Kevin McCarthy removed as House speaker in a vote

U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy was voted out of his position on Tuesday by 216 to 210. The decision ousted him 269 days after he took office and led to a halt to congressional jobs such as examination and processing of bills.

For the first time in the country’s congressional history of 234 years, McCarthy, third in command following the president and the vice president, became the first House Speaker who was removed from the post.

The removal of the House Speaker resulted mainly from the internal discord within the opposition Republican Party following the revolt of the party’s hardliners. However, all of this comes down to an intransigent political divide. In response to Speaker McCarthy’s processing of a 45-day stopgap budget bill to prevent a federal shutdown, hawkish Republicans led to the ouster of the house speaker. It was expected that some Democrats would help him get out of trouble. Still, the vote turned out that none of the Democratic Party members opposed the party’s general viewpoint against the house speaker who had pushed forward with an impeachment probe on U.S. President Joe Biden.

The vacancy of speakership may last longer than expected. If things are left unaddressed for a long time, it may end up as a burden on the shoulders of the Biden administration and Democrats who are jointly in charge of the U.S. government. The bone of contention between the two main parties was a budget plan to finance Ukraine troops. Hawkish Republicans have argued for a complete budget cut. Indeed, as one of the global leaders, the United States seems only a few steps from possibly losing the trust and support of allies and friends.

Bipartisan support and cooperation, which has been believed to be the linchpin of U.S. democracy, is all gone. There seems to be a lack of restraint and tolerance, not to mention dialogue and compromise. The politics of divide and conflict peaked under the former administration and is not finished yet. With the 2024 presidential election nearing, the country can find itself stuck in a more destructive swirl of politics. Such a de-facto regression of U.S. politics also sends a warning signal to the international order of liberalism.