Let’s Talk About Politics
6th October 2023
ZMan’s weekly podcast–highly recommended.
The ouster of Kevin McCarthy is one of those things that quickly gets internalized, despite its novelty, because the media machine operates like a hype man for a professional wrestling operation. It turns everything into trashy daytime drama, so even an important thing becomes just another poo-flinging contest between professional media partisans. As a result, it loses all meaning.
In the fullness of time, we may look back at it as one of those cracks that appeared in a system that was about to collapse. Think back to the downfall of Speaker Jim Wright in the late 1980’s and what followed. Like McCarthy, Wright was not very popular, but he was a system man who would not rock the boat. The trouble was the old system was no longer sustainable as the world outside was changing.
In the case of Wright, there was a new generation coming along and there was the final leg of the political realignment that started in the 1970’s. In the case of McCarthy there is a generational change and the radicalization of politics. The days of playing the old Republican Party tricks are coming to an end. McCarthy’s “say one thing and do another” approach is no longer going to work for the GOP.