The legislative paralysis in the United States Congress is because of the chaos and division of the Republican senators, at least until next week. Jim Jordan, the candidate of the far-right supported by Donald Trump who was nominated by the party to be the president of the Lower House, lost his third vote in the plenary session this Friday, where the vote was raised. opposition to his choice by moderate Republicans. Then Jordan also lost secret ballot behind the closed doors of his bank only to continue as a candidate and was seen as forced to leave.
With an appointment set for Monday night for them to appear as new applicants and the goal of Tuesday’s plenary vote, turned to the start box. The House continues, as it has since Kevin McCarthy was fired as speaker 17 days ago, with an interim president, Patrick McHenry, who has no other authority than to organize the election of the president. And no one can move on, though aid to Israel and Ukraine requested by President Joe Biden or budget negotiations to avoid a government shutdown on November 17.
A dysfunctional party
What happened this Friday shows again the deterioration of the republic and the deep gaps open between factions in the party, which in the last three decades has become radicalized and strongly turned to the right. But this is also an unusual indication of more moderate wing strength, which has become almost non-existent in recent years, since Trump became the leader of the formation. For example, 139 Republican congressmen voted against the certification of Biden’s election victory. Jordan is one of them.
the institutional crisis erupted on the 3rd when far-right Matt Gaetz introduced a motion supported by seven other Republicans that ended McCarthy’s historic ouster. A few days later, he was able to push legislation with a majority of Democratic votes that prevented the government shutdown, and he was punished as a traitor to the ultra wing, for which he had to make many concessions in January to achieve the position (a painful process that requires 15 rounds of voting).
Although the Republicans first chose the more conservative Steve Scalise over Jordan to run for office, the Louisiana congressman did not even appear in the plenary session because the ultra wing did not want him to be a candidate either. With a small majority In the Lower House, no Republican candidate can afford to lose more than four votes to his colleagues.
Thus Jordan rose to the nomination, overcoming the challenge of another protest candidate. But his candidacy united some groups of moderatesincludingg McCarthy’s allies, some outraged by the dirty play against Scalise, others representing districts won by Biden in 202,0 concerned deep cost reduction, including the Defense, which Jordan can improve.
In the first vote 20 voted against him, in addition to all Democrats, despite the pressure campaign of Jordan and his allies and a siege initiated by social networks and ultra-conservative media. In the second the 22opponentst of his party. And the third, which came this Friday after a tense meeting on Thursday where tempers flared and moderates said they had even received death threats, and where an alternative route temporarily expansion of the powers of McHenry rejected, the interim ‘speaker’, the opposition rose to 25.
