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In his current attempt to become House Speaker, Kevin McCarthy is not only promising political investigations, he is making deals to accomplish that with what we would have called fringe members just a few years ago. He has promised to make extreme firebrand congressman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) the chair of the Judiciary Committee, and it's all but certain that he will restore committee assignments to congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), who has no problem appearing with white nationalist and Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes.
By securing votes for his speakership with these extremist elements, McCarthy has moved Jordan, Taylor Greene, and others—like election deniers Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) and Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.)—from the fringe category to becoming mainstream players within today's MAGA Republican Party. Ironically, that has made congressmembers who are committed to good governance and who do not look at service in Washington as serving Donald Trump into the new "fringe" members of the GOP.
It is time for this new "fringe" to make their own deals, stand up for their beliefs and hold McCarthy's feet to the fire. There is no reason that extremist voices should hold so much sway over McCarthy, and through him the entire functioning of the United States Congress.
It is time for principled Republicans that believe in good governance to organize, and then get loud—really loud. It is time for the new "fringe" to start their own caucus —the Democracy Caucus.
Who are the likely members? Let's start with David Valadao (R-Calif.) and Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.), who both voted to impeach former President Trump in 2020. Unfortunately, they are the only two Republicans that voted to impeach that are returning to the House next January, so they will need some allies. That is where so-called crossover members of the House come in—Republicans who won election to the House in November in districts carried by Joe Biden in 2020. There are 18 of them, including Valadao and Newhouse.
The Democracy Caucus could take advantage of this unique point in time and stand up to be the leaders that the country needs right now. Leaders who don't go to Congress to "own the libs," but who go to serve their constituents through finding compromise solutions to knotty issues, and even more importantly, to uphold basic tenets of our democracy.
Moreover, it is in the self-interest of these Republican congressmembers, who won in districts Biden also won, to demonstrate clearly they are centrists who are not beholden to the extreme partisanship that caused their constituents to reject Trump. In 2024, with a Democratic presidential candidate again at the top of the ticket, having a record as a more independently minded moderate may be the most important ingredient to re-election two years from now for these Republicans.
In 2000, House members from crossover districts comprised about 20 percent of the lower body. In the November midterms that number was 5 percent, with only five Democrats elected in districts Trump had carried. Of the 18 Republicans elected in districts Biden had won, 13 of them won by less than 5 percent of the vote.
Creating a moderate Republican Democracy Caucus will make it abundantly clear to McCarthy and the ultra MAGA elements that not all GOP members will get rolled by a small group of loud mouth extremists. The sooner they make that clear, the sooner they will be able to impose some ground rules. For example, the Democracy Caucus must get a commitment from McCarthy to admonish, and if requested, have a floor vote, to strip committee assignments from any House member that espouses racist, antisemitic or other hateful forms of speech.
They should also insist that the speaker will work with Democrats to put in place all the money and personnel needed to assure the highest possible standards in securing the protection and security of the 2024 election against any and all efforts to undermine its integrity.
Commitment to these changes would go a long way to help improve the badly damaged perception of the Republican Party.
But the ultimate game changer would be if members of the Democracy Caucus would put forward a deal that could make McCarthy speaker, but at the same time, free him from the grip of the MAGA extremists.
Just this Sunday, during a recent appearance on MSNBC, House Majority Whip James Clyburn suggested, perhaps in jest, perhaps not referring to McCarthy: "If there are seven or eight people, who are not going to vote for him, I'd advise him to go and look on the other side of the aisle—and see whether or not there are some deals to be made there as well."
It may seem far-fetched, but this is probably the best opportunity to do something radical.
Now is the time to go big, return to governing through compromise and most of all, restore faith in our democracy, in a seismic way—by the Democracy Caucus insisting on an equal number of Republicans and Democrats on every committee. It is not inconceivable, the Senate has been split 50-50 and has operated this way for the past two years.
In many ways the deal would mirror the Senate power-sharing deal. This deal would still have Republican be chairs of the committees, giving them power to set the agenda. However, with equal representation on the chamber's committees, in order for legislation to move it would require bipartisan buy-in. Having a member of the Democracy Caucus on each major committee would then provide an opportunity for this moderate Republican block to work with Democrats to put committee majority muscle behind bipartisan proposals and put pressure on the speaker to schedule floor votes on those measures.
This would assure a far more democratic branch of government than having extremists exercising a veto over all legislation in the House while they turn the body into one big partisan political investigations theatre focused on matters most Americans could care less about.
There are many pressures exerted on individual congressmembers to not undermine the majority will of their party in the House. But, we believe that these 18 congressmembers would not be alone, and if they stand up, others from the Republican Party may well join.
Now is the time to save democracy. It is time to restore a once great political party that has descended into anti-democratic darkness. Create history. Create a Democracy Caucus.
Tom Rogers is an editor-at-large for Newsweek, the founder of CNBC and a CNBC contributor. He also established MSNBC and is the former CEO of TiVo. Currently, executive chair of Engine Gaming & Media, and a member of Keep Our Republic, an organization dedicated to preserving the nation's democracy.
Susan Del Percio is a Republican strategist and crisis communications consultant with over 30 years of experience in the political, government, nonprofit and private sector arenas. She is also a political analyst for MSNBC/NBC News.
The views expressed in this article are the writers' own.
