Kevin McCarthy says he will not be a candidate for Speaker of the US House of Representatives. Can anyone else do the job?

Certainly there will be a lineup to replace him. After all, the Speaker is in the line of succession should the President be unable to fulfil his or her duties.

McCarthy was ousted for doing the unthinkable, brokering a deal to keep the US government from shutting down. This act of public service was seen as treason by many in his party so they ousted him. The Democrats failed to support him becasue he has broken his word to them too many times.

Is the American system so dysfunctional that on a regular basis civil servants have to wonder if they will be paid.? Apparently. Threats of a government shutdown happen with increased frequency, and the most recent deal expires in a little more than a month.

I think most would agree with me that essential services should not be held hostage for political gain. That is a Canadian perspective. In the US they do things differently. Not better, but we’ll save that discussion for another day perhaps.

What I can’t figure out is how things deteriorate to the point where the voters put into office people whose only goal seems to be to undermine, if not destroy, the system. Why do Americans continue to re-elect these people? Do the voters themselves not want their system to work?

In Canada we have a federal party dedicated to splitting up the country. They want independence for Quebec. because the only run candidates in Quebec they will never be able to achieve that goal.

Instead of working to tear teh system down and create anarchy, they work to better the lives of the people in Quebec, in tandem with those in the rest of Canada. They push for provincial rights, in a democratic framework. They don’t work to make Parliament dysfunctional; they understand that if they make things worse for the country they will hurt the people of Quebec also.

That is a lesson that some American Republicans (and I presume some Democrats also) don’t seem to have learned. They are so mired in ideology that working for the good of the country is a foreign concept.

I have no opinion on whether McCarthy was a good Speaker or not – I haven’t paid much attention to his career. Maybe the House was right to oust him from his position.

I do know that in the process they have probably weakened American democracy. It wasn’t that strong to begin with. You would think those in power would want to work to make things better, not worse.

But maybe I just don’t understand America.

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