Kevin McCarthy Speaker Election Not Embarrassing, but Refreshing

Douglas V. Gibbs
Author, Speaker, Instructor, Radio Host

“If everyone is thinking alike, then somebody isn't thinking.” -- U.S. General George S. Patton Jr.

There are times to unite, and there are times to debate, battle, and maybe even compromise.  When Donald J. Trump achieved the GOP nomination for President of the United States in 2016, despite my early concerns, he was a vastly better candidate than Hillary Clinton, so I called for the Republican Party to unite behind him.  

Now that the Republican Party has gained a majority in the United States House of Representatives a battle has emerged between the establishment and the conservatives.  While he eventually got the nod, the latest confrontation between the two factions in the GOP was regarding whether or not to accept Kevin McCarthy as Speaker of the House.  McCarthy, a California Republican with establishment tendencies, is not what is best for Republican Party leadership, argued the members of The Freedom Caucus.  So, in response to McCarthy being nominated for Speaker, about twenty Republicans voted against him, most of them for Jordan with, at one point, Representative Matt Gaetz throwing Donald Trump's name into the mix.

While the "Establishment Republicans" dominate the Republican Party when it comes to officeholders, the conservative wing in the party, largely populated by those who have Tea Party leanings, and/or are supportive of President Donald Trump, has been a significant voice for the better part of the last fifteen years.  The staunch conservatives are even willing to tell the GOP that they are done with the national party shinanigans, and it is time for a return to more constitutionally grounded principles and actions.

In other words, this is one of those times when it is not time to unite.  

I suppose there's a fine line between politics and circuses.  Everything gets out of control when the clowns start acting up.  You want order, but sometimes you need a little disorder to break the hivemind way of thinking.  Individualism is a good thing, and sometimes our representatives need to remember that.  Last week guys like Matt Gaetz and Chip Roy were willing to break the mold, stand apart, and demand that the GOP step away from the status quo, or at least consider doing so, by questioning the intentions and motives of their next Speaker of the House.

In the case regarding the 2023 choosing of the Speaker of the House I have to admit it's not like half a dozen years ago when the alternative was Hillary Clinton.  In that case, it was imperative that the Republican Party unite around Trump.  Here, the alternative is not some raging hard-left, commie, globalist, lying and conniving wife of a largely laughing-stock President.  Here, the alternative is actually better than the primary choice on the table.  As a Californian familiar with McCarthy's deceptive tactics and how he replaced Charles Munger as the controller of State GOP proxies, which has continued to keep the California Republican Party in "Democrat Party Light" mode, I don't trust McCarthy, and in truth, he is something that is more damaging to our cause than Democrats are.  At least with the Democrats they are honest about who they are, and you can keep them off your lawn.  With somebody like McCarty it's an example of an enemy within, and he could be much more damaging to our movement on the inside; especially one he begins wielding that Speaker of the House gavel.

The most interesting part about the whole episode of the Freedom Caucus challenging McCarthy as the new Speaker of the House has been the reaction by the opposition in the Democratic Party, and more specifically, their allies in the mainstream media.  They not only fail to understand the situation, but their response reveals even more what they are all about.

It is confusing to folks who support a collectivistic view of government that Chip Roy and Matt Gaetz and the rest of the Republican Patriots who stood against McCarthy would do such a thing.  The progressive Democrats think like bees in a hive.  Do your job, stay united, put the blinders on, follow the leader of the hive.  Anything outside the proper order of the hive is chaotic.

What we are seeing is a glaring example of the difference between individualism and collectivism; Liberty versus Tyranny.

The first sentence of a CNN article regarding the McCarthy battle for Speaker of the House, and the twenty or so Republicans standing firm against him, exclaimed, "Kevin McCarthy is so desperate to be speaker, he’s ready to gut his own power just to get the job."

The lefty news machine that is barely keeping its head above water follows the authoritarian leanings of its political ideology, viewing the political system as being a system of power.  The statement is eye-opening, fully explaining why the Democrats are never willing to truly compromise with their colleagues across the aisle.  To compromise, in their authoritarian "one-party-rule" mind, is a loss of power.  Compromise to them is weakness.  Capitulation.  While a certain amount of power surely exists in the Halls of Congress, they (and many of us who don't hold office in the government) have forgotten that when our Constitution was written the offices created were not supposed to be about power, but about service.  A good Speaker of the House is not one desperate to achieve the position, nor is it a position that they should consider as being one of power.  A good Speaker of the House is not about power, but about debate, working with the group as a whole, and one who is willing to listen to the minority voice.

That is why the House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate were originally designed to be so different from each other.  The democratic processes of choosing the members of the House of Representatives were designed to ensure the States with the larger populations, and the cities, had the stronger voice.  But, the U.S. Senate, being two-senators per State who were chosen by a state legislature that was also designed in a manner with dissimilar chambers, ensured the voice of the Senate was that of the rural areas.  In Federalist Paper #10 James Madison explained that the best way to keep a faction from taking over or controlling the system is to make sure its opposition has a voice that can be heard, as well.  Debate, a difference of opinion, and compromise are all good things for maintaining liberty.

CNN's article called the battle in the House of Representatives "embarrassing," but to be honest their hivemind thinking that everyone should just mindlessly step into line and vote as one (Star Trek's Borg come to mind) is what is embarrassing.

I am proud of the conservative Republicans who stood up against the establishment saying, "No, we are not going to just vote for your offering because you say so.  We believe there is a suitable alternative."

McCarthy was not the best candidate.  Jim Jordan was vastly a better proposal.  There are others that are also heads and tails above McCarthy.  Kevin McCarthy is more of the same old, "we have to be more like the Democrats to defeat the Democrats" attitude, as well as a person who drinks from the same power trough as all of the other "professional politicians" we have come to despise and loathe.  For once I want the GOP to say, "We aren't feeding the anti-constitutional big government leviathan anymore!  It is time to stand up for a limited government as the Constitution originally designed.  It is time to offer a contrast to the Democrats.  It is time to say 'enough is enough'."

CNN called those who stood against McCarthy "right-wing radicals."  I call them a breath of fresh air.  CNN says the fact that it took multiple votes "humiliating".  I call it refreshing.  It is not humiliating to think for yourself, and say no to a power-play provided once again by the party leadership who doesn't care about what is best for the country, but what is best for their power, their position, and their wallets.

The Freedom Caucus, led by Matt Gaetz and Chip Roy, made proposals for McCarthy that were largely eventually agreed to.  Were McCarthy's concessions genuine?  I hope so.  But, again, in the end I applause the Freedom Caucus, and I appreciate the Republican Party who, in about a week's worth of debating  during the first week of 2023 revealed to us that not all of them are mindless automatons that simply agree with party leadership, no matter the offering.

-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary