The signs have been building now for months: the red trickle in the midterms instead of the expected wave, the passage of the omnibus bill, and now the struggle over who will be the new Speaker of the House in Congress. Conservative Republican lawmakers, along with many voters in the base, are sick and tired of the GOP establishment cozying up with the Democratic Party.
Republican leaders in the House simply refused to vote for Kevin McCarthy because he exemplifies the idea that Republicans should be what some have called “Democrat Lite.”
Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz is one of those leaders. On Tuesday, he gave a speech to reporters about why he was against McCarthy as the Republican’s choice, and if you listened to his words, you might have heard exactly where the Party is today.
He began by making it clear that he and others had been threatened to be taken off of committees if they didn’t toe the line with their vote. Gaetz had the perspective that if all the GOP had was bark and no bite, the committees would mean nothing anyway.
Listen to his words, “I’m not here to participate in some puppet show. I don’t want to relive the Benghazi experience where it’s just theatre pretending to be oversight.”
Could this be what the GOP has become, all flash and no real power? Are they just unwilling to really have a dog in the fight against the liberals and progressives in the Democratic Party?
Their opponents have almost become radicalized in their positions, and McCarthy could very well be just what Gaetz is afraid of, someone pretending to have real oversight.
This is an important time for the Republican Party to once again listen to their base and continue the work of draining the swamp in Washington.
Gaetz has a strong point and it’s one that the Republican Party should seriously consider.
