The House’s Republican Rebels Have a Point
The GOP has largely failed to honor its commitment to small government.
It could be all downhill from here.
Photographer: Win McNamee/Getty Images North AmericaThe group of holdout Republicans who delayed Kevin McCarthy's election as speaker of the House has attracted a lot of public ridicule — and not just from the moderates and liberals already accustomed to dismissing the likes of Lauren Boebert and Matt Gaetz as crazy extremists. During the four days last week when the House was voting for speaker, many McCarthy-supporting conservatives denounced them as well, calling their demands “completely absurd” and comparing them to terrorists.
But all the personal fury directed at these troublemakers shouldn’t obscure the validity of one argument justifying their rebellion: The Republican Party has largely failed to realize its ostensible purpose of making government smaller.