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The fifteenth vote was the charm: California Congressman Kevin McCarthy is the Speaker of the House and Congress is now open for business. What can we expect from the 118th Congress? Was this moment just politics as usual or something else?
The big events in history are rarely relegated to just their moment in time. Abolishing slavery in 1863 didn't just define that moment and the people immediately affected. Its significance lives on today, in me and in all who aspire to live as free Americans.
The same can be said for other history-making events. Signing the Declaration of Independence in 1776, dropping the atomic bomb in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, landing on the moon in 1969, bogging ourselves down in the Vietnam War for 20 years, LBJ's disastrous Great Society policies—these were all events that literally changed the course of our nation. They were all clashes in time whose impact far exceeded their little spot on the timeline of history.
Likewise, what we witnessed last week in the quest for a new Speaker was more than just about electing a new Speaker for today so that the House can get back to work. What transpired, although comical to some and exasperating to others, extends beyond just this one moment in time. Its significance is weighty and can't be demoted to an elementary image of rogue right-wingers sticking it to the "man."
It was about a Republican Party that has lost its way.
Who are we? Is the Republican Party moderate or conservative? Will we openly defend life in the womb? Or is our position that such choices are between a woman and her doctor alone?
Can we even define what a woman is anymore, or do we now accept Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson's view that one must be a biologist to determine womanhood? Do we believe in limited government or an ever encroaching one?
Do we believe, as our Founding Father John Adams did, that our Constitution is made only for a moral and religious people? Or do we no longer believe that religion and the belief in God is vital to a strong nation?
Are we the Party of lower taxes or one that passes a $1.7 trillion omnibus bill with only 24-hours to read over 4,000 pages?
When Democrats get in power, they immediately begin to push against the norm in their quest to fundamentally change this country. Will Republicans continue to be the Party that acquires power only to support the status quo? Or will we fight the battles festering across our nation?
Will we fight to win school board races? Will we fight the drug overdose epidemic inflamed by an open border? Will we hold accountable big tech, big media, big business, and big government collusions against American citizens?
Will we fight against the inherent dangers cloaked in ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance), WEF (World Economic Forum), and China, or will we slide into the embrace of globalists?
Will we fight to become energy independent again or continue to fundraise off our lack? Will all sides of our Party come together to push back against the Left or will McCarthy and McConnell continue to use their leadership PACs to fight against their own members who they deem too conservative?
Answers to these questions are the only acceptable conclusion to the theatrical performance we've watched on the Hill last week. Will promises made by McCarthy be promises kept?
Only time will tell. But one thing is perfectly clear: The time to pick a lane is upon us. The climate in our nation is such that either we have two distinct parties with two distinct visions, or we just have the uni-party. Anything short of this will spell disastrous for the 2024 Republican Presidential election.
Too much has been lost to find comfort in anything less than a radical shift in how we interact with one another within our own Party and how we govern as a body once in power.
This will be the McCarthy challenge: Are we all on the same team or not?
This past midterm election provided too many examples of those within the establishment arm of the Party treating those in the conservative wing of the Party the way Democrats treat Black people in their Party. Conservatives have been told to shut up, sit down, and line up. And we're over it. The revolt against the establishment only surprises the establishment.
The 20 members of the House who braved the contempt of their colleagues are now rightly receiving the applause of those who recognize the significance of this moment. It extends beyond this seat and Kevin McCarthy. It is about who we will be as a nation.
The stakes could not be higher.
Kathy Barnette is a mother, author, veteran, and national spokesperson for 1776 Action. In 2022, Kathy was the Republican Primary Candidate for the open U.S. Senate seat in Pennsylvania.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
