republican irresponsibility

The election of the president of the United States House of Representatives is the first act of the legislature, even before the congressmen are sworn in.

That the majority party is not able to agree to name the president in the first ballot is something that has not happened for a century, and yet it has not come as a surprise.

At the tenth opportunity, it has not come out either.

The division when it comes to choosing its parliamentary leader is a sample of the ultra-conservative, anti-democratic and irresponsible drift on the part of the Republican Party, hostage to a toxic Trumpism that has gotten out of hand for Donald Trump himself and that calls into question the party's ability to assume government tasks.

The narrow Republican majority in the lower house after the elections on November 8 has allowed some twenty deputies from the hard wing of the party to boycott the election of Kevin McCarthy as president.

Like good extremists, wayward representatives believe they are in absolute possession of the truth.

Their attitude is that of full-blown blackmail in which a minority that represents less than 10% of their parliamentary group wants to impose their conditions on the entire party (and by extension, the entire House and the country as a whole) with a list of demands that does not seem aimed at facilitating parliamentary work and governance, but rather at sabotaging it.

It has been of no use to McCarthy to kneel before Trump or avoid criticism of his relationships with outspoken anti-Semites.

Not even Trump controls his creatures anymore.

Among the rebel representatives there is an overwhelming majority of electoral deniers, who have agreed with the hoax that the elections were stolen from Trump two years ago, but that now they do not answer the calls of the former president to support McCarthy.

The candidate, for his part, has had a lousy negotiating strategy.

He has given in to a good part of the demands of the ultra-conservatives, but without guaranteeing their votes in return, which has fueled their demand for more.

The damage is already done.

Even if McCarthy (or anyone else) achieves the necessary majority to be elected, his position will be hopelessly weakened.

If a parliamentary leader is not even able to secure the votes of his party, the possibility of getting any useful measures forward is drastically reduced.

With an already divided Congress, in which Democrats have a majority in the Senate and Republicans control (so to speak) the House of Representatives, the two-year second half of President Joe Biden's term threatens a paralysis. legislation, in which the spending measures that are necessary and hardly any laws are approved.

The Republican inability to assume their responsibilities may also mean a warning with a view to the 2024 presidential elections. In contrast to the Republican division, the Democrats have given an image of unity.

Furthermore, Biden decided to start the political course with an act in which he was accompanied by the Republican leader in the Senate, to promote investments in an infrastructure law that had the support of congressmen from both parties.

It is a clear example that useful politics consists of compromises and solutions, not in fights, entanglements and blackmail.