Machiavelli and the New Speaker

Chido Nwangwu writes about intrigues associated with the election of Mike Johnson of Republican Party as Speaker of the United States House of Representatives about four weeks after the impeachment of Kevin McCarthy also of the Republican Party.

After weeks of foolish posturing, grandstanding, infighting and partisan tomfoolery, the Republicans have, to some extent, began to come back to their sense!

After several efforts to elect the successor to the disgraced former Speaker McCarthy, the number of congressional Republicans who seemed ready and willing to end their journey in the desert of political uncertainty and wear a mask to cover their ideological extremism grew overnight.

In politics, Niccolò Machiavelli, said the end justifies the means! That is how the Republicans of all ideological stripes decide to rally (a)round Mike Johnson of Louisiana to elect him House Speaker — after weeks of chaos and intraparty turmoil.

It remains their determination to hold onto power as prescribed by Machiavelli that made conservatives in the Congressional delegations to adjust their posture. They abandoned Rep. Tom Emmer who supported the certification of Joe Biden as duly elected President of the United States of America!

Johnson was the fourth Republican nominee for Speaker in three weeks.

In jettisoning Emmer, the Republicans who are still beholden to the divisive and unruly former President of the United States, Donald J. Trump chose Johnson. He was  part of the conspiracy to deny the credibility and certification of the election of Biden.

Johnson is now second in line for the presidency. The congressional Republicans who made a fool of McCarthy gave the support of all 220 Republican members in attendance. It was, therefore, comfortably more than the 215-vote total that was required to assure victory.

On the other side of the aisle, all of the 209 congressional Democrats voted for the New York Rep. Hakeem Jeffries. He’s African-American and the leader of the Democrats in the House.

Upon his victory, Johnson gallantly said

“The people’s House is back in business.

We’re going to dispense with all the usual ceremonies and celebrations that traditionally follow a new speakership because we have no time for either one…. The American people’s business is too urgent in this moment. The hour is late. The crisis is great.”

President Biden congratulated Johnson, noting that: “We need to move swiftly to address our national security needs and to avoid a shutdown in 22 days. Even though we have real disagreements about important issues, there should be mutual effort to find common ground wherever we can…. This is a time for all of us to act responsibly, and to put the good of the American people and the everyday priorities of American families above any partisanship.”

African countries, hopefully, would have learned and noticed that the was no military coup in the United States because of the almost one month lag without a Speaker at the House of Representatives!

I know that building institutions and infrastructure are vital to democracies.

-Dr Nwangwu is Founder of the first African-owned, U.S-based newspaper on the internet, USAfricaonline.com

Follow him on Twitter @Chido247