This is reaching crisis territory for Kevin McCarthy
When it comes to Republicans, our first instinct for fighting them is to usually show outrage at some idiotic or reckless thing that they’ve done – torching them in some online blog screed or an angry phone call to their office and then emphasizing the terrible thing that they’ve done. This approach usually gets nothing accomplished – and sometimes helps shore up their own support while alienating voters in the middle.
Another way is to rally support around their opposition and play up whatever the latest embarrassing scandal that a given Republican politician is involved in – and this approach has about a 50/50 chance of working out in our favor – depending on any number of different factors. The surefire way to damage a Republican politician however, is to make them look weak in the eyes of voters. This has the double effect of turning off a number of Republican voters while those in the middle will vote for our candidates.
Fortunately, for us, Kevin McCarthy is a classic case of the latter. We’ve got him running from Marjorie Taylor Greene, from Donald Trump, from taking a stance on school shootings and from fights on the debt ceiling. Even if he tries to pass for a moderate, he needs to appease the most demented politicians in his caucus.
We’ve seen Republican House Speakers in the past take shots at the president and score political points – but President Biden is already a step ahead on that – making clear that McCarthy will have a fiscal crisis on his hands if he follows through with his threat, and it’s already obvious McCarthy – of the party of personal responsibility, doesn’t want to be responsible for anything.
James Sullivan is the assistant editor of Brain World Magazine and an advocate of science-based policy making