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Earlier this year, Speaker Kevin McCarthy worked out a deal with Democrats to extend the debt ceiling until 2025. Given his incredibly narrow majority and his coalition’s mutinous nature, this was deemed a win for McCarthy and the Republicans, proving the GOP could govern.
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That success somehow angered the self-aggrandizers. When you’ve convinced yourself that the “establishment” is an existential enemy, any deal is seen as a sellout, and you instead must demonstrate that you didn’t compromise your supposed principles. Losing and undermining the is preferable to helping the country.
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Thus, the so-called Freedom Caucus — which didn’t say much when Donald Trump spent like Barack Obama — claimed McCarthy made them promises he didn’t keep and insisted that something must be done.
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Amazing when you think about it. The House Republican rank and file has been in a fight with their party’s leader/speaker for 12 years straight.
— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) October 3, 2023
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Their answer? Force a government shutdown.
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This internecine populism is perhaps the most predictable script of the modern political era. Regardless of how media propagandists spin, you know who dislikes government shutdowns? Voters. And the party that pushes a shutdown gets blamed, while the other side — which happens to control the Senate, the White House, the media, academia — scores easy points.
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Even when an intrepid McCarthy works out a temporary deal, there is self-inflicted damage by the chaos agents.
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And then there are un-American stunts like Tuesday evening by a vengeful Floridian clown happily working with traitorous Democrats.
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And the country is worse off for it.
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The difference is the Dem headaches (The Squad) actually care about policy so Pelosi could deal with them and give some policy concessions, but the Gaetz crowd only want to create chaos to get attention. They don’t care about substance or policy. https://t.co/iIgVM8a703
— AG (@AGHamilton29) October 3, 2023
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Why would the hostage-takers do something so petty? They reside in safe red districts. Andy Biggs, Ken Buck, Bob Good, Matt Rosendale, and the noxious Matt Gaetz don’t face real reelection challengers, but their sophistry harms the reelection chances of Republicans within nearly 20 districts Biden won. The radicals have no plan to contribute anything, and their antics help Democrats by placing the GOP’s slim House majority in jeopardy.
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The populists emulate 1960s crazies occupying the campus cafeteria demanding U.S. forces withdraw from Vietnam. Performative politicians make a living off grievance and rushing to destructive cable news and spinning catastrophes they caused. They have no substance. As McCarthy said last week, “It’s almost like they want to walk you into a shutdown and then blame you for the shutdown.”
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A vote to vacate the chair is selfish, bad for conservative policies, and bad for America.
I strongly support @SpeakerMcCarthy. That’s why, without hesitation, I will vote no on this disastrous resolution.
— Rep. Bruce Westerman (@RepWesterman) October 3, 2023
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And then there’s Donald Trump, who fuels the fire when not avoiding debates. In a rant several days ago, he encouraged Republicans to behave like they have leverage, concluding, “UNLESS YOU GET EVERYTHING, SHUT IT DOWN!”
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Trump is concerned with himself. He wants to use a government shutdown to weaken the federal prosecutions against him.
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Even if you thought this puerile agenda was wise, it cannot make it through a Democrat-controlled Senate and past the president’s veto. It’s all theater.
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In the October Commentary Magazine, Matt Continetti wrote a lengthy piece declaring that the “New Right” — MAGA isolationists like Josh Hawley, Mike Lee, Rand Paul, J.D. Vance, and assorted congressional bomb-throwers — have abdicated many conservative values and instead echo Democrats’ regressive policy prescriptions.
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“They formed and defined themselves in Obama’s second term, against Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan, and George W. Bush conservatism,” Continetti explained on a recent podcast. “It’s now morphed into something different. Some figures don’t even pretend to be conservative in any way.”
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Since nomenclature matters, there are two branches of the New Right; one includes Nationalists like Vivek Ramaswamy with a dark foreign policy that resembles the left-wing McGovern peaceniks of 1972 and John Kerry’s anti-war crusades 20 years ago, saying the U.S. is not a force for good. Funny how “America First” is now antithetical to American ideals on the global stage.
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Then there are social democrats on the Right, more focused on state-centered economics. Despite voters strongly preferring conservative fiscal policies, these quislings suddenly believe limited government hampers progress, and to address the challenges of trade and industrialization, the government should take a larger role in decision-making.
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This duplicity is how egoists like Hawley can side with Joe Biden’s striking labor unions and praise Elizabeth Warren, yet slur consistent, Reagan Republicans as “RINOs.”
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The MAGA Right is indeed akin to the hard Left in words and deeds.
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Ari Kaufman is a correspondent for several U.S. newspapers and magazines from Minnesota and Ohio to Tennessee and Virginia. He taught school and served as a military historian before beginning his journalism career. He is the author of three books and a frequent guest on radio programs and contributes to Israel National News and here at The Lid.
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