Remember Kevin McCarthy?

Back in January, when I was just beginning this practice, I wrote about Kevin McCarthy and his quest to become Speaker of the House. I believe it took about 15 rounds of voting to finally get approved, but he was forced to make multiple concessions between rounds in order to succeed. One unprecedented concession was giving his party - and particularly a small faction on the far right - the power to remove him from his position if they felt he was not upholding his commitments to them.

Well, fast forward nine months or so and what do you know? McCarthy is out. What did he do? From what I understand, I believe he… did his job??? The government was on the verge of shutdown, as it seems to be every two to three weeks or so in my opinion, and McCarthy relied on Democrats to keep the government open and functioning. Naturally, doing anything resembling compromise is forbidden in modern American politics, so McCarthy’s actions led representative Matt Gates and his far-right mafia to pull the plug on the Speaker of the House. Now the Republicans are considering options for his replacement and other members of the House and the Senate are urging them not to be so divisive but I mean, if it quacks like a duck…

So, what did we learn? Anything? In January I tried to focus on the silver lining. “You have to at least respect McCarthy’s persistence” and all that. Now, I’m not sure what the lesson is. Don’t give in to bullies? You make your bed so lay in it? Read the fine print? I’m pretty sure he knew this would happen eventually. The American government is tragically flawed? Maybe. We’re past the peak of the bell curve relative to the rise and fall of the American empire? That could very well be true. I don’t know, people. It’s a bad look, that’s for sure. What do you expect when you try to negotiate with unreasonable people? I don’t think about it too much. I mostly just think it’s funny. I probably shouldn’t take too much joy in watching our institutions seemingly deteriorate but I guess I’ve got a dark sense of humor.

That idea brings me to one other question, which I think often. I’ll mention it now but I’ll save my longer thoughts for another day, or maybe even another form. Essentially, the question is: Is this actually the worst it’s ever been, or does it just feel that way because this is the only time we know?

-J.P.