On January 6, 2021 decisions were made whether politicians were standing with or against the very foundations of what America is supposed to be all about. In the immediate aftermath of the insurrection at the Capitol, there was a moment of clarity where even senior members of the GOP including Mitch McConnell and Kevin McCarthy blamed former President Donald Trump for inciting the violent mob that attacked the U.S. Capitol. As the days went by however, Kevin McCarthy suddenly developed a case of amnesia and started to explain away what happened that day, blaming it on anything from Antifa to violent hippies. What was on display for all to see in this evolution of thought was Kevin McCarthy’s naked ambition to become Speaker of the House of Representatives.

Ambition is something that is common in political circles but time and time again, Kevin McCarthy bowed and dishonored himself by agreeing with a former president purely for selfish political reasons rather than rational ones so that he could appease the Trump base instead of his own conscience.

It is said that no matter what we do in life, at the end, the bill always comes and we need to pay it. For Kevin McCarthy it’s almost certain that he knew his critical choices made after January, 6, 2021 would come back to haunt him, but in typical modern day GOP fashion he simply didn’t care as the short term gains outweighed the reputation-ruining long term negatives.

As the saying goes, what goes around, comes around, and in Kevin McCarthy’s mad sprint to take Nancy Pelosi’s job, he forgot one very critical detail: shoring up the necessary votes to become speaker. As it stands now, there is no guarantee that McCarthy will become Speaker of the House of Representatives come January 2023. For him to become speaker he can’t afford to lose more than four votes from his caucus and currently there is a voting bloc of 5 that simply won’t vote for him, giving leverage to Democrats who might want to throw their weight behind a more moderate and not election-denying candidate for speaker.

Which brings us to the person who until January will be the Speaker of the House of Representatives: Nancy Pelosi. Throughout American History there have been more than a few that have served in the House of Representatives’ premier position, but Nancy Pelosi was the first female ever in that role and despite those that despise liberals and have succumbed to Fox News and ads on social media highlighting how ‘evil’ Nancy Pelosi is, she will be remembered as one of the best speakers and most effective speakers in American History.

For Kevin McCarthy to attempt to succeed her is damning of where we are as a country. Indeed, it’s embarrassing – similarly embarrassing is the fact for the last two presidential elections the best that that the greatest nation the world has ever known could muster was Hilary Clinton and Donald Trump, and then Joe Biden and Donald Trump. It will take a lot of hard work, but America needs people who believe in the American Dream and in American ideals again and are not motivated just by naked ambition to pursue self-interests. To think that politicians anywhere are undying patriots and only serve others and not just themselves is to live in a fantasy world, but surely we can do better than the aforementioned presidential candidates – Kevin McCarthy for speaker. He threw in his hat with election denying domestic terrorists and he will now reap what he sowed.