Alan Zendell, September 12, 2023

When I heard that the Ringling Brothers Circus was making a comeback, my first thought was that when I saw it as a kid, except for the tightrope walkers, I was underwhelmed by The Greatest Show on Earth. I’m even more discouraged to learn that the circus cloned itself, appointing a new tightrope walker-in-chief. We couldn’t have two circuses with the same name, so the clone found a new one. To all appearances, the cloned circus will provide even more balancing acts than the original, with the added dimension that not only will the performers be risking their own lives, but those of every American as well.

The new circus is called the United States House of Representatives, and its chief tightrope walker is Kevin McCarthy. As a kid, I never understood whether tightrope walkers were motivated by the challenge, a need for fame and public adoration, or a strong death wish. As I watch the cloned circus perform, I still wonder the same thing.

In the original circus, tightrope walkers had a safety net. If they fell, the worst thing they usually experienced was embarrassment, and given their training and experience, their actual “death-defying” feats weren’t as daunting as they looked. But McCarthy appears to be struggling for balance every time he speaks, and while a circus performer has the support of their entire cast, McCarthy’s lust for power left him out there on his own. Even worse for poor Kevin, in order to become Speaker, he had to grant one of his crew, Florida’s Matt Gaetz, the power to cut the rope out from under him on a whim.

If it were a real circus I would ignore it, but I can’t, because McCarthy has the power to create almost as much havoc as Trump does. And in addition to living on a tightrope, McCarthy added juggling to his act. He hasn’t dropped anything yet, but in the coming weeks his show will become more perilous every day. The balls he’s juggling include next year’s budget, without which the government will shut down, our federal deficit, and the civil war being fought between the Trump faction of the Republican Party and responsible Conservatives. Should one of those balls fall and shatter, it could take our entire economy with it.

This morning, Gaetz announced from the House floor that he has taken McCarthy’s balls hostage, and he intends to crush them if the Speaker doesn’t comply fully with his demands. I don’t know whether Gaetz’s arrogance or McCarthy’s impotence is more shocking. McCarthy is being held for ransom by a small gang of right-wing thugs, and his colleagues in the House seem as unable to deal with them as his entire party was when Trump steamrollered it.

If this weren’t bad enough, to gain favor with Trump, that same group of thugs has decided to switch sides in the Russia-Ukraine war. Any tightrope walker will tell you success is all about balance and knowing exactly where you’re next step is. Yet, McCarthy would rather waffle, saying one thing to appease Gaetz’s thugs one day, and the opposite the next day when saner Republicans react negatively.

Thus, on March 1st, when a Russian reporter asked McCarthy if his comments during the previous few months meant he no longer supported Ukraine, McCarthy said, “I support aid for Ukraine. I do not support what your country has done to Ukraine. I do not support your killing of the children, … and I think [Russia] should pull out.” One week later, on March 8th, after Gaetz and his gang read McCarthy the riot act, he rejected an invitation from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to visit Kyiv to discuss F-16 fighter planes. McCarthy knows as well as anyone that support for Ukraine is a yes/no issue. He can’t have it both ways any more than a tightrope walker can survive if he constantly changes his mind about his next step.

Over in Ring Number 3, today, McCarthy ordered a formal impeachment inquiry over President Biden’s alleged involvement in his son’s business dealings when he was Vice President. House committees have been investigating the charges for nine months already. If they had found evidence of wrong doing, would the Gaetz mob have restrained themselves from crowing about it?

Eleven days ago, McCarthy said an impeachment inquiry required a vote of the full House, which was a repetition of what he said when Nancy Pelosi was getting ready to start one into Donald Trump’s actions. But poor Kevin presides over a badly divided House, and he didn’t have the votes, so he ordered it without asking the other members.

I fear that this could be the end of a viable Republican Party. If you’ve ever been to the circus, you know what’s left in malodorous heaps after the show ends. It takes a dozen strong men hours to shovel it all up.