On January 3rd, 2023 the United States House of Representatives will undergo a change in leadership as a result of the last election which gave republicans the majority, albeit slim, of the House of Representatives. In addition outgoing Speaker Nancy Pelosi has decided not to remain in a leadership role and has graciously passed the torch to a new generation including Brooklyn Congressman Hakeem Jeffries. 

Whether you agree with her ideology or issue positions, Nancy Pelosi will go down in history as the most effective Speaker since Sam Rayburn. In other words Speaker Pelosi was a badass.

But now new leadership will come to the fore. This leadership consists of Jim Jordan who allegedly refused or was unable to protect his athletes from sexual abuse and has been accused of covering up these assaults, Marjorie Taylor Greene whose pending divorce is due to her own sexual indiscretions and the new potential speaker Kevin McCarthy who in 2015 dropped out of the race for Speaker due to his alleged sexual indiscretions (is there a pattern here?) As of this writing McCarthy still does not have the votes to make him Speaker.

While the outgoing Speaker will be remembered for her legislative accomplishments, the incoming speaker will most likely be remembered for being an ineffectual butt kisser. In other words the US Congress has gone from having a badass in Pelosi to a jackass named Kevin. The potential new Speaker of the House unfortunately does not possess the intellectual capacity to create an agenda to benefit the American people.

While Nancy Pelosi gave a great speech about her time in Congress the nation was introduced to the image of a Republican Congressman who implored  the press to please keep their questions to the investigation of Hunter Biden because that is a big deal for them.

During the Democrat leadership concrete action took place on infrastructure, CHIPS act, inflation bill to the law to protect marriage equality and interracial marriage. 

The Democrats are now in the minority and will have little power to block what will surely be a slew of ridiculous investigations that Republicans have promised to conduct. Nonetheless, Democrats need to figure out how they will respond to the promised onslaught. Democrats tend to intellectualize but they need to engage with people in street talk more than academic talk. 

Democrats have a tendency to say things about their republican colleagues such as “they don’t care or they are mean.” That response in of itself is weak and whiney. They ignore the fact that Republicans regard those depictions as a badge of honor. The reality is not that Republicans are mean but rather they depict a sense of weakness and stupidity. Does anyone really believe that Marjorie Taylor Greene has the intellectual capacity to do anything that reeks of a sane person? Does anyone really believe that Jim Jordan who could not protect his own athletes from sexual assault has the capacity to do anything that would help the American people. Does anyone really believe that McCarthy would be anything but a weak ineffectual leader given how much he is willing to give up just to have the title of Speaker bestowed on him. How else would you describe a man who essentially bowed down to a man who most believe put the lives of elected officials at risk on January 6th.

There is no doubt that Nancy Pelosi sought political power as all politicians do but she also sought to make a difference along the lines of her own ideology. No-one believes Kevin McCarthy seeks to create positive change for the American people. His main objective is to have the term Speaker of the House on his résumé. In his pathetic quest for the title McCarthy has made a Faustian bargain with the crazy segment of the Republican caucus to be elevated to a new position.

From Marjorie Taylor Greene’s statement “if Steve Bannon and I had organized that, we would have won. Not to mention, we would’ve been armed” to impeaching President Biden, McCarthy’s alignment with this extreme MAGA segment of the GOP caucus is the action of a desperate man who lacks a moral foundation.

If Kevin McCarthy becomes Speaker it will undoubtedly make the next two years ripe for a dramatic increase in domestic terrorism since his office will essentially be controlled by Donald Trump MAGA extremists to who he has groveled as he will not have the backbone to speak out for fear of losing his precious title. 

Unfortunately for the American people, a McCarthy speakership may be reminiscent of the disgraced and ineffectual Dennis Hastert.

It is hard at this stage to think of anything that should enable a man like McCarthy to gain the top leadership post in the House of Representatives. He is a man who refused to have town hall meetings with his constituents, has a very lackluster legislative history, who refused to certify the last presidential election, who lied on FOX News about the election and has groveled before Donald Trump and the extreme wing of the GOP.

McCarthy claims to be Baptist so he should be familiar with the biblical passage “for what shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his soul”. Unfortunately for McCarthy he may just find out the true meaning of that verse.

Nancy Pelosi led with poise, grace and effectiveness. If Kevin McCarthy wins the speakership the nation will be subject a a few years of pathetic and ineffectual leadership. The only thing that may save the nation from this embarrassment is that his own party may vote him out as speaker thanks to McCarthy agreeing to make it easier to remove him if he becomes speaker.