A full week after the 2022 midterm elections took place, the Republicans were finally declared the majority winners of the House. Barely. And that might still change as mystery ballots continue falling from the sky in key races. The Red Wave never materialized and in fact, this was a dismal showing for Republicans for a couple of reasons. Despite almost losing even winnable races this cycle, the GOP Reps who were most responsible for their party’s bungling were immediately promoted to positions of power in the House.
Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) was elected the presumptive Speaker of the House on the same day that the election was finally called for the GOP. McCarthy still lives in a bedroom that he rents from liberal pollster and Never-Trumper Frank Luntz in Washington, DC. He’s no friend to conservatives or the MAGA movement. And McCarthy has never once in the past two years suggested that Democrats are guilty of rampant cheating in many US states. Nothing in our broken election infrastructure is going to get fixed with this guy in charge.
An even worse choice for the House GOP was electing Rep. Tom Emmer (R-MN) as Majority Whip. Emmer is much less well-known than McCarthy, and he’s terrible.
Emmer was the chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) this election cycle. After the GOP was expected in all the polls to pick up 40 seats in a crushing landslide, they have barely attained a slim majority thanks to Emmer’s “help.” The NRCC decides which candidates to allocate resources to and encourages candidates with their messaging. How would you characterize Emmer’s leadership at the NRCC this cycle? Did he do a great job?
Apparently, House Republicans think he did because they just voted to make him the Majority Whip by a vote of 115 to 106.
For those who are unfamiliar with Emmer, he used to be a paid speaker/consultant for a George Soros-funded outfit that lobbies to eliminate the Electoral College in America. Conservative Review gives Emmer a solid ‘D’ based on his voting record in its Liberty Score rankings.
Just this year, Emmer voted with Democrats to codify same-sex marriage and to ban states from promoting traditional marriage. He voted on the $1.5 trillion inflation-causing omnibus bill that funded Joe Biden’s vaccine mandates. Emmer also voted for Biden’s $1.4 trillion COVID relief bill. That was just in the past year. Back in 2018, Emmer voted to release violent criminals from federal prisons. He’s a real piece of work.
Despite being terrible, and despite the dismal showing in the 2022 midterms, Kevin McCarthy and Tom Emmer have been promoted. How swampy!
The promotion of these two walking failures highlights a serious problem with Congress that most Americans don’t know about: Committee chairmanships and positions of power in Congress are bought and paid for.
Kevin McCarthy is not going to be Speaker of the House because he’s such a great conservative leader. He’s going to be Speaker because he lives in a wealthy Southern California district. He has a lot of high-powered donors, and he’s able to raise more money for the GOP than anyone else in Congress as a result. Tom Emmer’s district in Minnesota is in the wealthy suburban communities northwest of Minneapolis.
Members of both parties in Congress “buy” their seats through fundraising abilities. Nancy Pelosi lives in one of the wealthiest districts in America, which is how she always ends up the “leader” of her party. The Senate operates the same way.
Until positions of power in Congress are no longer tied to fundraising ability, we’re going to continue to have political losers like McCarthy and Emmer and Mitch McConnell running the Republican Party.
