The end of the Republican Party?

In the United States, Kevin McCarthy’s setbacks in becoming Speaker of the House show much more than the internal division of the Republican Party. They indicate that a third political party is ipso facto be born.

Twenty House Republicans refuse to support nearly 200 others who want McCarthy to become president. These 20 representatives are ready to paralyze the House of Representatives to get the president of their choice. They are also ready to destroy the reputation of the Republican Party with part of its voters. They have escaped the influence of Donald Trump, who asks them to settle down.

Even if McCarthy or another presidential candidate succeeds in mustering their votes, the 20 Republicans have formed a political alliance among themselves that has only grown stronger with the votes of the past few days. They act as a radical right-wing political party resulting from a split within the Republican Party itself.

These people, who are part of the Freedom Caucus, believe that the federal government must be weakened by all means. Often close to conspiracy theories, they mistakenly believe that a small secret group is manipulating the US government.

Anti-democracy

But above all, and this is more serious, the twenty Republican representatives clearly indicate that they no longer want to play the game of democracy within the Republican Party. In this game, after discussions, and sometimes negotiations, the minorities end up accepting the will of the majority.

There is no trace of settlement here. The small minority of 20 deputies acts as if it were the majority.

Ironically, this refusal to conform to the democratic game was initiated by the Republican Party itself when it embraced Trump’s sick thesis about the allegedly rigged presidential election.

There is still a long way to go

The 20 Republican defectors won’t stop there. They will most likely try to channel all votes in the House of Representatives inflexibly. In other words, they will form a third political party.

If they keep it up, they can entice more moderate Republicans to vote with the Democrats, including electing the Speaker of the House.

It’s hard to see what would encourage the 20 Republicans to muster a majority in the long term, to capture other important votes. The only thing that could stop them would be a very negative reaction from their constituents. But precisely, they were elected by promising their constituents to reform politics in Washington.

The Republican Party is at a crossroads more than ever. If Trump, for one reason or another, grounds his own party, the future of the Republicans will become very uncertain.