But democracy is also in trouble because of dysfunctions in our system created by the insistence of a far-right minority to rule at all costs. The extremists’ contempt for the wishes of the majority explains why they revere Trump’s eagerness to subvert free elections and why they were willing to burden military personnel and civil servants with the cost of a shutdown.
Biden’s speech may not have been why House Speaker Kevin McCarthy pulled back from the brink on Saturday. But the Republican leader clearly understood that blame for a fiasco would have fallen on him, given the failure of his earlier strategy rooted in coddling the Trumpists in his caucus.
So he finally did what Democrats had long been urging him to do: He abandoned his Republicans-only approach involving sweeping budget cuts that were still not sufficient for his most radical colleagues. He surprised nearly everyone in the Capitol by moving a continuing resolution that required Democratic support to keep the government funded for another 45 days while budget negotiations continue.
One of Winston Churchill’s most cited observations is that Americans always do the right thing after exhausting all of the other possibilities. McCarthy doesn’t always do the right thing, but he did so in this case — after he tried almost everything else.
If anyone doubts which party is extreme and which favors bipartisan accord, the roll call on McCarthy’s resolution provided a resounding data point. Even as their party’s speaker sought the two-thirds majority he needed in this last-minute process, only 126 Republicans voted with him; 90 voted no. Among Democrats, the vote was 209-1.
“Time and time and time again, Democrats have had come to the rescue,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said at a news conference after the vote.
“It is our hope,” Jeffries said earlier, “that the traditional Republicans will take their party back from the extremists.” But at his own news conference, McCarthy took a partisan line, assailing Biden and making a point of welcoming members who had opposed him back into the fold.
None of which bodes well for the next 45 days, and not just because some way must be found to finance aid to Ukraine, left out of the resolution. Democrats remain angry that McCarthy broke the deal he reached with Biden earlier this year during debt ceiling negotiations. That deal, too, was passed with more Democratic than Republican votes. McCarthy effectively rewrote the deal on Saturday, saying he viewed those numbers as a ceiling and would seek further cuts. The country could face this crisis again.
McCarthy abandoned the agreement with Biden out of fear he’d be shoved out of his job by the far right. On Saturday, he put on a brave face, saying he’d gladly face a challenge if that were the cost of being “the adult in the room.”
It could come in the next few days. On CNN Sunday, leading House radical Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) said he would propose a motion to remove McCarthy. “The only way Kevin McCarthy is speaker of the House at the end of this coming week is if Democrats bail him out,” Gaetz said. But rescuing McCarthy will be a reach for many Democrats.
“There is no trust in the House Democratic caucus when it comes to Kevin McCarthy,” Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-Pa.) told me, “and in order to have any deal, a critical element is trust.”
Rep. Jim Himes, a moderate Democrat from Connecticut, agreed, but with a caveat.
“There will not be a lot of Democrats eager to rescue a guy who broke his deal with Biden and is currently trying to impeach him,” Himes said in an interview. But if McCarthy were willing to share power with Democrats, they “might be open to negotiating” to contain the far right.
“We’re the party that fights chaos,” he added.
It’s notable that Biden gave his democracy speech in Arizona in honor of the late Sen. John McCain, a Republican who always defended the idea of putting country over party — and was hated by Trump. Biden spoke of the danger posed by those who would “shut down the government” and “burn the place down.”
On Saturday, enough House Republicans joined their party colleagues in the Senate and Democrats to keep the arsonists at bay. Given Trump’s hold on the party, alas, there are few signs that this will become a habit.
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