BURNING DOWN THE HOUSE

 

 “Don’t believe the happy talk that this was a healthy display of democracy.”

Wall Street Journal

 

Recent events in electing a Speaker of the House of Representatives have highlighted a rebellious group of Republican members. This four per cent of Congress sought to cause institutional dysfunction and figuratively “burn down the House” by refusing to support the first choice for Speaker of most Republicans, Kevin McCarthy.

Through four days and fifteen agonizing ballots, front-runner McCarthy made numerous concessions to the dissenters to gain their support.  Without a Speaker, the House of Representatives could not function.  Newly elected members were unable to take the oath of office. Regrettably, electing a Speaker is not a one-time crisis in the House of Representatives.  It has become a dress rehearsal for more serious impasses over the next two years.

To their credit, the majority of Republican Representatives, who value the House as an institution, argued that every day without a functioning House and Speaker was unprecedented and dangerous. It certainly undermined America’s confidence that Republicans could govern. The insurgent group of twenty Representatives who opposed Kevin McCarthy as Speaker did not care about perceptions. They sought to govern under a new set of rules that would weaken the House leadership and give more influence to individual members on the far right.

The composition of the twenty dissident Representatives paints an interesting picture on the fragmentation of the Republican Party. Most were elected in solidly Republican districts and were all endorsed by Donald Trump. All are members of the House’s far right Freedom Caucus. All supported Trump’s “Stop the Steal” campaign, and many were knee deep in the January 6 insurrection (which took place exactly two years before the current revolt). Except for Pennsylvania Represenative Scott Perry, all are from the Sun Belt. Their brand of governing is anti-establishment chaos, not the art of political compromise.

The militants have now accomplished their goal to turn the House of Representatives into an ungovernable legislative body incapable of passing meaningful legislation. The new mandate of the House will be to muck up the federal government by refusing to raise the debt ceiling or to cooperate with the Senate. There will be no procedures in place to control the deeply divided Republicans. The primary function of the Republican led House will be to form committees to investigate President Biden and his family, members of his cabinet, the FBI, and eighty two year old Tony Fauci, the former national pandemic advisor.

The militant 20 were well aware that they would be in the strongest position to influence House leadership and rules at the beginning of the new term. The Freedom Caucus was able to wrangle significant concessions from the Republican majority. These included the need for only a single member to raise the issue of replacing the new Speaker, obtaining key committee assignments for Freedom Caucus members and promised votes on controversial issues that have no chance of becoming law. The renegade twenty will influence House rules and governance for the next two years.

A recent editorial in the conservative Wall Street Journal said it best:

“More than a few Republicans, alas, have a history of preferring combative sound bites to actual governing, and the fiasco Tuesday is an ominous sign of old habits being reasserted……They’re getting off to the kind of start that will persuade even their own voters to send them back to the minority in short order.”

In our own politically contentious Pennsylvania, a perfect storm of events following the November midterm elections threatened to cause a state constitutional crisis. Unlike Washington D.C., fire hoses were used to put out the blaze before the Pennsylvania State House could burn down.

The Pennsylvania Democrats won more House seats in November, but because of a death and two resignations, Republicans temporarily hold more seats until special elections take place later this year. Similar to events at the nation’s Capital, the first order of business was to elect a new Speaker. Both parties believed they were entitled to fill this most important position with one of their own.

To the surprise of many observers, a political compromise was brokered to elect a moderate Democrat, Represenative Mark Rozzi from Berks County. Following intense bipartisan negotiations, Rozzi agreed to serve as House Speaker as an Independent. The vote was an amazing 115-85 with many Republicans voting for the Democrat.

Mr. Rozzi has announced plans to hire staffers from both sides of the aisle and to take a nonpartisan policy-first approach on legislative issues. No one is quite sure how this experiment will work out in practice. Many of the lingering questions about how the House will operate, how committee chairs will be chosen and what will happen after the special elections, remain unanswered. Nonetheless, the House stands intact and can proceed with the business of governing Pennsylvania.

Most voters in America want their national and state governments to function, even if people they did not vote for run those institutions. Unfortunately, in our nation’s Capital, we are in a period of political fragmentation where political power is dispersed and democracy is difficult to implement.

Mr. McCarthy has won the Speakership but lost collective power. This will bedevil his leadership. Congress will work no better than the Italian Parliament where nothing is accomplished due to numerous political factions fighting for control.