OPINION:
A lot of pointless hysteria has been and is likely to be generated by the vacation given to former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
Let’s do something different and try to level-set the conversation.
First, those Republicans who voted to remove Mr. McCarthy are not traitors, no matter what former Speaker Newt Gingrich says. They had a disagreement with management and used the rules of the House to solve their problem. They did not commit treason.
Step away from the crazy buffet, Mr. Gingrich.
Mr. McCarthy’s demotion does not signify the end of the world. The truth is that what the House of Representatives does on a daily basis is just not that important to the rest of the country. Only one-third of adults can even name their member of Congress.
That’s healthy. No one wants to live in a country where the federal government is so important that people know all about Congress.
Moreover, the composition of the House and its environs hasn’t changed at all. The Senate is still controlled by Sen. Joe Manchin III, West Virginia Democrat (and sometimes Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, Arizona independent). The White House is probably still controlled by former President Barack Obama’s alumni society. The House itself remains narrowly divided. None of that has changed.
Similarly, Republicans in Congress remain firmly wedded to the status quo despite what you might have heard. The ostensible dispute between the revolutionaries and the speaker was over about $100 billion in a $6.5 trillion budget, or, as most people like to describe 1.5%, a rounding error.
With one exception — House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington — no one even bothered to propose a budget that would balance in the next decade. It will, of course, shock you to learn that Mr. Arrington’s budget was completely ignored.
The only thing that has changed is the person who presides over the House. We also know now for certain that both Rep. Matt Gaetz and the man who more or less created him have no concept of loyalty or the notion of the greater good.
This sort of thing is bound to happen to Republicans more often than Democrats. Republicans were born in the years immediately before the Civil War as a messianic party devoted to ending slavery (and for some, Roman Catholicism in America). The Democratic Party was the child of Andrew Jackson and has always been about keeping together awkward coalitions — the party of rum, Romanism and rebellion.
Republicans just aren’t good at the coalition game. That’s unfortunate, because this is what government in transition and coalitions in transition look like.
The good news is that the real building of the new Republican Party is happening on the campaign trail, where, despite what you may have heard, there remains a spirited contest in which businessman Vivek Ramaswamy continues to move the range of acceptable ideas to the right, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley continues to outperform expectations, and Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina preaches American exceptionalism.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis keeps grinding away, especially in Iowa, where he has the highest favorability ratings in the race and is probably the only candidate who can defeat former President Donald Trump. He didn’t miss the chance to compare his steady-as-she-goes approach to the more idiosyncratic gyrations of the crowd in Washington.
On “The Hugh Hewitt Show,” Mr. DeSantis recently said: “It’s a strong contrast to how we do business in Florida. I think you see a lot of theater, a lot of chaos; I’m not sure it ever leads to any results. Whereas in Florida, everything we do is calculated to deliver outcomes and to create a better life for the people down here.”
More importantly, a couple of months ago, Mr. DeSantis found his voice and went on the offensive against Mr. Trump. It’s been fun to watch. Just this week, the DeSantis campaign launched a new video highlighting Mr. Trump’s “evolving” positions with respect to Mexico.
Mr. Trump in 2016: “I will build a great, great wall and I will have Mexico pay for the wall. … These lightweights come up to me and they say, ‘You can’t get Mexico to pay for the wall.’ And I said, ‘100%.’ … Trust me.”
Mr. Trump in 2023: “Well, you know, there was no legal mechanism. … How do you go to a country and say, ‘By the way, I’m building a wall, hand us a lot of money.’?”
For those Republicans fretting about the goings-on in the House, relax and unclutch your pearls. The party is no different than it was a few days ago.
That is both good and bad.
• Michael McKenna is president of MWR Strategies.
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