The drama this week underscores how little was absorbed over the implications of the attack on the Capitol.
No one could have written a more dramatic script for the final hours of Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s long quest to become speaker of the House. The last act alone came with crushing disappointment, ultimate elation and, in between flashes of treachery, incompetence and a threat of a fistfight. The Republican Party was left frozen in its own divisions in full view of the American people.
It seemed almost too ironic that this made-for-television drama played out on the second anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, in which followers of President Donald Trump sought to block certification of Joe Biden’s 2020 victory. The entire four days and the 15 ballots that finally resulted in McCarthy’s victory underscored how little the Republican Party has absorbed the full implications of how costly that dark day has been to them.
That it took McCarthy so much effort to win the speakership is a direct reflection of how Jan. 6 influenced what happened two months ago in the midterm elections, when House Republicans fell far short of their expectations and McCarthy was left to scratch for votes in a conference with the slimmest of majorities.
The Republican Party fell short in November because too many Americans, especially independent voters, decided they were reluctant to hand too much power to the party of Jan. 6 the party of election deniers and the party of Trump acolytes. Instead of a comfortable majority, McCarthy was left with a margin that empowered the radical fringe of his party to hold the speakership hostage until McCarthy and his allies had made concession after concession.
Sadly, the struggle that played out as riveting television Friday night and into Saturday morning is likely to be repeated in the coming two years, to the detriment not just of the Republican Party but also the entire nation. In their week of stalemate, Republicans seemed oblivious to the forces that left McCarthy in such a precarious position.
Yet they only had themselves to blame. Even after the attack on the Capitol, a majority of House Republicans sought to challenge the results in the electoral college. Trump’s continuing lies about a stolen election infected the party’s rank and file. A majority of people who identify themselves as Republicans still say they do not believe President Biden was legitimately elected in 2020.
Following Trump’s lead, election deniers sprang up around the country, seeking office at every level. Many of the most high-profile among them lost their races, but by the count of The ’s Amy Gardner, there are 175 House Republicans who have in some way or another or at some time or another embraced Trump’s baseless claims about 2020.
