THE GOP ROAD

By Edwin Cooney

The selection of Kevin McCarthy as the Speaker of the House following 15 rounds of bitter and contentious sparring was conclusive but hardly unifying or healing! Politics since the mid 1970s has been about the destruction of the old political party system rather than being about any kind of political or national unity. Both Democrats and  Republicans over the past 50 years have destroyed the old seniority system, have sought to limit the terms of elected officials at both the national and state levels and have created  what Professor Richard Pildes calls “free agent” politicians. Steadily freed of party obligations in the way of rewards and punishments, congressional leaders such as Marjorie Taylor Greene, Andy Biggs, Jim Jordan, and Matt Gaetz (who considers himself the Right's AOC) are on the verge of becoming at least the first wave of the new GOP oligarchy.

What is especially fascinating to imagine is how Speaker McCarthy can consider himself strengthened by the prerogatives and powers that he has negotiated away in his effort to realize his greatest political ambition. Speaker McCarthy would be much more powerful had he been selected from the ranks to serve as Speaker rather than achieving that office from his knees via the grovel!

Another aspect of this “elephantine” wrestling match is how ineffective both Ms. Greene and Mr. Trump were in their efforts to pull Mr. McCarthy out of the pile and station him atop that glorious altar on which good politicians named Sam Rayburn, John McCormack, Tom O'Neill and Nancy Pelosi so recently stood.

For years and years, third party hopefuls have deplored the dominance of the two party system while people like me have defended its essential stability. The steady dominance of interparty discipline has achieved a major accomplishment in the destruction of both Democratic and Republican authority on Capital Hill which so many third party advocates have deplored. 

As Professor Pildes points out, politicians have moved from the rank and file of party membership to political free agency. Due to the prevalence of the internet and ideologically based television, individual politicians named AOC, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Matt Gaetz and Donald J. Trump no longer have to depend on party favor or preference to advance and sustain themselves on the local or national political stage.

Although the first steps of functional party reform in the past 50 or 60 years began largely in the Democratic Party especially in the wake of the Watergate era, well financed Republicans today lead the army of political wunderkinds who are clearly determined to starve the progressive party body politic of the funds necessary to sustain the social and economic needs and rights of millions of racial and ethnic oriented Americans.

Having failed to totally dismantle progressive government by eliminating established departments such as that of Energy, Welfare, and Education (something Messrs Nixon, Reagan, Bush, and Trump tried and failed to do), Speaker McCarthy will use the power of the purse, the House's most potent and legitimate function, to cut, slash, deny and minimize the well being of so many good people!

Now that they've managed to elect a Speaker, they will traverse this new Republican road. No doubt they'll insist it's a road to much needed reform. I insist it's a road to national chaos and, ultimately, to Republican Party wreckage.

Following that wreckage, they’ll perhaps be ready to reason once again and give the Democratic Party the kind of opposition both parties need!

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,

EDWIN COONEY