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The following is a lightly edited transcript of remarks made by Nick Gillespie during a Newsweek debate about the the fiasco in the GOP over Rep. Kevin McCarthy. You can listen to the podcast here:
It is telling for Republicans that the most successful and effective Speaker of the House in the 21st century is convicted child molester, Dennis Hastert. The GOP has a terrible track record of House leadership. John Boehner was not good. Paul Ryan was terrible. Kevin McCarthy has been dying to have this job forever, and he did everything except come up with a set of commitments, principles, or leadership abilities that would actually whip his caucus into shape, and to have a united, unified agenda. Newt Gingrich was the last Republican Speaker who really controlled the party in a big way.
What is most important here is not the floundering career of the worst kind of politician like Kevin McCarthy, it's that we have a major party here that does not have an agenda for the next two years. That helps explain why they barely gained control of the House and couldn't gain control of the Senate. We might want to thank Donald Trump for showing that the Republican Party does not have any commitments or principles. It needs a major reboot and reset. I would like to see that happen in a libertarian direction, and have the Republicans go back to their rhetorical gestures towards limited government doing less but acting more effectively. What we're seeing here is a long slide in the Republican party that's been unfolding for decades.
Nick Gillespie is host of "The Reason Interview" podcast.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
