Opinion | Betrayal from the Right: McCarthy's Fall and Fractured US Legislative Landscape

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By Andi Zhang

The unprecedented removal of House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy has exposed the deep divisions within the US legislative branch.

Leading this ouster was hard-right Republican Matt Gaetz, who orchestrated McCarthy's overthrow following the latter's compromise with Democrats on passing a stopgap bill that would ensure the federal government's operation until mid-November.

In an astonishing turn of events, eight Republicans joined forces with all Democrats to dethrone McCarthy, marking the first-ever instance in US history where the chamber has ousted its leader in a vote of no-confidence.

The schism in the US legislative landscape extends beyond the general political arena, seeping into the very core of the legislative process. The divide between the House and Senate on the matter of full-year government spending legislation remains a chasm difficult to bridge. Conservative hardliners in House Republicans insist on deep spending cuts and controversial policy add-ons, propositions that have met with resistance not only from Democrats but also from some fellow Republicans, who view them as excessively radical.

As Western media outlets continue to ponder the political landscape, the absence of mutual interests and consensus looms as a menacing specter. Should no candidate manage to secure the crucial 218 votes required for speakership, the House of Representatives would teeter on the brink of an even more profound state of chaos.

Memories of McCarthy's election in January still linger, a process that took a grueling 15 rounds of voting, even though he was the consensus choice of the GOP conference.

In this climate, the Hill columnist wrote: the often-vitriolic speeches from pro- and anti-McCarthy factions revealed a party so deep in its own cultural revolution that the horizon line of rational governance no longer exists.