The GOP: Both Young & Old Fail At Messaging
The House of Representatives leadership election failed to elect a Speaker of the House on the first ballot for the first time in one hundred years. US Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), the presumptive “next in line,” failed to reach the necessary 218 votes to capture the Speaker’s gavel, failing to meet the threshold a total of three times before the chamber abruptly adjourned. McCarthy collected 203 votes twice, then dipped to 202 votes on the third ballot.
While the majority of the staunchly conservative Freedom Caucus stands in support of McCarthy, there are enough House Republicans who stand in opposition to McCarthy to make the process of electing a GOP House Speaker an elongated task. And the longer it takes the more unstable the slim GOP majority in the lower chamber appears, both to their opposition and to the public.
Opening The Door To Opportunity
Even before the 2022 Midterm Elections, House Republicans were prattling on about the things they would accomplish in the aftermath of the approaching “red wave,” demonstrating that they had ample opportunity to get their political ducks in a row regarding the messaging of their positions. This self-identification of “opportunity” presented for both pro-McCarthy and anti-McCarthy contingents.
Yet, neither contingent thought it important enough to lay the groundwork for a case in support or opposition to McCarthy’s candidacy for the Speakership. The failure of both factions to explain their reasoning – in even an elementary way – shows both a level of contempt for Republican voters and also a level of ineptitude.
The contempt can be recognized in how quickly and hard politicians pivot away from the voters after the ballots are counted. No longer are those who cast the votes the most valuable commodity in the nation; no longer do their opinions hold enough weight to be properly considered. For those who survived and/or beat the blades of the political abattoir to gain entry to the DC swamp clubs, the importance of the voter diminished; the idea of “serving the people” a notion relegated to that of a tagline.
Lost in all that power-grabbing and self-importance – not to mention government expansion and bureaucratic proliferation – is the fact that it is still the voter that matters; we are still a Constitutional Republic predicated on a democratic federal election system. Because of this, the elected class has a high-bar obligation to possess the ability to more than adequately message their intentions and reasonings to the American people. Intelligent politicians have known this for more than two centuries.
Missed Opportunity Or Non-Artful Dodging?
Getting back to the opportunity the Republican elected class had to fully educate their constituents on why they supported or opposed the McCarthy Speakership candidacy.
A sampling of articles in the mainstream media results in a foggy-at-best understanding of why the House Republican conservative contingent has refused to support McCarthy. Now, that doesn’t necessarily mean a lot given the mainstream media’s contempt for conservatives and Republicans in general, but it does indicate that both those who support McCarthy and oppose him fail to understand the importance of messaging.
In his explanation of why he opposes a McCarthy Speakership, MAGA-centric US Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), explains, “It is true that we struggle with trust with Mr. McCarthy because time and again his viewpoints, his positions, they shift like sands underneath you,” Gaetz told reporters. “[B]ut if you want to drain the swamp, you cannot put the biggest alligator in charge of the exercise,” he said.
Of course, you don’t drain a swamp and remove the old alligators just to restock it with younger versions of the same, but that point is reserved for a later discussion about Gaetz, his connected family, and how he came to power out of Florida’s Panhandle.
TheHill.com reported other McCarthy detractors as saying:
“...McCarthy’s math problem seemed to worsen on Tuesday morning, as some of the members who had been withholding support for McCarthy without revealing their final position said after the meeting that they will not vote for him on the floor.
“‘Kevin McCarthy is not the right candidate to be Speaker,’ US Rep. Dan Bishop (R-NC) said in a statement.
“‘As it stands, I will not be voting for Kevin McCarthy,’ US Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) told reporters.
“Rep. Matt Rosendale (R-MT), said that McCarthy ‘lied’ to members during his pitch, but would not specify about what.”
McCarthy didn’t suffer the slings and arrows without response, telling reporters that during a pre-first-vote meeting, Gaetz stated, “I don’t care if we go to plurality and we elect Hakeem Jeffries.”
Jeffries (D-NY) was elected last month as Democratic leader. Not a good look for a self-declared ultra-conservative and “swamp-drainer.”
Examining The Problem
These key phrases, used above, highlight the messaging problems plaguing those on the Right side of the aisle:
“...we struggle with trust with Mr. McCarthy because time and again his viewpoints, his positions, they shift like sands underneath you…”
“...McCarthy ‘lied’ to members during his pitch…”
“...McCarthy is not the right candidate to be Speaker…”
Each of these statements is left unqualified because no specifics were provided by which to judge the indictment. What “viewpoints and positions” shift like sands beneath you? What did McCarthy “lie” about? Why isn’t he the “right candidate” for the job? Each of these legitimate questions about McCarthy’s flaws is left unanswered, proof of each point left unprovided, and at a time considered optimal to do just that…if your allegation and indictments have merit.
If McCarthy’s flaws are so egregious that he can’t be trusted; if he has been caught lying to his caucus, why not explain the circumstances of those allegations for all to examine and judge? Why be so secretive about his shifting viewpoints and positions? Why not be honest stewards of government and call him on his lies? Wouldn’t this moment in time be perfect for attracting the widest audiences for your statements; the perfect moment to expose – as Gaetz would say – a DC swamp alligator?
Or is this an exercise in political extortion and positioning so those leveling the indictments can grab all the power they can before the House GOP power structure is set to cement?
And what of McCarthy’s supporters? Why aren’t they front and center volleying back against Gaetz, Boebert, Bishop, Rosendale, and the others, calling them out on their allegations; demanding that they provide more than just hollow charges?
The bottom line here is this. Either this infighting is wholly based on one inside-the-beltway creature group trying to displace another inside-the-beltway creature group from the “king of the hill” spot, or the entirety of the Republican Party has a very serious messaging problem and one that won’t see them winning any “red wave” elections any time soon, if any at all.
It’s Time For A Change
For far too long – perhaps as long as before World War II, the national Republican Party has allowed itself to be the political party whose hierarchy is based not so much on merit and ability, but on the philosophy of “it’s my turn.” If a politician is able to achieve re-election long enough he or she will eventually be elevated to leadership. This is the antithesis of the core ideology of the Republican Party and the conservative movement.
Because today’s GOP is the political party of “it’s my turn,” we have political swamp creatures like US Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who use self-serving political rubrics and administer intra-partisan funding schemes to secure their power through party politics rather than merit. They find it easier and more productive – for themselves – to gerrymander their longevity in power in the furthest recesses of the foggiest parts of the DC swamp, rather than articulate solid and truthful messaging for all to examine and judge in the service of their constituencies.
So, it matters not whether you look to the past, assess the present, or look curiously at the future. At this point, national Republicans couldn’t message their way out of a brown paper bag no matter what the catalyst. But hey, does it matter? Our next national leaders are just waiting in the longevity line for their turn at maintaining the status quo in our “do-nothing but drift left” Legislative Branch.
Until the national GOP starts elevating the intelligent and talented – those with wisdom and the ability to craft freedom into our future – to positions of leadership over the “it’s my turn” next in line, fascist Progressives, who always vote lockstep, will continue to manhandle the country into despotism.
But that’s a message no one in the national GOP wants to hear. They are too busy playing politics to care.
