Alan Zendell, November 13, 2023

Human nature is a fascinating thing. We are simultaneously horrified by and drawn to all manner of mayhem. No one wants to see their friends and family hacked to pieces, yet chain saw massacre and zombie horror films invariably go to the top of the charts. We hate war, yet we’re mesmerized by scenes of combat and destruction. We want our government and military to function effectively, yet we elect people to high office who promise to burn it all down, regardless of the consequences.

Less than a year away from an election that has existential implications for our democratic republic, our elected leaders have reached an impasse that seems unsolvable as long as they continue business as usual. The problem, as always when dealing with human nature, is conflicting loyalties. We hope our leaders can rise above them, but it is clearer every day that most of them can’t. We grew up believing they were a different breed, capable of putting aside petty differences and personal biases when the country needed them to, but eight years of Donald Trump’s MAGA movement proved that they’re not.

We watch in horror as the majority of the Republican Caucus in the House of Representatives allows a small minority of extremists who abhor both the Constitution and the idea of majority rule prevent our government from functioning. They know what must be done, but for most of them, the only things that matter are being re-elected and reaping the perks and benefits offered by lobbyists and donors. Politics always contained these elements, but now it is dominated by them.

The rest of us are part of the problem, too. We’ve become a nation of spectators. We’re accustomed to watching and waiting as others determine our future, and even then, our own values are conflicted. We are fascinated by the fundamental evil and corruption of television shows like House of Cards, The Sopranos, and Billions, and when we see the same things happening on cable news, we’re caught between the hypnotic fascination of watching a slow-motion train wreck and the reality of the consequences.

We have to stop treating the future of our country as a spectator sport, and we’re running out of time. As I write this, we are four days and thirteen hours from a government shutdown. That means that not only will all “non-essential” government functions cease indefinitely, but our ability to function militarily and diplomatically is hamstrung if not completely neutralized. Allies like Israel and Ukraine will continue to see their nations threatened, while member nations in all of our alliances lose confidence in our reliability as partners, and our adversaries savor our weaknesses and vulnerabilities.

The new, and likely temporary Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson has roots that go deep into conservative Christian beliefs about abortion and gender roles, as well as a long-standing commitment to minimizing the size of government. He owes his election to the Speakership to the extremist MAGA gang that ousted Kevin McCarthy, and to maintain their support, he has come up with a plan for funding the government that he knows will be dead on arrival in both the Senate and the White House. He’s living under the same reign of terror that has existed since the Republicans won a five-seat majority, and there’s little reason to believe the terrorists in his Caucus will back down voluntarily.

Most of the country has been waiting for sane, Conservative Republicans, who are still the majority in their party, to assert themselves and stop fearing about Trump’s base. It’s time for Kevin McCarthy to stop feeling sorry for himself and step up to the plate. He whiffed in his last at bat, but he has another chance to unite his party and demonstrate that his priorities are serving the nation and upholding the Constitution.

Or, perish the thought, they can all consider the radical notion of bipartisan cooperation. As it becomes more and more likely that by election day, Donald Trump will be a convicted felon whose business empire is being dismantled because of decades of multi-million-dollar fraud, it’s time for those in Congress who hate him but still fear him to grow some balls. If they don’t have the stomach to fight back against the MAGA movement, how can we trust them to lead us through wars and keep the country safe and secure during what promises to be one of the most chaotic and violent election years in our history?

Speaker Johnson can fix this. All he needs to do is put forth a budget proposal like the one his colleagues in the Senate support and that most Democrats in the House will vote for. That’s not a crime, Mr. Johnson, it’s the way things are supposed to work, and it will relegate the MAGA minority to its proper place in our politics.