Horowitz: One quality we need in a new House speaker

One overarching reason explains why America is collapsing and no serious effort has arisen in recent decades to halt the uniparty-driven decline. Every Republican or even conservative leader until now has feared the image of temporary disruption, chaos, and discord more than the permanent destruction of our life, liberty, economy, sovereignty, culture, and way of life. Hence the constant clamor to avoid a government shutdown or a debt-ceiling fight. And hence the aversion to intraparty fights.

We will not reverse this evil tide of tyranny until someone who represents the right side is more fearful of our societal and economic collapse than of a temporary lapse in federal funding.

Look at any Democrat leaders headed into a pivotal legislative or budgetary fight, and their passion, sense of mission, and indefatigable energy are palpable. They will pound the lectern, accusing their opponents of killing Grandma, the poor, veterans, and every rainbow identity under the sun. They will even invoke a degree of religious dogma in defense of their position and condemn their opponents to the pits of hell. From Nancy Pelosi or Hakeem Jeffries in the House to Chuck Schumer in the Senate, they are never off-message for a second. Even Joe Biden, despite his obvious cognitive decline, never wavers on his ideological commitment.

What do you hear from Republicans? To be fair, Senate Republicans these days actually do have passion and a sense of mission ... in the same ideological direction and for the same policy outcomes desired by Chuck Schumer.

But even the more “conservative” House leaders and committee chairmen will call for bipartisanship, laud the minutiae of process, warn against shutting down the government, and espouse banal and conciliatory talking points designed neither to galvanize the base nor convert swing voters.

Where is the fire in the belly? Where is the equal and opposing force? How come we never have Republican leaders draw a line and say, “We will not fund your lawless invasion at the border for one day past the fiscal year.” Or “we will not fund the bankrupting of American families and the financial collapse that are destroying our standard of living today.” We never have leaders to who evoke the morality of our positions the way Democrats propagate the immorality of theirs.

It doesn’t have to be this way. This unexpected speaker fight provides us with a new opportunity to finally pursue a leader who actually shares our values, but most importantly — in this age when political messaging is crucial — is able to articulate our view from a position of strength.

Republicans are already falling into the trap of looking for the “next man in line” rather than the most effective voice. They are seeking to elevate Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.), the current No. 2 Republican, who was a part of this same leadership structure that not only failed us this year but even during trifecta control in 2017-2018. Then, other members of the Republican leadership would ascend another rung on the ladder.

This “next in line” mentality is what saddled us with Kevin McCarthy after he was elevated from whip to majority leader following the shocking defeat of then-leader Eric Cantor. After I helped former Rep. Dave Brat defeat Cantor in his central Virginia district, I even warned at the time of the emergency race for majority leader in June 2014 that the decision to elevate McCarthy was tone-deaf to the demand for change from GOP voters.

In an attempt to avoid “chaos” yet again, many Republicans will want to jump on a known horse who has a strong whip operation. But why are many Republicans so shortsighted? Some of them were even decrying — or literally crying about — the loss of jobs for McCarthy’s staff members.

Really? We are facing an unimaginable debt bomb that will crush the ability of all of us to live properly. We are facing the prospect of another 4 million illegal aliens, infiltrated with dangerous transnational gangs, coming over this year. What we are facing as a civilization is no longer a talking point. The crisis is real and requires immediate redress. Avoiding chaos and being steady, “mature,” and following precedent in themselves are not a solution.

Ironically, as we were all focused on the “chaos” of the House floor, most people didn’t realize the federal debt rose $275 billion in one day over the weekend, according to the latest Treasury Department update!

As all the uniparty members extolled the McCarthy bill to “avert a shutdown,” we actually perpetuated and exacerbated the ultimate shutdown over that very same weekend. Do you think we “avoided default” during the spring? Think again! With the debt increasing $450 billion in two weeks and $2 trillion since McCarthy’s debt-ceiling deal just four months ago, we are confronted with a death spiral of inflation, debt, and insolvency. Treasury yields are rising to shocking levels concurrent with the rapid acceleration of the debt, which itself is exploding the interest payments.

Consider the fact that we will now have to pay, at a minimum, $700 billion more on interest on the debt relative to pre-COVID levels. What that means is that the debt from the accumulation of outlays on our welfare state and entitlement programs is so enormous and metastasizing that even if we pretty much eliminated every single non-defense discretionary agency imaginable — including entire departments, such as education, housing, energy, commerce, and labor — we’d be no better off than we were in 2019 when facing certain insolvency back then.

We can’t absorb another year of record debt and inflation; another year of destruction of our energy, housing, and cars; another year of unchecked illegal immigration; another year of “died suddenly”; and another year of “arrested suddenly” for political beliefs.

Coming back to the speaker fight, even more than the technicalities of an open amendment process, the 72-hour rule, or respecting “regular order,” we need a no-drama, sincere believer and we need an articulator. We need someone who cares for our future more than he fears a temporary shutdown. We need a leader who, for once, shares our convictions. We already have one Democrat Party; we don’t need a second one.