Taking Action
McCarthy Is In, Now What?
The fight to become the speaker of the House of Representatives wasn’t much of a fight. Many House Republicans had coalesced behind Representative Kevin McCarthy’s leadership long ago. His best Freedom Index (FI) score was for the 111th Congress (2009-2010) — when it wasn’t too hard for Republicans to get good scores. All they had to do was oppose the Democrats during President Obama’s first term. McCarthy earned an 86 percent.
His scores then dropped before increasing once again under another Democratic president. During President Trump’s term, McCarthy earned 53 percent, and now has a 61 percent FI lifetime score. Let’s also keep in mind that he served under the leadership of House Speaker John Boehner (FI 53 percent lifetime), Minority Whip Eric Cantor (FI 55 percent lifetime), and then House Speaker Paul Ryan (FI 58 percent lifetime), while he moved into the whip leadership and then served as Republican leader.
In looking at why his scores mirror the Republican establishment, we must ask the question, “What gets things done?” What moved the early Colonists to declare independence, fight a war, and win? The answer is the same: organization. The establishment is organized to perpetuate itself and its Big Government agenda. While some members of the Freedom Caucus used the speaker vote for leverage to get rules changed and garner certain committee assignments, the fact remains that they did not have an organized effort to put up a candidate. Those who were nominated were not serious candidates (most voted for others).
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