What Just Happened to American Democracy? Another Insurrection, Only This One Was Successful

How the GOP’s Lunatics and Fanatics Have Taken American Democracy Back to the Brink of Ruin

Image Credit: Chip Somodevilla

They’re describing it, already, as “anarchy.” After fifteen attempts, finally, the GOP elected a Speaker of the House — to non-Americans, a leader of their own party, to govern the House of Representatives, control of which they’d just won. It’s not mere anarchy, though. What just happened is something darker than that: the drama unfolding in Congress? This was the first insurrection of 2023 — and what just happened ensures it won’t be the last one.

Who really rules the GOP — and governs the House now? It’s not Kevin McCarthy, ironically. Now, it’s the lunatics and fanatics which make up the extreme wing of the Republicans. They were Trumpists, but now they’re even further right than Trump, who practically begged them to give in and support McCarthy. They didn’t. Instead, they forced concession after concession from him — and now, they’re poised to be who really rules the House. And with it are going to come two difficult, deadly years for American democracy.

This was an insurrection, by any other name. Of a particular kind — a rare kind. “Insurrection” is an American popular vernacular, so let’s make it a little more formal. Coup. Coup attempts come in many forms — hard, like Jan 6th, soft, like the days that led up to Jan 6th, when Trump’s team bombarded the courts with nuisance lawsuits about voter fraud, and put forth fake slates of electors.