to a Republican Party that respects its base.
“Ridiculous…a bunch of fools.” That’s how Judge Jeanine Pirro said House Republicans looked on Fox News’ The Five this past Thursday, after California Republican Kevin McCarthy lost the 10th of the ultimately 15 rounds of voting that were required for him to ascend to the speakership. She, along with many others, described the drawn-out process as an “embarrassment.” Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich described the 20 holdouts who refused to vote for McCarthy as “blackmailing the whole country,” and their actions “equivalent to a temper tantrum.” These kinds of sentiments rang up and down mainstream center-right media outlets and throughout the pundit class.
“In a healthy, free society, you’d figure a 202-20 vote tells you something,” Gingrich declared on Fox & Friends. But no one stopped him to ask, “Mr. Speaker, do you think the results would be so clear-cut if we polled the Americans who voted for these 222 Republicans?” The obvious answer is a resounding no. In fact, your average Republican voter places precious little confidence in Kevin McCarthy and would much rather have someone like a Jim Jordan, who was nominated by the 20 dissidents during the earlier rounds of voting.
Meanwhile over on the blue team, the gloating commenced in lightning-quick fashion. Within minutes, Democratic officials and agitators blasted the synchronized messaging that they wanted the public to hear across all available platforms: they were “united.” And united they were, obviously on more than just their unanimous votes for Nancy Pelosi’s successor, Hakeem Jeffries of New York.
But I would argue that this “unity,” is nothing for them to be proud of, nor was the struggle to seat McCarthy as speaker something for Republicans to be ashamed of. The way I see it, this dichotomy is a perfect illustration of the difference between the two parties. Democrats run their party in the same fashion that they govern: top down. No dissent tolerated. No ideas from the upstarts or little guys are welcome. Sit down, shut up, and let the big boys make the decisions for you.
I certainly won’t pretend that the Republican Party presents some perfect contrast to this, where the path forward is always drafted in a pure, grassroots, bottom-up fashion. But I will highlight the fact that its voters, and by extension (to some degree) its elected officials, are not as apt to take direction from the top. In 2016, Hillary Clinton underwent not a nomination, but a coronation in her bid for the Democratic nomination for president. Meanwhile, when the GOP’s power brokers attempted to do the same for Jeb Bush, it was ultimately Donald Trump who earned the nomination, despite much kicking and screaming and gnashing of teeth by party insiders and those aforementioned talking heads on Fox News.
Think even about the way we casually refer to the 2024 presidential nomination contests within both parties. When it comes to the GOP, we ask “who will win the primaries?” As it pertains to the Democrats, we ask, “who will they run?” We subconsciously acknowledge that, to a large extent, this question is out of the hands of Democratic voters. Their party’s nominee will be chosen by its elites. All others will be starved of donor funds and airtime by a compliant media, eventually bow out, endorse the selected nominee, and potentially be rewarded with a cabinet position based on how well they perform on the surrogate circuit during the general election campaign. That’s what they truly mean by “united”
When it comes to which method of running a political party is healthier from a lower-case-d democratic standpoint, I couldn’t put it more eloquently than former Republican-turned-Libertarian congressman, Justin Amash of Michigan.
If the people who elect Republicans to Congress don’t trust Kevin McCarthy with the speakership, just as they didn’t trust Paul Ryan or John Boehner, then the fact that his struggle to claim the gavel is so unprecedented means that progress is being made in getting our party’s elected officials to listen. Listen to what, exactly? You mean these 20 dissenters weren’t just being Petty Bettys, and actually had specific policy objectives that they wanted to accomplish? Listen to this list of terms from Congressman Matt Gaetz and tell me that this isn’t lock-step with the average Republican voter’s list of legislative priorities:
Of course, with a Democrat-controlled Senate and Oval Office, none of this legislation would ultimately become law anyway, but the demands of the bloc of 20 were as much about procedure as they were about public policy. Congressman Chip Roy of Texas told Fox News’ Bret Baier Wednesday evening, "[We're] trying to make sure we stand up to fight for them and to represent our constituents against a swamp that is basically rolling over [on] $1.7 trillion omnibus bills. They get no real representation. We can't offer amendments on the floor. We can't actually have participation in the process because things are cooked up in secret committees – in the Rules Committee, as they call it…" In this 5-minute cut from a 2019 interview, Congressman Thomas Massie of Kentucky explains how this has been going on in the Republican-controlled House since Paul Ryan’s Speakership.
In the end, those who demanded concessions of McCarthy over the last week or more have achieved some pretty amazing things that I look forward to writing about in the new Congress, and should thoroughly shake up the status quo of the People’s House. Newly-elected Florida Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna described the coming changes as “transformational, and it will outlast every person in this room.”
In the end, the establishment-aligned media had the ability to frame the narrative around this historic moment however they chose to, and it was by no means an accident that they unanimously declared it to be, among other things, “embarrassing.” But you and I know better. We know this is what a healthy, functioning representation of the people looks like, and for those who elected these brave men and women (shout-out to my in-laws in PA-10 ), you should be proud, and you should call their offices and tell them so.
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-Brady