How Did the Failed Rounds of Vote to Elect US House Speaker Expose the Divisions Between the Republicans?

It was said to be a disastrous start for the Republicans in the US House of Representatives after difficult negotiations and failed rounds of voting to choose a House speaker, despite the majority of seats they won in the recent elections.

The incident, which did not happen in a century, revealed the severity of the differences between the traditional parties in the United States, which are no longer limited to political bickering between the Republican and Democratic parties but have extended to include one-party currents between Republican-Republican, Democratic-Democratic, with the emergence of different currents with conflicting interests distributed among lobbies.

However, the Republicans finally succeeded in electing Kevin McCarthy as House Speaker after 15 voting rounds over 4 days, which witnessed procrastination, accusations, and insults among the Republicans themselves.

It is noteworthy that in 1855 the largest battle for the presidency of the US House of Representatives broke out, which lasted for two months, during which 133 rounds of polling took place, against the backdrop of discussions about slavery in the period leading up to the Civil War.

 

Democracy or Blackmail?

Republican Representative Kevin McCarthy managed to win the presidency of the US House of Representatives on the evening of January 7, 2021, highlighting a mechanism that witnessed severe tensions and divisions in the ranks of the Republican Party until its end.

218 out of 223 Republican votes in the House, McCarthy wanted them to win in the first session, but disagreements prevented that.

In the 15th round, McCarthy was able to take Nancy Pelosi’s gavel after obtaining 216 votes that qualified him to win.

Some of his opponents from the Freedom Caucus in the Republican Party voted for him, while others nullified their votes, bringing the threshold to win down to 216 instead of 218.

In a quick comparison of the votes he obtained during the previous sessions, there are 21 Republicans who voted against him, noting that the objection of only 5 deputies from his party was sufficient to prevent his election, which reveals the extent of the stormy dispute in the Republican Party.

It is noteworthy that the election of McCarthy as Speaker House came in conjunction with the second anniversary of the attack on the Capitol, reminding everyone of the crack in US democracy and the extent of political blackmail practiced by a group of no more than 20 members of the far right.

Despite Trump himself publicly calling during the polls for all Republicans to elect McCarthy, this bloc that calls itself the Freedom Caucus refused to yield to Trump’s request and continued obstruction and blackmail under the pretext that McCarthy is unreliable, volatile, and ideologically devoid, in addition, he was one of the critics of Trump’s stance towards the attack on the Capitol, and then returned to woo him again.

It is noteworthy that the Republicans know very well that procrastination in electing a House speaker will have serious repercussions on the country, which suffers from political, economic, and social problems. Without the election of the speaker, the deputies cannot take the oath, and therefore they will not approve any bill in the country.

Despite this, a Republican team led by Andy Biggs, Representative from Arizona, after the party’s disappointment in the midterm elections with a red wave controlling both houses of Congress, tried to seize the opportunity to achieve gains that they had sought for months.

Many political concessions were offered by McCarthy in return for his election to the presidency of the House of Representatives, which the American press described as humiliating.

Those concessions included partisan gains that include the non-interference of the Republican group allied with McCarthy in the Republican primaries, according to what was revealed by CNN in a report on January 7, 2022.

“There are political gains that include making legal amendments that allow any deputy to put forward a project to remove him from office, which weakens his authority in favor of the members of the parliament,” it added.

“There are also parliamentary gains that include McCarthy’s agreement to place members of the Freedom Caucus in the main committees, including the Rules Committee, and to allow them to vote on controversial projects related to immigration, border security, the annual budget, and any files they support,” the network noted.

 

Political Polarization

In light of the scene of the divided Republican majority, the House of Representatives will pass through a critical phase that will witness frantic efforts to obstruct the Democrats’ agenda, both internally and externally, on top of which are issues of public spending, individual arms laws, abortion, and an attempt to obstruct and restrict the US administration’s directions in the Russian-Ukrainian war, according to the Financial Times in a report on January 7, 2023.

The newspaper added that there are new fears that a small group of right-wingers will seek to block large parts of the legislation that must be passed later this year, noting that these differences will erode the confidence of the American people in the institutions of his country.

In turn, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement following McCarthy’s win: “Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s dream job could turn into a nightmare for the American people.”

Schumer warned, “McCarthy’s concessions made to become House speaker will cause a government shutdown or a default with devastating consequences to our country.”

On his part, political analyst Ihab Abbas said in a statement to Al-Estiklal that “what happened during the past days in the US House of Representatives regarding the difference of viewpoints is something that may be in the interest of the Republican Party.”

He pointed out that the concessions obtained by the twenty deputies to support McCarthy had undermined the powers of the House speaker, explaining that the general orientation of the Republicans in the House of Representatives, currently, is in the far right, which is more than in any previous period.

Political polarization and partisanship have Americans feeling quite pessimistic about how politicians in Washington will handle their role after such a rocky start in a divided Congress.

The American public’s trust in Congress has already reached an all-time low, with only 7% of Americans expressing a great deal of confidence in it, according to a June 23, 2022, Gallup poll.

A separate Gallup poll also conducted on December 8, 2022, indicated that Americans’ approval of Congress remains largely negative, with 73% of US adults disapproving.

 

Existential Threat

The clear divisions within and among the traditional parties highlight the ferocity that the upcoming presidential election battle will witness, especially among members of one party.

According to what was reported by the Financial Times in a report on January 5, 2023, the repeated and humiliating failure to elect McCarthy represents an existential threat to the Republican Party, describing what is happening as a functional decline for the Republicans.

In this context, the Axios website quoted, in a report on January 4, 2023, a number of American lawmakers as saying: “Everyone wants to be the leader.”

He attributed the party’s repeated failures to the complexities of contemporary conservatives and the waning power of Republican leadership.

Opinion poll numbers, which showed a disagreement among Republicans over who will lead the party in the next stage, suggest the hypothesis that the upcoming presidential battle will witness more disagreements.

According to a YouGov poll, there are 42% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents who prefer Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida, to Trump, which Trump is aware of, and who called him to warn DeSantis not to run.

It is noteworthy that the differences within the Republican Party and between Republicans and Democrats are no less important than those that rage within the ranks of the Democratic Party as well, as their party is witnessing conflicts and divisions, the most recent of which was a dispute over Biden’s ability to run for a second time.

According to the poll conducted by CNN months ago, 75% of Democrats are against his candidacy again for the presidency.

In a report revealing the existing dispute, the Hill website states that the Democratic Party is exposed to a crisis of orientations in domestic politics after differences emerged between a new progressive current and the old pragmatic current, which heralds a division within its ranks.

In parallel with the sharp divisions witnessed by the traditional parties, the indicators show a change in the general popular mood, from a fierce defender of it to a rejection of its policies at the internal and external levels.

A poll conducted by Suffolk University and USA Today, published by the New York Post on December 28, 2022, showed that the majority of Americans want a president under the age of 65, and reject Trump’s and Biden’s candidacy again, which reveals the extent of the dilemma that these parties are exposed to and threatens their existence.