Mutiny Before Unity
It’s been nearly a week since election day…a true shambles for Republicans across the country. As I’ve noted, it appears only Iowa and Florida got the “red wave” memo.
How the predictions were so wrong…and peddled by so many…is something to consider another time.
But what is clear is that the leadership in both the U.S. House and U.S. Senate failed to deliver anything close to even the average shift of seats in a midterm election. Sure, the Senate was a tough order given the number of GOP seats to defend, but it looks like the Republicans will actually lose ground. And as I write this on Sunday night, Republicans do not even have a majority in the House…and even if that does come through, it will be by the barest of majorities.
Sure, a majority is a majority…but is Kevin McCarthy the Speaker who can keep his caucus in line? Or will that majority contain enough defectors that it may as well be in Democrat hands?
I thought long and hard before making this statement, but here goes: if the Republican party has any chance of remaining relevant, it needs to have new leadership in both the House and Senate. Because when the team is doing poorly, you often change the coach, no matter how painful it might be at the time.
Those who advocate for Mitch McConnell to stay as Senate GOP leader say he knows how to work with Democrat leader Chuck Schumer. I’m not sure that’s paid off over the past two years…in fact, more than once it appears Schumer has stolen McConnell’s lunch money.
McCarthy was in line to be speaker when John Boehner left, but lack of support by those on the right allowed Paul Ryan to elbow McCarthy to the side. Ever since, he’s played the backroom game—funneling money to campaigns of favorites, promising possible opponents key committee posts, etc. That’s nice…but this is too important a time in our country’s history for good old boy paybacks.
I urge serious opposition to these two men, not out of any personal animus, but because a change in leadership is needed. And we need to wait until we know who has a majority in the chamber, and for all the races to be decided.
A large number of Republicans I’ve talked to say by default they’ll vote for McCarthy or McConnell because no one else ever runs against them…let’s see how some of them vote once there is competition.
