House Republicans need to grow up

Making Sense by Michael Reagan

OK, my fellow Republicans, you got rid of Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

Eight of you joined with every Democrat in the House of Representatives – the only part of the federal government we control – to vote McCarthy out, 216-210.

In the process you threw the House into chaos, killed any hope of passing important bills anytime soon and made yourselves the laughing stock of the political world.

OK, so you made history. Now what’s your plan? And where is it?

What? You have no plan? You don’t even know who you’ll replace McCarthy with yet?

Many Republicans wonder why their party loses so many times to the Democrats, but not me.

Unlike us, Democrats know how to run a party. They hang together and vote as a solid bloc.

Even their wackiest leftwing representatives – A.O.C. and the rest of her socialist Squad – fall in line when it comes time to vote for or against legislation.

And no matter what a fellow Democrat does to make a fool of himself or break a law – even pulling a fire alarm in the House to delay a vote – they close ranks and defend their own.

Meanwhile, Republicans – as they proved this week – couldn’t keep Matt Gaetz and his little gang from teaming up with every House Democrat to take down Speaker McCarthy.

Think how absurd this was.

We have an open border overrun by millions of illegal immigrants. We have crime and homelessness in the streets of our biggest cities. Inflation is raging, we’re supporting Ukraine in a war against Russia and we’re staring down a recession.

So what bright idea do House Republicans come up with? Let’s get rid of the speaker – our speaker.

And they did their coup with no replacement in mind. No plan in place. Now any legislation that was in the pipeline has been disrupted until McCarthy’s successor is chosen.

Gaetz, the narcissistic mastermind of the revolt who wants to be Florida’s next governor, doesn’t want the job. Who would?

It’s a tough job, especially when it’s so easy under the current rules to be sacked by a handful of rebels who can’t figure out that the Republican Party – and the country – is more important than they are.

Some GOP members in the House reportedly were mad at McCarthy and wanted him out because he hadn’t impeached President Biden yet.

But that was a Republican pipedream that was never going to happen. In case those guys didn’t notice, Republicans don’t control the Senate.

Republicans don’t control the Senate today for one big reason – they blew the U.S. Senate runoff elections in Georgia in 2020-21.

If you remember, a certain former president who shall remain nameless urged Georgia Republicans not to vote because he said the elections were rigged and their votes would not be counted fairly.

As a result, many Georgia Republicans stayed home and both Democrat candidates went to Washington.

If the GOP had held the Senate, none of this chaos and juvenile party infighting in the House would be happening today.

Republicans would be passing important bills in the House and Senate and forcing the president to either pass them or veto them.

Instead, the House Republicans are in disarray and the Democrats are high-fiving each other and downing shots of tequila.

If Republicans don’t like the way things are going now, wait until we lose the House, the Senate and White House in 2024.

That’s the national disaster we’re headed to. The public has seen our clown show in the House. It’s just another reason for millions of people to not vote for Republicans next year.

To the public Republicans look like children and the Democrats – the party that is hurting the country in so many bad ways – look like the adults in the room.

And since Americans are not going to vote for children to control their country, a lot of Republicans in Washington better grow up. Quick.

Michael Reagan, the son of President Ronald Reagan, is an author, speaker and president of the Reagan Legacy Foundation. Send comments to reagan@caglecartoons.com and follow @reaganworld on Twitter.