The vote to oust Speaker Kevin McCarthy last week was another clear indicator that the House of Representatives is becoming something un-American. It’s not that the vote inherently undermined national security, nor did it somehow betray the fundamental values that have underpinned the US political system for nearly 250 years. Instead, it was a stranger turn. The vote was downright parliamentary.
It was a de facto no-confidence vote offered by eight dissident Republicans and backed by House Democrats as a bloc. It is not unusual in a parliamentary system for a gang of rebels joining with the opposition to bring down the party leader, but in American politics, it is a foreign concept.
It’s not that there is anything inherently wrong with a parliamentary system of government. After all, some of America’s best friends have it.
But here in the United States, our institutions aren’t designed for this. The Constitution created a system of checks and balances. For centuries, Congress has functioned as a bicameral legislature composed of members of two ideologically diverse parties, where local parochial interests were often of far greater concern than national interest groups.
Further, for generations in Washington, lawmakers guarded their own power, and their chamber’s, against others. That ethos was embodied in the apocryphal quote from a House member, who explained: The other party was simply the opposition, but the Senate was the enemy.
In practice, this led to a politics where political coalitions would come and go depending on individual issues, presidents would openly clash with congressional leaders of their own parties, and the result of congressional votes wasn’t always preordained before the gavel rang down.
That certainly doesn’t ring true anymore.
Instead, American politics has transformed into a political structure where major legislation can at times be pushed through when the same party controls both chambers of Congress and is…
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