Republican Party Problem Child

On the heels of a decisive, if impressively difficult victory in passing a stop-gap spending measure in the House in the nick of time, Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy was ousted this week by a tiny cohort of conservative doomsayers led by Congressman Matt Gaetz (R-FL).

After defeating a motion to table any motions to vacate the Speakership, Gaetz made just such a motion, thwarting McCarthy’s supporters during a fraught time in the House.

With the margin of the majority so small in the House of Representatives, political analysts and party insiders have been predicting just such a showdown would happen sooner or later. With a majority so thin, any Speaker — Republican or Democrat — can afford to lose vanishingly few votes from within their party.

Just a couple of party hardliners or holdouts could easily delay legislative progress indefinitely — Or at least until Democrats can wrest House control back from Republicans in 2024.

The same is true in the Democratic Party. Hyper-progressives, ultra-conservatives, and/or opportunistic grandstanders looking to raise their political profile can exploit the situation to advance legislative priorities, gain concessions, or even for personal gain.

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