Krull
The Republican caucus of the U.S. House of Representatives is in a tizzy.
Republicans are only days away from reclaiming control of what once was called “the people’s chamber.”
But they can’t seem to find their footing.
They are locked in a protracted and increasingly bitter struggle over who will serve as House speaker. Current Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-California, has angled for the post ever since he was in the womb and has abased himself unashamedly in pursuit of it. He’s served as former President Donald Trump’s errand boy on a series of increasingly nonsensical and self-destructive projects and has rolled over like a trained poodle whenever the Marjorie Taylor Greene crazy contingent in his caucus has wanted him to do tricks.
It hasn’t been enough.
Several of the same howl-at-the-moon conservatives to whom McCarthy has kowtowed say he doesn’t have the gumption to be speaker. They vow they won’t support him under any circumstances.
Because the Republican majority in the chamber is frog’s-hair thin, even a handful of GOP defections will be enough to deny McCarthy the prize. Just who the alternative might be if he can’t cajole or bribe the recalcitrant caucus members into line is anybody’s guess.
Most likely, it won’t be anyone who has the slightest clue about how to get things done.
That likely won’t be a problem for much of the caucus, even though it would be if they were paying attention.
After losing the popular vote by significant margins—3 million in 2016, 10 million in 2018 and 7 million in 2020—in the last three presidential and midterm elections, the GOP eked out a narrow majority in House races in 2022.
They did so by hammering away at Democrats on the issues of inflation and crime. In a nation in which even rising wages could not keep pace with climbing food, gas and housing costs and one where most cities seemed to be setting new homicide records, this was a sound strategy.
Given that inflation seems to be slowing but not stopping and violent crime shows no signs of disappearing, fashioning policies and programs that attempt to deal with those problems likely would appeal to voters and set GOP candidates up for success when 2024 rolls around.
But that’s not what Republicans in the House are doing.
They plan to investigate every alt-right resentment—Hunter Biden, undocumented immigration, the coronavirus pandemic and mask mandates—but they have yet to offer a single plan or idea that actually will help any American who isn’t drawing a congressional paycheck.
The fascinating question is why they’re doing this. Why are they throwing away a golden chance to lure persuadable voters back to their cause?
The answer is that House Republicans are ignoring voters and their concerns because they can. House candidates now live, work and run for office in a world in which they really don’t have to pay attention to what the voters and taxpayers need or want.
In the 2022 election, 35 of the 435 House district races were uncontested. That meant the voters in those districts didn’t have a choice and, perhaps even more important, the candidates for office had no real reason to pay attention to the concerns of the people who pay their salaries.
How did this come to pass?
Well, it was predictable.
In most of this country, we have allowed legislators and other politicians to draw the maps that determine how congressional districts are set up. Those lawmakers and politicos do so with their own interests and those of their party in mind—not those of the citizens they’re supposed to serve.
The name for this phenomenon is gerrymandering, the dark science of allowing politicians to pick the voters they want rather than the other way around. It is responsible for much of what ails our federal and state governments.
In this case, gerrymandering has given us a House of Representatives that would rather pick fights than propose solutions. It also has turned the people’s chamber into a place where the people’s voices are rarely if ever heard.
That’s why, while their own voters struggle, House Republicans likely will spend the next two years amusing themselves.
Not many other people will be laughing.
John Krull is director of Franklin College’s Pulliam School of Journalism and publisher of TheStatehouseFile.com, a news website powered by Franklin College journalism students. The views expressed are those of the author only and should not be attributed to Franklin College. Send comments to [email protected].
