McCarthy's fall is the clearest warning of the dangers of rising autocracy

Dems were right not to save McCarthy, but his fall is still deeply disturbing

I have nothing kind to say about McCarthy’s leadership of the House, but I am deeply saddened by his ouster.

There’s a reason our Constitution begins with the Legislative Branch, and with the House of Representatives in particular. It is the people’s house. It is meant to be the most democratic part of our government-- the protector of the people, an alembic for our popular aspirations.

Each House member carries into the chamber the troubles, the dreams, the momentary passions, and the enduring values of about 750,000 people. Together they shape those into a national direction for more than 350 million Americans.    

The collapse of the U.S. House as a working institution has been a long time coming. Citizens United corrupted it. Radical gerrymandering made it rigid. The autocratic movement led by Trump broke it.

Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash

In retrospect, the accomplishments of the House less than two years ago under the leadership of Democrats and Nancy Pelosi look even more astonishing. They took a small majority and passed major legislation that will strengthen our country for years to come. They produced jobs and took on inflation. They produced new infrastructure and took on climate change.  

It was too good to last.

Today’s GOP majority exists because its members were elected in illegal and unconstitutional districts. Alabama, Louisiana, Ohio, and other states, now have to redraw those maps, but the damage is done. Chief Justice Roberts, and the entrenched Republican leadership in handful of gerrymandered states, made it possible for the GOP to use those illegal maps in the last election to eke out their victory. A victory that has now brought down the House.

Now do not misunderstand. I would have voted with the Democrats to let McCarthy fall. Instead of using their majority to draft legislation to move the country forward, or even just to pay our bills, McCarthy’s House used that sacred institution as a stage set for their members’ photo ops on FOX and elsewhere.

His leadership, just like his fall, was a symptom of our national problem- a Republican Party that no longer supports American democracy. Is anyone surprise that McCarthy’s fall is redolent of autocratic collapse?

This week, the scholar of autocracy, Ruth Ben Ghiat wrote:

“men such as McCarthy always think they will be the exception: they will be the ones who survive because they have pleased the Leader enough to have earned protection.”

A whole lot of history that, until now, had nothing to do with America, comes to mind.

Leon Trotsky helped overthrow Tsarist Russia. He became a Comisar in the new Soviet Union, a trusted ally of Vladimir Lenin.  Lenin made Trotsky the first leader of the newly formed Red Army. Lenin tasked him to lead the Bolshevik’s in their fight with the White Socialists who were also vying for power after the fall of the Tsar. Trotsky skillfully dismantled the Whites in a civil war that raged across 16 fronts and 11 time zones. Trotsky ultimately prevailed, Lenin made him a member of the party’s central committee. In many ways, he was Lenin’s number two. There would be no Lenin as we know him today without Trotsky.

Lenin grew ill. Stalin was a savvier pol. Trotsky was ousted, then exiled, then assassinated.

Ernst Rohm was a Nazi who helped overthrow the Weimer Republic. He led the Brownshirts, a domestic assault division that intimidated, beat, and sometimes killed the Nazi’s political opponents. Under Rohm the Brownshirts membership grew to more than 2 million. There would be no Hitler as we know him today without Rohm.

Hitler decided Rohm might be a threat instead of an asset, and in the Night of the Long Knives, murdered him and purged his supporters.

Mike Pence, while still Vice President, narrowly avoided hanging at the hands of an angry mob on January 6^th. A mob insighted by a would-be dictator.

And now there’s Kevin McCarthy. Recall that in the aftermath of January 6^th, McCarthy correctly laid the blame for the insurrection squarely on Donald Trump. But soon after his knees buckled and he rejoined team Trump. McCarthy okayed the bogus weaponization of government hearings and the bogus retaliatory impeachment hearings. Trump started calling him “my Kevin.” 

This week, “my Kevin” became the first House Speaker in American history to be forced to vacate his office. That downfall came at the hands of Matt Gaetz, who fancies himself as Stalin to Trump’s Lenin.

Democrats had nothing to do with this terrible spectacle.

But if we organize and fight, we will have a lot to do with ending it.