Nothing I could write here about the Republicans in the House of Representatives and the cannibalism that has paralyzed Congress, amid international crises and the threat of a government shutdown, could be worse than what the Republicans say about themselves and say about each other as they move toward a third crisis. week divided over who should be the speaker of the House of Representatives.

Worst of all are the profanity-filled death threats pouring in from Republicans’ radicalized voters, fueled by right-wing media figures and groups, including the gun lobby. At least one Republican’s wife now sleeps with a loaded gun. In another, a sheriff was assigned to his daughter’s school.

This fractured party has given terrifying new meaning to the old saw about forming a circular firing squad.

And all because a minority of Republicans in the House of Representatives finally showed some backbone and on Friday blocked Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, a party-splitting vandal, January 6 inciter, alleged sexual assault instigator, potential accuser of President Biden and the like. far-right legislative terrorist (words of a fellow Republican, not mine) to get the most powerful job in Congress.

But rejecting Jordan, as welcome as it is, still leaves a speaker vacancy. And as any Republican will tell you, no one in their majority in the House of Representatives can win the gavel as things stand now.

This saga, from the impeachment of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy earlier this month to Republicans’ failure to rally around House Majority Leader Steve Scalise of Louisiana, to Jordan’s humiliation after a third failed vote on Friday , has laid bare for the world how bad things have become for the Republican Party. It has become so anti-government that it cannot even control its own faction in the House of Representatives, the only institution where it has power.

And that’s because there are so many elected officials in the party

And

The voters are not guided. The Republicans have the majority in the House of Representatives, but that majority is in name only. In reality, Republicans in the House of Representatives are an amalgam of competing factions, from the right to the far right to the extremist, and party members dislike each other more than they dislike the Democrats.

Conservative media and social media feature even the most junior and otherwise insignificant figures, says Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, the architect of this speakerless anarchy, turned into power brokers who insist on maintaining their power. Like-minded conservative voters, small dollar donors, steeped in Fox News, fund the agents of chaos; Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Georgia peach of a provocateur, is one of Congress’s most successful fundraisers.

Here’s how insurrectionist and Beetlejuice fan Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado explained why Republicans in the House of Representatives have been unable to agree on a speaker: There are 224 alpha males and alpha females here in the Republican Party. We are here because we have convinced hundreds of thousands of people of this

We

its leaders.

No matter how this speaking mess ends and somehow has to end, the perverse reward system will continue. And the House of Representatives will be virtually ungovernable under Republican leadership during the 2024 elections.

Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi had a similarly slim Democratic majority, but still managed to keep her party factions united and pass major legislation, some of it bipartisan, into law. But here’s the difference: Democrats believe in governance. Too many Republicans don’t; their creed has shifted from small-government to anti-government over the past quarter century. We look at the result.

Again, take it from a Republican: Frankly, it doesn’t matter who the speaker is, said Representative Mike Lawler of New York, because if we [Republicans] We can’t govern as a group or as a conference, it doesn’t matter.

Jordan, true to his brand as a belligerent, pushed for a third vote in the House of Representatives as speaker on Friday. As widely predicted, he lost by even more votes than in the previous voting. He and his allies talked about pushing his candidacy all weekend; After all, McCarthy was elected on the 15th ballot in January. But in a closed-door caucus and secret ballot, Republicans voted to abolish Jordan’s nomination as chairman.

His refusal to accept that he would only act as speaker when reality was forced upon him was hardly a surprise. Jordan still won’t admit that Donald Trump lost re-election. He declined to do so again at a news conference Friday morning. His stubborn opposition to democracy, which is what it is, only underscored why Jordan should never be the speaker.

The sad fact, however, is that Jordan’s reprehensible role as Trump’s top lieutenant in Congress in the lead-up to the January 6, 2021 insurrection did not even figure much into opponents’ minds. Nor was there any mention of the fact that this unrepentant election denier could have sabotaged the certification of the 2024 presidential election as speaker if the Republican had lost.

Instead, the reasons Jordan’s enemies gave were personal, political, or both. Some accused him of fueling death threats against them and their families. One representative, Drew Ferguson of Georgia, said Republicans don’t need a bully as speaker.

But they need someone, the country needs someone so that Congress can function. Government funding will run out on November 17. Biden sends a request for help to Ukraine and Israel. Other key legislation, including agriculture and defense bills, is pending.

Many Republicans are trying to shift the blame for the fiasco onto the Democrats because they were all against McCarthy and then against Jordan, as if the Republicans would have voted to keep Pelosi if an insurgent Democrat had ever taken action like Gaetz against McCarthy, to depose her from her throne.

But they know that the blame is actually their own, hence the name-calling and near-fights.

They need to come together, even if only temporarily. And then voters would have to fire them in 2024.

@jackiekcalmes