This isn't quite uncharted territory. Before the Civil War it was not unusual to take dozens of ballots before a Speaker was finally chosen. It took 44 ballots to elect a Speaker in 1860 (and then along came The Civil War). Not a good omen, Five years earlier, it took 133 ballots with the question of slavery bitterly dividing the country.
But while our divisions are nothing new, not being able to choose a Speaker is unfamiliar terrain for us in the present. And unlike the present, the previously aforementioned Speaker battles those were a century before television. Americans living 150 years did not get to see this happening in real time.
The fact that we are seeing this sorry spectacle as it happens only serves to further undermine our faith in the democratic process and I suspect those who seek to deny McCarthy the Speaker's chair are seeking.
After all, tomorrow it will have been two years since the attack on the U.S. Capitol. In two years, Republicans in Congress have gone from refusing to certify the election of a Democratic President to refusing to choose a Republican for Speaker.
Not that I sympathize with McCarthy. He wouldn't certify Biden's election and following a brief flicker of conscience saw fit to curry favor at Mar-a-Lago.
Nevertheless, the entertainment value of this spectacle is going to be short-lived because it is only a matter of time before Congress needs to agree to fund the federal government and lift the debt ceiling. If this doesn't get resolved, then people are going to get hurt and the harm will be greatest to the most vulnerable.
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