The far right has proved the US is ungovernable
WASHINGTON, DC – “Why is it that Republicans are always fighting among themselves?” asked Donald Trump via his Truth Social platform as he appeared in a New York courtroom for a civil trial over an alleged $2bn fraud.
A rhetorical question, surely, because behind the scenes, he was almost certainly fomenting the unrest in Congress.
Moves by far-right Republican Congressman Matt Gaetz of Florida – whose ego trip has known no bounds since the Department of Justice told him he was no longer at risk of prosecution for sex trafficking – formally set in motion Kevin McCarthy’s demise as Speaker in the US House of Representatives.
Gaetz told reporters crowded around him on the US Capitol steps that “my conversations with the former president leave me with great confidence that I’m doing the right thing”.
Lest the world hadn’t quite got the message, a handful of kamikaze Republicans in Congress – enthusiastically joined by their Democratic Party foes – have confirmed that America is no longer governable.
McCarthy’s defenestration makes history for two reasons. It’s the first time a Speaker has ever been voted out of office. It’s also the first time the Democratic Party joined itself at the hip with Trump-backed, far-right Republicans in order to plunge the country into fresh chaos.
To understand what’s happening, you must go back to last November’s midterm elections. Former President Trump predicted a Republican landslide, but failed to deliver it. As a result, McCarthy found himself helming a party with a four-seat majority in the House of Representatives, a situation that allowed Trump’s “Make America Great Again” crowd to control the tiger by the tail.
McCarthy’s election as Speaker took an unprecedented 15 rounds of voting, and made him a dead man walking from the first minute that he gripped the gavel. He signed his own execution warrant on Saturday when, having failed to corral Trump-backed Republicans to support his efforts to avert a government shutdown, he forged a deal instead with the Democrats.
Accused by the far right of treachery, he insisted his actions were in the national interest.
Democrats, who came to McCarthy’s aid on Saturday to keep the government vaguely functioning for another 45 days, decided by Tuesday to consign him to history’s ash-heap. The White House had long tired of McCarthy, and opted for the devil they don’t yet know instead of the one they’d been facing.
One person who will suffer is Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky. Along with the White House, he was counting on McCarthy to pass legislation that would immediately restore funding for Kyiv stripped out of Saturday’s temporary spending deal.
Now, with no timetable even for the election of a new Speaker, Washington is making it up as it goes along.
