Alan Zendell, May 28, 2023

People have been asking for months whether the Republicans in the House would force the nation to default on its debts. I consistently said, “Of course not.” The weeks of posturing that have dominated the media don’t even qualify as a drama. The right-wing extremists’ demands were so outrageous from the start, it was clear that they would never prevail. Why? Because their wealthy donors’ only real priority is maintaining and increasing their wealth. Default could cost them trillions of dollars, collectively.

The debt ceiling charade was never about the debt ceiling. It has been a lesson in how far a handful of extreme Trumpers are willing to go to remain in the spotlight. More importantly, it has been a lesson in what happens when the political ambition of one man to become House Speaker trumps everything else – except the influence on the Republican Party of Trump himself. Kevin McCarthy sold what was left of his duplicitous soul to become Speaker, and now the entire country is paying the price for his inability to lead his own caucus.

We are reminded by historians that lust for wealth and power has always been a primary determining force in our politics. The difference, today, is that the curtain has been pulled back on the way our political process really works. Too many of our media outlets get rich hyping fears of financial catastrophe. Too many have abandoned any pretense of ethical journalism. The lack of respect for truth that has been the hallmark of Donald Trump’s career has taken hold like a new strain of kudzu strangling a forest.

When the internet was in its infancy, some futurists and writers quickly recognized its potential for disrupting the beliefs and values we live by. They began describing a future in which the term “news” had completely lost its meaning. Instead of reputable sources reporting facts, everyone with a computer, even people like me, could represent themselves as experts and invent whatever narrative suited them. These writers predicted that the internet would create outlets for so many diverse opinions on every subject, every fringe group would have a voice, and the average person would have no ability to distinguish truth from fiction.

The flow of real information would be replaced by advocacy groups of every kind flooding the ether with spam and nonsense and become a tool for anyone unscrupulous enough to use it. When I first encountered this kind of extrapolative fiction, thirty years ago, it scared me. Not only were the predictions credible, they seemed inevitable. How could a worldwide system of information in which everyone has a voice that is responsible to no higher authority ever work?

We see, now that the future has arrived, that it doesn’t work very well. The die was cast when Roger Ailes convinced Ruppert Murdoch that the idea of integrity in journalism could easily be sidestepped and replaced with a massive propaganda machine. Futurists don’t always get it right, but these visionaries nailed it. Everyone, from domestic terrorists to people selling their own brand of truth skewed to increase their own wealth and power has a voice. If we’ve learned anything in last decade, it’s that those voices, no matter how vile and destructive, always find an audience.

Thus, we have twisted people like Marjorie Taylor Greene and Matt Gaetz wielding far more power than they should, combined with a leader in so far over his head, I’m shocked he hasn’t drowned yet. We’ve seen this before. In the 1950s, another McCarthy, a Republican Senator from Wisconsin was able to maintain a reign of terror for years, riding the propaganda-induced fear that we were being taken over by Communists. But Joseph McCarthy was eventually discredited and censured because politics aside, there was still an underlying basis of integrity in our Congress.

Joseph McCarthy was so dangerous, the term “McCarthyism” is now synonymous with demagoguery. The ability of a handful of extremists, today, to bring Congress to its knees makes me wonder how far the former Senator from Wisconsin would have been able to go with unregulated media giants like Fox News, Facebook, and Twitter amplifying his voice.

After all the furor of the past few months, the deal reached between Kevin McCarthy and the White House demonstrates what a farce the debt ceiling crisis has always been. The Democrats gave up nothing of real substance, while McCarthy has struggled to save face within his caucus. The next few days will be when the real drama unfolds, as our putative leaders try to sell the deal to their members.

Right-wing extremists who have driven the crisis are not about to suddenly go silent. The issue will be whether there are still enough Republicans in the House of Representatives who understand the meaning of the oath they swore when they took office. Of less interest is whether Kevin McCarthy’s speakership survives.