The Fall of the House of Kevin
October 4, 2023
Kevin McCarthy’s desperate, pathetic 15 vote slog to finally become Speaker of the House was a triumph for no one, least of all for him.
The spineless Congressman from Bakersfield, once an anodyne conservative from among the more crimson districts of California, and whose MAGA metamorphosis involved his prostrating himself as Trump’s toady-in-chief, still couldn’t get to 218. Indeed, 218 House members voted for either Democratic leader, Hakeem Jeffries or voted ‘present.’ McCarthy’s short-lived stint as Speaker was, in the end, a fool’s errand, and at worst, a kamikaze mission. But his distinction, as the only Speaker ever to be removed, has been well earned.
And what to make of the House GOP’s octet led by a ravenous Matt Gaetz, who along with a united Democratic Party voted to oust McCarthy? And what about the long standing traditions so vital to the governing mechanisms of the “People’s House?” America is nothing if not the oldest continuous experiment in self-government the world has ever known, even outliving the original paradigms of democracy in the city states of ancient Greece.
Inarguably, one of the more corrosive byproducts of Trumpism was the rupture of continuity, not only in its shattering of presidential norms, but through its upending of any consensus surrounding the way the we govern. To be sure, McCarthy’s win came at great cost, not only at the expense of the office which stands second in line to the presidency after the Vice-President, but lamentably at the expense of the majority of the electorate.
Alas, one of the pernicious parlor tricks of MAGA backed legislators—here’s looking at you, Gaetz, Eli Crane and Nancy Mace—has been the ruse that they are emissaries of rectitude, who in their quest to “drain the swamp,” remain valiant warriors for good government. In truth, they are valiant in their hatred for government begging the question more often than not, as to why they are in government in the first place. After all, why threaten to incinerate the institution you believe has been corrupted by a supposed elite cabal, and that you have been dispatched to save? It’s no mystery that Trump’s own narcissism feeds off of chaos and destruction, but what of his minions? As of this writing, Trump himself is being bandied about as a possible choice for Speaker.( By a strange constitutional quirk, a nominee Speaker does not have to be currently serving as an elected official in the House.)
James Madison believed the House of Representatives should have “an immediate dependence on, and intimate sympathy with, the people.” And Madison rightly believed that a republican form of government would be the best way to check against the worst instincts of human nature. Still, Madison’s commitment to the republican principle of a majority’s voting power perhaps underestimated the perils of minority rule. The MAGA crusaders might be arsonists, but that makes them no less utopian in their ideological aims. Given that MAGA is a minority faction fanatically driven by their own idealism, however rabid, makes them that much more likely to speak with one dogmatic voice than the majority. Curiously, Madison’s unbridled faith in the power of representative government to temper the populace’s worst passions gave too little credence to the idea that an unbending minority of duly elected representatives could actually have more power to shape the contours of constitutional governance than would a more pragmatic majority. And here we are.
And what exactly did the MAGA holdouts want? Start with the federal budget. Maurauders in the Gaetz caucus objected to additional funding for Ukraine, among other domestic spending programs for the poor. To his bare minimum credit, McCarthy made an 11th hour deal with Democrats over the weekend to keep the government open.
But as befits a weenie like McCarthy, he forfeited his own agency by accepting to lower the number GOP conference members needed to start a process of removing the speaker, for what’s called a “motion to vacate,” from five to one—even though he previously said doing so would impede the basic functionality of the House.
McCarthy long held dream of wielding the Speaker’s gavel came two years to the day since he took to the House floor after rioters attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, declaring that Trump bore “responsibility” for the insurrection and he “should have immediately denounced the mob,” and that “these facts require immediate action by President Trump.” He then voted against certifying the 2020 election( natch.) In the weeks following, McCarthy made the craven, obligatory pilgrimage to Mar-a-Lago to genuflect at Trump’s Palm Beach altar.
With the January 6th Committee now swept away with the 117th Congress, and a GOP led Biden impeachment inquiry underway, McCarthy is left castrated by his own invertebrate machinations. He remained in thrall to King Orange Overlord, but he ended up in the MAGA moat, devoured by all the king’s crocodiles. McCarthy’s ignoble gutlessness has left our legislative branch, and America, for that matter, in its own impotent abyss.