A dysfunctional GOP can’t even pick a speaker. Bad for Republicans, worse for America

It’s hard to find a better microcosm for today’s Republican Party than the self-inflicted debacle that America witnessed this week. The GOP holds a narrow majority in the U.S. House of Representatives, and yet the party has botched in the worst way the selection of a House speaker. Instead of unifying behind California Rep. Kevin McCarthy, Republicans displayed on national television the toxic fractiousness that has become their party’s most glaring — and burdensome — trait. If nothing else, it amounted to entertaining, bizarre theater. Usually a perfunctory legislative exercise, the selection...