Well, Rep. Matt Gaetz got what he wanted, whatever the hell that is. Speaker Kevin McCarthy is out, there is no clear favorite to replace him, ergo the U.S. House of Representatives has no functional speaker, and chaos generally reigns.

The French Jacobins and Russian Bolsheviks must be looking up from hell with a degree of admiration.

So… what was the point? Sure, McCarthy is gone, but the overall situation remains exactly as it was. The Democrats still control the Senate and White House, and the numbers in the House haven’t changed. I don’t suspect Kevin McCarthy will be recorded in the annuls of American political history as one of the greatest speakers sf all time, but the odds were stacked heavily against him from the get-go – a razor-thin majority made functionally thinner by the Gaetz-led contingent – and he did a reasonably good job under those conditions. The debt ceiling deal he negotiated includes a cap on discretionary spending; he created a special committee to examine and potentially counter the threat communist China poses to Taiwan and the West; and the deal he made to avert a government shutdown (for which his party, correctly or not, would have borne full blame), followed by his refusal to forge some kind of parliamentary-style coalition with the Democrats to save his job, was an act of political sacrifice for which he ought to feel no shame.

Stay up to speed: Sign-up for daily opinion in your inbox Monday-Friday

So again, what was the point of his ouster? Whoever eventually succeeds him, following whatever circus that vote could devolve into, will be facing the exact same situation McCarthy did – i.e. very little leverage with which to work – and one can persuasively argue this episode leaves them with an even weaker negotiating hand. Plus, it will only be a matter of time before Gaetz is whining again about being “betrayed” by leadership – or fate, or the Furies, or what have you.

There are, of course, consequences to the madness, both practical and political. In practical terms, the clock continues to trudge relentlessly to the Nov. 17 expiration of the just-passed funding measure. It is difficult to see how, given what just happened, the House Republicans will be in any kind of position to get needed priorities included – you will recall the Gaetz wing voted against a Continuing Resolution bill that included significant resources for border security.

And then there is the issue of continued funding to support Ukraine’s defense against Russia, which seems to depend almost entirely on who manages to win the speaker’s gavel. Just because President Joe Biden has done a woefully inadequate job of explaining to the American public the strategic interest in supporting Ukraine (perhaps out of fear for his own party’s left wing) it hardly excuses Republicans from further weakening our national defensive posture in a manner reminiscent of the Ted Kennedy wing of the Democratic Party during the Cold War.

Speaking of the Democratic Party, it is not unreasonable to assign to them a modicum of culpability for this mess. After all, they did ironically unite behind Gaetz and 5% of the Republican caucus to fire the Speaker – ironically in that it was McCarthy’s willingness to work with Democrats to carve out a CR deal that opened the Gaetz of hell in the first place. But on the other hand, politics is politics, and the Democrats shoulder no particular duty to save Republicans from themselves. And they are surely enjoying the current spectacle nearly as much as Gaetz is. The old adage of “be careful for what you wish” applies, though a new speaker who is too weak to stand up to the far-right wing will likely mean continued chaos, and the longer that continues the greater the chance of the voting public simply throwing their hands in the air and declaring a pox on both houses. There is a technically viable scenario where a handful of moderate Republicans could turn the tables and help vote in a moderate Democrat as speaker; but Hakeem Jeffries is too afraid of his own extremist wing to make that much of a realistic possibility.

All of this at a time when the Democrats are remarkably vulnerable on so many issues – the economy, crime, national security – and nobody, despite a concerted effort to downplay the issue, really believes Biden’s age is not a serious liability. And yet that is the party that, all of a sudden, looks more able to govern.

I mean, good heavens, it’s not even that the points raised by the rebel faction are entirely devoid of justification; spending is a chillingly serious problem, and the gestating national debt an existential issue that receives far too little attention. But what Gaetz et al did does precisely nothing to address that problem – the theatrics distract from real issues, and further weakens the party with a valid claim to a solution.

The crowning irony is to achieve the spending cuts and other reforms Gaetz et al say they want, they need a Republican president, a Republican Senate and many more Republican House members. Gaetz just made that possibility, and the future of the Republic, a lot dimmer. 

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