The 2nd Attack on the Capitol

Republicans should not even consider organizing to elect a presidential candidate until they solve the predicament of Trump’s presence and Trump’s legacy.

The repeated failures before finally electing a new speaker of the House of Representatives show us an episode that could very well be characterized as political piracy. You can view it as an extension of the violent attack on the Capitol two years ago. The bizarre characters clad in horns and animal skins that we saw then are now absent. However, in both cases, these are attacks against an institution that represents the people. Violent, in the first case; disregarding common sense in the second, because during these difficult times, only the enemies of democracy — with Vladimir Putin at the helm — could be happy about the crisis in America’s legislature. After everything we saw during President Donald Trump’s presidency, it is quite incomprehensible that a minority that does not even have Trump’s support has acted with the greatest contempt of the institution to which they were elected, in the name of ideas that have only served to dangerously divide American society.

Following a pyrrhic victory in the midterms last November, this vaudeville act has left the Republican Party in an extremely delicate situation. The party must recover its traditional and reasonable position as a conservative force or it will contribute to deepening the political divide among American citizens. After 15 rounds of voting to elect a House speaker, — someone who holds the third highest position in the country — Republicans should not even consider organizing to nominate a presidential candidate until it solves the predicament that is Trump’s presence and Trump’s legacy. Remaining anchored to the controversial former president would likely be an insurmountable burden to the party’s survival.

Unfortunately, the events in Congress show precisely that the Trump era has not come to a close, and until Americans are able to turn over a new leaf, these episodes, which are detrimental to the country’s stability, will continue to occur. U.S. allies around the world — particularly those involved in defending Ukraine against the Russian invasion, particularly members of NATO — can only look on with concern at what happened in a House of Representatives that must approve, among other things, the continuation of military aid to Ukraine.

Democracy is a very efficient system, and the Founding Fathers created a democracy in the U.S. that has amply demonstrated its ability to withstand crises. However, political institutions are fundamentally fragile and rely, above all, on the prestige endowed in these institutions by those entrusted to lead them, something that fosters citizens’ respect. And in this case, for some time now, political irresponsibility in the U.S. has seriously damaged the foundations of the country’s major governmental institutions. For decades, the Republican Party has precisely and most clearly defended the rule of law institutional structure. It will be very difficult for American politics to recover stability and concord if this party cannot sufficiently overcome the level of turmoil it now faces.