Leadership Lost
The real problem with the US House is partisanship run amok.
This essay is not about Kevin McCarthy’s loss or the Republican Party’s loss. It’s about what the House of Representatives has lost. I would start with credibility, but that takes us in the same direction, which is that it sorely needs real leadership.
I had to read the following quote twice to believe what the ex-Speaker had really said:
“My fear is the institution fell today because you can’t do the job if… you have 94 percent or 96 percent of your entire conference, but eight people can partner with the whole other side. How do you govern?”
Indeed, all the Democrats who voted sided with just eight Republicans to provide the necessary majority. Yet that’s not how McCarthy saw it. Apparently, he did not expect any support from the “other side” and sees this as a problem with defectors. He states as if it’s a well-known fact that it’s impossible to govern unless you can count on every member of your party to vote as a single unit.
The really scary thing is that all but eight House members in his party seem to agree. It is possible that one or more of them attempted to secure Democratic votes to retain the Speaker, but my guess is that it would not be well received; “other side” is endemic to American politics.
As I wrote in January as this circus began, the problem here is not Kevin McCarthy’s shortcomings, but the House rules that give the majority party such immense power. There isn’t anything inherently wrong with privileges for the party nominally in charge. However, what we have in today’s highly polarized environment is dysfunctional. Paradoxically, majority rules have given us tyranny of the minority.
Since we’ve exhibited such enthusiasm for winner-take-all stakes in sports, cinema, and social media, it should come as no surprise that we seem accepting of such rules in politics. But it’s high time we paid closer attention to the consequences.
Allowing, never mind endorsing, rules and practices that give one party the power to unilaterally pass or block any and all legislation is undemocratic. In practice, we see that it means majority party members can choose to represent the people who voted for them and systematically ignore others in their district who are equally deserving. In doing so, they grant undue power to the most extreme members of their own party, who can hold hostage any moderate efforts, with or without support from the opposing party.
Democrats have seen this same phenomenon manifest itself in a slightly different fashion. Pressure to conform to the party line has chased Kyrsten Sinema from the party. Joe Manchin may follow.
I don’t believe voters are as evenly or as deeply divided as our representation in Congress indicates. Rather, we have done our best within the rules designed by the ruling parties that, unfortunately, have made the game more about them and less about us. As noted above, party positions are determined by the most extreme members. Loyalists control the choices for all voters by closing primaries and gerrymandering districts as needed. The rest of us (Independents and moderates) try to protect ourselves from either extreme by voting to maintain a balance of power.
What would real leadership look like? Liz Cheney. The GOP missed that chance, of course. But my point is that anyone in such a position must have the wisdom to recognize what is actually harmful to the country as well as their party, and the courage to act accordingly.
Let’s hope Republicans in the House wake up to their part in making the Speaker’s job impossible — by expecting to govern without engaging the “other side.”
