At least on Jan. 6, 2021, the insurrectionists on Capitol Hill had to push aside some flimsy metal barricades before they could carry out their assault on the seat of U.S. governance. Nearly two years later, the 20 or so GOP heirs to the toxic legacy of their patron saint, Donald Trump, didn’t even have to pass through metal detectors to bring the U.S. House of Representatives to a longer and probably more damaging shutdown than Trump’s failed coup. It’s way too fitting that — in a moment of a historic leadership vacuum — no one even knows exactly who ordered this week’s removal of the magneto...

Opinion