Is anyone up for a little “bothsidesism”? Good. Settle in, then, while I gird my loins and clear my throat and say the thing that’s been bothering me since last week: The ejection of Kevin McCarthy as speaker of the House of Representatives demonstrates neatly why both of our major political parties are worthless and frivolous and ought by rights to be launched into the outer reaches of the sun.
First, there are the Republicans, for whom the lion’s share of the blame must be reserved. Try as I might, I can see no good reason why the Republican Party has elected to create a mess in the House of Representatives of which, in theory at least, it is currently the custodian. Removing McCarthy from his position secured no long-coveted conservative policy change, removed no hated rule or regulation, and ushered in no superior or alternative speaker whose politics were manifestly better than his own. I have been told that this fight was between the “establishment” and the “base,” but I cannot see how this can be true. Polling shows that Republican voters disapprove of the ouster, and, regardless, the guy whom the ringleader of the decapitation, Matt Gaetz, endorsed as McCarthy’s replacement was Representative Steve Scalise, whose politics and approach are similar to McCarthy’s, and who, until McCarthy was deposed, was serving as House majority leader. Like Seinfeld, the incident seems to have been a show about absolutely nothing.
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