This Fourth of July marks America’s 250th birthday, a milestone that reminds us just how durable our Constitution has been. For a quarter of a millennium, our system has endured wars, depressions and political upheaval because the Founders designed a structure both strong enough to absorb conflict and flexible enough to keep governing.
But one of our most important institutions has been changing in ways that should concern anyone who cares about how our republic functions. The House of Representatives — the People’s House — is increasingly shifting away from a body that rewards coalition-building and towards one held hostage by radicals bent on making governance impossible.
I saw the craziness firsthand during Kevin McCarthy’s historic 15-ballot election to become Speaker of the House in January 2023, which I recount in my new book, “Glory, Grief, and the Gavel: An Inside Guide to Running for Speaker of the House.” During that election — the longest Speaker’s contest since the Civil War — I served as McCarthy’s Deputy Chief of Staff and Floor Director.
Millions across the country and around the world tuned in to witness that rare spectacle of political endurance. You might recall the dramatic scenes on the House floor: of representatives standing one-by-one, alphabetically, to announce their vote; of intense roaming huddles and hushed conversations; and of members almost, quite literally, coming to blows near the end. Even Pope Francis later confided in Kevin that he and his staff watched all 15 ballots from his offices in the Vatican.
That week certainly made for captivating television. But more importantly, what unfolded over the five-day fiasco made clear that the House has become a place where tiny factions exercise outsize control over the whole institution — and by extension, the whole country. Not because they command a majority, but because they can stop one.
Put differently, a small bloc inside the majority can now work, intentionally or not, alongside the minority party — whose political incentive is often to maximize dysfunction — and together grind the institution to a halt.
In the lead-up to our showdown, for example, conservative Rep. Chip Roy of Texas kept making the same point to me: “No one currently has 218” — a reference to the number of votes required to pass any given measure in the House. My response was simple: “It’s not enough to just block 218. We also need to be able to build 218 — week in and week out this entire Congress.”
This gridlock has not been confined to the McCarthy Era. In recent weeks, House Republicans have repeatedly been forced to cancel votes on key items tied to national security because small factions have chosen to cite leadership’s inaction on a variety of bills as procedural grounds for blocking the broader House agenda.
That is a remarkable place for the institution to be: unable to advance core priorities because a handful of members are choosing to stop the process before it begins.
Worse still, this strain of parliamentary extremism appears to be spreading.
Look no further than the latest rounds of Democratic primaries in New York and Colorado, where democratic socialist candidates have scored major victories, adding to a growing ideological bloc on the far left that appears willing and eager to thwart their party leadership.
The lesson is the same for both parties: Narrow majorities make small factions more powerful, with profound ramifications not only for legislation, but also the leadership tasked with running the House.
Americans might think the fight for the Speaker’s gavel starts in January, when the new Congress is sworn in. That is incorrect. It starts now, in primaries and in the election of members who may ultimately decide whether the next Speaker governs or drowns.
Every insurgent primary victory strengthens a bloc. Every ideological litmus test shrinks the room for compromise. The shape of the next Congress is being formed as we speak. And — regardless of party — the next Speaker will almost certainly inherit the same stubborn math that tormented this one: razor-thin margins, hardened ideological factions and a chamber where a handful of members can dictate terms far beyond their numbers.
As America enters its 250th year, we should remember that what has sustained this republic for so long has never been unanimity, but governability. While our Constitution was intentionally designed to protect dissent, it was never meant to produce paralysis without end. Take note: If Congress cannot recover the proper balance, future Speaker’s battles and legislative showdowns may make our 2023 look tame by comparison.
John Leganski was the Deputy Chief of Staff to former Speaker Kevin McCarthy and is the author of “Glory, Grief, and the Gavel: An Inside Guide to Running for Speaker of the House” (Regnery), out now.
