Conservative media pundit Charlie Sykes spent his Monday morning email trying to separate the newly strange from the old we’ve-been-here-before strange, as he considered Kevin McCarthy‘s rocky path to grabbing the Speaker of the House gavel.
Sykes, whose opinions once resided near the center of the GOP, has found himself perplexed at his party’s positioning for some time now. Beginning with some of the fiscal antics of the Tea Party and exacerbated by the Donald Trump era, Sykes’s befuddlement has been a running theme that demonstrates at least one schism in a Republican Party that Never-Trumpers hardly recognize.
In addressing what he believes is relatively new territory for his party, Sykes summarizes the recent actions of former president Trump, writing:
In the last several weeks, Donald Trump (1) expressed solidarity with the January 6 insurrectionists, (2) dined with a Neo-Nazi, (3) flung racial slurs at the wife of the senate GOP Leader, and (4) called for the termination of the Constitution so that he could be restored to power.
Charlie Sykes
Sykes uses this framework to render in stark relief the encomium — and gratitude — that Kevin McCarthy issued after his ultimate victory in the House. Here’s McCarthy (as posted by former Republican prosecutor turned Democrat defense attorney Ron Filipowski):
McCarthy: “I do want to especially thank Pres Trump. I don’t think anyone should doubt his influence. He was with me from the beginning. He was all in. What he’s really saying for the party and the country is we have to come together.” pic.twitter.com/KWEFQQAHkn
— Ron Filipkowski 🇺🇦 (@RonFilipkowski) January 7, 2023
McCarthy says: “I do want to especially thank President Trump. I don’t think anyone should doubt his influence. He was with me from the beginning. He was all in. What he’s really saying for the party and the country is we have to come together.”
Sykes writes: “Dysfunction is the point. So strap in, because the chaos theater is about to become very real.”
