Editorials

The Irish Times view on the removal of Kevin McCarthy: Washington’s dysfunction goes on

The political disarray will dismay all who look to the US for coherent leadership on the global stage

Former speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (second left) walks back to his office after the House of Representatives voted to remove him from his leadership position at the US Capitol in Washington, DC. Photograph: Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA

Tue Oct 10 2023 - 06:00

For the first time in the history of the United States, the speaker of the House of Representatives was deposed last week when a motion to vacate passed with a majority of six in the 435-seat chamber. The removal of Kevin McCarthy just nine months after his election to the third most senior position in American political life illustrates yet again the strains which political dysfunction is placing on the country’s constitutional order.

Defenders of first-past-the-post electoral systems in the US and UK argue that they act as a bulwark against extremism by ensuring the domination of two large mainstream parties. The counter-argument is that they can lead to the capture of a large party by a small, extremist rump. There is no better example of this than the current US Republican party.

McCarthy’s fate was sealed when a bipartisan agreement to avert a federal government shutdown passed on September 30th despite opposition from Republican right-wingers. Republican moderates argue he could have kept his job with Democrat votes, ignoring the fact that this would have undermined him in the eyes of his own party, and that Democrats were disinclined to vote for a man who has supported Donald Trump’s false claim that he won the 2020 presidential election.

It took just eight Republican votes to dispose of McCarthy, a weak leader who had sown the seeds of his own destruction by effectively conceding an electoral veto to the extremists in his own ranks, led by Florida congressman Matt Gaetz. Having provided the gun, McCarthy cannot have been too surprised when Gaetz, a rabble-rousing Florida congressman who traffics in disinformation and far-right rhetoric, pulled the trigger.

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The resulting political disarray will dismay all who look to Washington for coherent leadership at a time of conflict in Europe and the Middle East. Another federal shutdown is less than 40 days away and a debt default looms if no agreement is reached between president Biden and the rudderless House. Alarmingly, US assistance to Ukraine is in the balance if the stalemate continues for any length of time. A feature of the Republican party’s transformation is the growing opposition from the party’s right to support for Ukraine in its fight against Russian aggression. The split in the party over the issue is embodied by the two contenders to replace McCarthy, Louisiana congressman Steve Scalise, who supports continuing aid, and Jim Jordan of Ohio, who is vehemently opposed.

Republican House members will vote this week on which candidate to support . But given that it took 15 rounds of voting to elect McCarthy in January, a swift result is far from assured. Meanwhile, the drift and paralysis in American government continues.

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