As I write this, the U.S. House Republicans are headed to their – let me check – eighth round of voting for the new speaker of the House.

Yes, the country is desperately in need of some conservative counter-balancing leadership in Washington, and the only group of people who can offer that can’t even get past the first-day preliminaries.

At issue is a small group of populist Republican lawmakers who refuse to elect Kevin McCarthy as speaker, for some largely unspecified sins. Granted, he may not be everyone’s cup of tea as prospective speaker of the House, but he has done a reasonably admirable job as House minority leader heading up a post-Trump GOP caucus that includes some, well, rather interesting characters. He held his own against Nancy Pelosi and her slim majority which included (and still does) its own slate of interesting characters. And though he can’t be held entirely blameless for the GOP’s relatively poor showing in the midterms, most of the blame for that (ironically) lies with those who are leading the revolt and their titular headmaster, Donald Trump. McCarthy did manage to ultimately wrangle two Republican House majorities and raise a substantial amount of money for GOP candidates in doing so.

He also has the support of 90% of his caucus, suggesting this is not necessarily indicative of an existential structural problem with the Republican Party itself. A persistent and annoying one, yes, but not (probably) a foundational one. The revolutionaries are a small group, just 20, and unreasonable enough that even U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Donald Trump aren’t with them, and that’s saying something. But given the slim GOP majority it is plenty to deny McCarthy his speakership, and to put everything on hold.

This is a shame, and not only because of the melodrama and histrionics that continues the slide of what ought to be a grand and noble institution into the realms of street theater (a descent began many years ago) but because there is a lot which could be done instead of watching this play out like a reality TV show. The Republicans have a small majority, yes, but a hard-fought one, and one with a purpose. Even as turned off as the general voting public is by Trump, they still elected Republicans to serve as a check on the Biden administration and the far-left wing that is increasingly coming to dominate the Democratic Party. There is not a whole lot a small-Republican-majority House can realistically achieve, but it could nonetheless set and pursue a rather ambitious agenda, to include things like addressing the chaos at the border, pushing back on federal spending binges, and doing some substantial work with their newly established Select Committee on China. None of which can commence until a speaker is elected.

What exactly the rebels are after is not entirely clear. A few of the demands, elucidated by the likes of Rep. Chip Roy, are not entirely unreasonable – he would like a more open process and something akin to Colorado’s “single subject” rule which would help prevent enormities like the omnibus spending bills – but are subjects for another discussion. Most of the rest of the demands, to the extent they are scrutable, amount to little more than orthogenetic expansions of the little populist block’s ability to burn it all down.

An indication of the unseriousness of the rebels is the simple fact that they have no viable alternative to McCarthy. Jim Jordan doesn’t want it, and none of the others who have been nominated have a sliver of a hope of ever being speaker. Steve Scalise would be an obvious choice if McCarthy were to decide to give it up, but would the rebels get behind him? If the only goal is “anybody but Kevin,” then perhaps that is the only viable option.

In the meantime, McCarthy is gaining no ground, despite offering concessions, some of which are quite frankly ludicrous and foolishly weaken the speakership. He agreed early on to allow a mere five members to move a vote of no-confidence, and now has reportedly reduced that number to one. Whoever ends up being speaker could essentially be held hostage by 20 firebrand, anti-establishment populists for the next two years.

It is no secret that there exists a faction of the Republican Party that simply doesn’t want the responsibilities of being in the majority. They prefer the comfort of being in the minority, the romance of being the “underdogs,” a perch from where they can throw rhetorical bombs and rehearse campaign videos. But the country needs Republicans who can show they can govern, not just grandstand, and conserve the traditions, establishment and institutions the nation is built on – not burn them down as extremists in both parties are intent on doing. Instead, we are headed to, seemingly, one vote after another.

Kelly Sloan is a political and public affairs consultant and a recovering journalist based in Denver.