The House Takes a Hard Right
The House is changing, and not for the better! In a scene not seen since before the Civil War, it took Kevin McCarthy four days and 15 rounds of ballots to become Speaker of the House. And with each and every round the power-hungry McCarthy negotiated with the far right faction of his party and gave up concession after concession, till he was left to “lead” what could well be the most extreme, far right House in history.
Case in point: Marjorie Taylor Greene, the wingnut from Georgia, was stripped of committee assignments in the last Congress due to conspiracy-theory rants and posts endorsing violence. Her full-throated support of McCarthy, however, has moved her from the fringes of the party to a central role and, as of this writing, has earned her appointments on both the House Homeland Security and Oversight and Accountability committees. (God help us all.)
