The ouster of Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-Ca) is unprecedented in American history and augurs very badly for the future of our great republic. The Republican Party holds a razor thin majority in the House of Representatives of only four votes. This enabled a small group of GOP legislators, eight in number, to bring the Speaker down as they voted together with 210 Democrats to approve a motion to vacate the Speakership. Speaker McCarthy’s cardinal sin seems to have been to negotiate with the Democrat minority in passing stop gap legislation which would delay a federal government shutdown for 45 days, that is, until mid-November. The collapse of bipartisanship in the legislative branch of government can only lead us to the status of becoming a “Banana Republic”. All Democrats followed the lead of their leader, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) in voting for the resolution. In a sense, this might have been expected, but this leads to the inescapable conclusion that the health and welfare of our nation and its institutions are only of secondary importance. Momentary political advantage is the order of the day as all eyes are on the election to be held in November 2024. At that time, the Presidency will be up for election as will the entire House and one-third of the Senate. Certainly, an important election, but we have had far graver crises in American history than the challenges we now face. What we have not faced previously is this sort of juvenile pettiness on the part of allegedly responsible elected representatives of the people.
As the nation faces economic and political problems on an international scale which will not be enumerated in this essay, the House of Representatives is now paralyzed and cannot act on any legislation until the Speakership is filled by another person. The Republican caucus seems to be fractured. The Democrats are united in their determination to vote “no” against the candidacy of any Republican, yet they don’t have enough votes to elect one of their own. So the business of America’s government will provide entertainment to television viewers as our highly paid representatives can only lead us to wonder what they are doing for us, their employers, the American citizenship. We may come to the inescapable conclusion that they aren’t doing anything and they may face mass unemployment in the November 2024 elections as the voters elect replacements for the incumbents who don’t deliver. It’s hard to accept that all Democrats and all Republicans vote as units. Don’t any of these legislators feel responsible to the voters of the district’s that they are supposed to represent? Or do they simply follow orders from on high as the good of their party is paramount?
Almost seventy years ago, John F. Kennedy authored Profiles in Courage, which won a Pulitzer Prize. That book profiled legislators who courageously risked all for the benefit of the nation. At this time, is it too much to ask all of our elected officials, at all levels of government, whether they stand for courage, principle and integrity or for rank careerism and opportunism? The answers we receive will determine if the nation is on the road to continue its great heritage and historical voyage or if it will take the road to bananaism.
Garry S. Sklar
Las Vegas, NV
October 4, 2023
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