Tom Nichols, who turned on the party of Lincoln after it nominated Donald Trump for president, wrote a column in the Atlantic heaping much of the blame for failing to fill the Speaker vacancy on Republican voters and suggesting a far-right speaker could help Trump effectively steal 2024.
"The real problem is that many Republican voters have now completely internalized the cynicism of Trump and the GOP opportunists around him, and they draw no connection between national politics and the ongoing health and security of the United States," he wrote.
"These voters rely on everyone else (including those Americans they deride as the 'deep state') to keep the country functioning."
POLL: Should Trump be allowed to run for office?
"They vote for masters of performative nonsense, such as Jordan and Gaetz, who do nothing for the 'forgotten' working families in the places that the MAGA movement claims have been left behind by the rest of us."
On Wednesday, the pugnacious pol came up short on the floor of the House for the second time in his attempt to earn the lucky 217 votes needed to take over for the ousted Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA).
Nichols pointed the finger at Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) as a lawmaker who parked himself in the House for 16 years and claims "he has almost nothing to show for it."
To him, Jordan has been a pedestrian pelican who "never originated any successful legislation, never whipped votes, never accomplished anything except for appearing on Fox and serving up rancid red meat to his Ohio constituents and MAGA allies."
So any voters who want to fathom a Speaker Jordan may want to consider that as far as his record, they may be in for more infighting and derision.
"And therefore, as speaker, he would … what? Order up more impeachments, perhaps of Biden-administration officials?"
"Shut down the government? Pound the gavel and prattle on for hours in his never-take-a-breath style? (Jordan’s the kind of guy who probably would have interrupted the Sermon on the Mount.)"
Nichols even suggests that if Jordan were to wield the Speaker gavel, he would get cozy with former President Donald Trump to sway the 2024 election in his favor -- assuming that Trump earns the nomination.
"Perhaps from a position of greater power, he could more effectively assist Donald Trump in undermining yet another election in 2024," Nichols wrote. "Maybe that’s why Trump endorsed him for speaker."
He again aimed the culpability at Republican voters whom he thought would push for promising changes if their candidates suffered enough election losses.
"But even losses don’t seem to matter in a party that is clearly more comfortable with performance art centered on imaginary grievances than with actual governing," Nichols suggests. "The shenanigans of the past two weeks might even cost the Republicans control of the House in the next election—that’s one reason Jordan’s colleagues are trying to stop him—but that political collapse might not matter to right-wing voters.
"They’ll get another episode of their favorite show—and for them, maybe that’s enough."
