Louisiana’s Embarrassing Support For Kevin McCarthy
I want to start by saying that I have no personal animus to Louisiana’s Congressional delegation. That being said, I am not going to pull any punches in this article.
In my humble opinion, Louisiana’s current Republican Congressional delegation is truly disappointing this week. For a state that voted about 60% for President Trump in 2020, Louisiana does not seem to have any true “America First” Congressman in the US House of Representatives.
How do I know? Well, look at how all five of Louisiana’s Republican Congressmen are voting in the US House Speaker ballots this week. Everyone one of them have voted for “Establishment Republican extraordinaire” Kevin McCarthy in the first six rounds of voting for the Speakership. Every single one: Steve Scalise, Clay Higgins, Mike Johnson, Garret Graves, and Julia Letlow.
It’s not what you’d hope for as an America First conservative.
Frankly, support Kevin McCarthy for Speaker of the US House is disappointing. McCarthy backstabbed President Trump after January 6th, he supports sending billions of taxpayer dollars to the corrupt regime in Ukraine, and he’s fundraised and spent campaign cash on behalf of Establishment Republicans – often to the detriment of real conservatives. Just ask Florida’s Anna Paulina Luna. Not to mention, McCarthy completely botched the midterm elections, which should have resulted in a sizable Republican majority in the US House of Representatives. He wouldn’t be having this problem of finding votes for his Speakership but for that underperformance.
The Conservative/MAGA base does not like Kevin McCarthy. Yet, Louisiana’s Congressmen continue to support the guy. And yes, two of them – Scalise and Johnson – have positions on McCarthy’s leadership team. One could make an argument that they’d have them anyway based on their own merits.
Now, McCarthy’s supporters will say that we need to make sure that a Republican becomes Speaker of the House. To the typical Establishment Republican, McCarthy is the only viable option for the GOP.
Well, why isn’t Scalise a viable option? And why isn’t he putting himself forward as one? After six ballots McCarthy doesn’t seem to be viable in his own right. When comes the shift to something potentially better?
Now comes the uncomfortable question: what have the last few Republican House speakers done for Conservatives for the past decade or more? What did we get under Paul Ryan: tax cuts for multi-national corporations and foreign aid to corrupt countries? Not a solid track record. And before Ryan there were John Boehner and Denny Hastert, both of whom were unmitigated disasters in their own right.
Here’s the truth that most conservatives must recognize: the Republican Party, as it currently stands and as it presents in Washington, DC, does not represent your best interests. In the past five years, Republicans supported “soft on crime” legislation (e.g. the First STEP Act), failed to give the Trump administration funds for a border wall, and helped Democrats send our precious tax dollars to Ukraine. And a lot more than just those abuses.
Why should we trust current House Republican leadership, led by McCarthy, to do anything different in 2023? The answer: we shouldn’t. And we should not continue to support the same Establishment politicians that plunder our country as it crumbles.
Overall, authentic conservatives can no longer put up with their own congressmen’s support for Kevin McCarthy. Make sure to contact your congressman (respectfully of course) to let him know that you do not support McCarthy for Speaker of the US House of Representatives. It’s time to move on from failure.
And if that means Scalise or Johnson get an opportunity to lead, let’s hope they steer well away from the mistakes and failures which have come back to haunt McCarthy this week. We should hold them accountable for those should they manifest themselves.
Louisiana deserves a true “America First” congressman with backbone—such as Congressmen Byron Donalds, Chip Roy, Matt Gaetz, Andy Biggs, or Paul Gosar. Our state deserves better. And our congressional delegation owes us that performance.