Rancor among Republicans is good for democracy

Partisan Democrats and their media allies are enjoying negatively characterizing the contest among Republicans in selecting the next speaker of the House of Representatives.

Actually, what is happening is just what should be happening.

The resignation of House Speaker John Boehner and the subsequent collapse of Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s ascension as the new speaker is a tribute to representative democracy.

How many times have we complained about politicians who promise us what we want to hear and then disappoint us by not doing what they said they would do?

Instead, they fall into line with the party control system that runs the legislative branch of the government for fear of reprisal — not from their constituents back home but from the power of the few men who lead the two houses of our Congress.

For example, fresh from victories on Election Day came new members of Congress who promised to stop Obamacare because fewer than four out of 10 Americans supported the government takeover of the nation’s health insurance system.

But, they were told by the speaker that they can’t oppose its funding because the Republicans will be blamed for shutting down the government.

Why can’t the speaker describe what is really happening?

It’s the president shutting down the government, not the Republicans, who have approved the entire federal budget except for the one thing that will produce his veto.

The president is shutting it down, not the Republicans. The president.

Instead, the party in control of Congress just gives up for fear of being blamed for something the president has done.

Doing so makes us wonder what use is it to have seized the majority, and it also abdicates the power of the legislative branch designed to hold the executive in check.

In the spirit of “we’ve had enough” of such weak leadership, Boehner stepped down and hope arose that the will of the people may again be in play.

Feeling betrayed by the likes of Boehner and McCarthy — who, as recently described in The Washington Post, talked the talk of conservative principles, reforming Washington and conducting business the way our Founders envisioned — there are finally enough members to bring change to the body that represents the power of the people.

So now we’ll see who gets chosen for the leadership position.

It may be former vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan, whose credentials are questioned by those further to the right.

Or perhaps someone like the more conservative Daniel Webster of Florida.

But finally, it will be a leader who will not punish or demean members for their principled stands.

What matters the most is that the outcome of this transition produces a result that fully embraces our Constitution — you know, the thing that begins with the words, “We the People,” and then goes on to describe the world’s most successful experiment in self-government.

We won’t completely rid ourselves of the power structure that has emerged over the years, but change will have finally come.

Then we will get to test the strength of our system to resolve differences among our public servants instead of them fearing how standing up for the values that got them elected would be portrayed by their congressional adversaries and news media friendly to big government.

The result could just be that the president, either the current one or the next one, will have to deal with the question of whether he or she wants to shut down the government after Congress has sent up a measure that represents what the majority of Americans want to see happen.

This story was originally published October 16, 2015 at 5:55 PM with the headline "Rancor among Republicans is good for democracy."