Good government matters, something everyone should keep in mind during the struggle to name a new U.S. House speaker.
Making government work requires lengthy toil. Long discussions. Endless meetings. Building consensus. The inevitable compromises often disappoint those on both sides of an issue.
It’s a lesson fringe right-wing Republicans in the House should learn as they blithely use tactics that amount to blackmail — threatening to destroy the nation’s credit or shutting down the federal government — in their fight to upend the nation’s governance. Another possible federal government shutdown is just a month away.
Unfortunately, in the battle over electing a new House speaker to replace Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., who was ousted on Oct. 3, some members of the U.S. House display no interest in the hard work of governing. That places a burden on the nation.
As crises heat up around the globe — the war in Ukraine, the Hamas attack on Israel, Israel’s reprisal and others — Congress remains frozen. Without a new speaker, aid cannot be sent to Israel or Ukraine. In the Senate, hundreds of military promotions are in limbo, courtesy of right-wing Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala.
Voters are not happy with this. A new CNN poll found 74% of Americans — watching the unprecedented dysfunctional shenanigans of dumping one speaker and struggling to find another — disapprove of Republican leaders. Meanwhile, the House Republicans have wasted session time in which they could have been doing the people’s work.
On Friday, Rep Austin Scott, R-Ga., jumped into the race against Rep Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, but Jordan won enough Republican backing in a private vote to be the party’s nominee for speaker. On Friday evening, it was not clear if Jordan could get the approximately 217 ballots to prevail in a full House floor vote; more than 50 Republicans voted against him. His support for overturning the 2020 presidential election does not bode well for trustworthy government should he become speaker.
The situation has been called a clown show, but clown shows are amusing. Instead, it borders on anarchy, which is no way to run a government. Voters should be telling their representatives to get the House back on track.
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