We don't select for basic governing competence
Plus: "What you get is the world," my New Year's resolution for The New York Times, and more
Good morning! It’s Wednesday, and here are this week’s five items for you.
1. A take I haven’t written elsewhere
Modern U.S. politics doesn’t select for basic governing competence
Perhaps, by the time you read this Wednesday morning, the new GOP House majority will have chosen Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.)—or someone, anyone—as speaker of their chamber. I kind of doubt it. As I write this Tuesday afternoon, McCarthy has already lost two bids for the role and is projected to lose a third. All House business will be at a standstill until a selection is made.
The “Reps in disarray” commentary is endless and inevitable, but it’s difficult to find this chaos surprising. Maybe it’s remarkable that the Republican Party would so ignominiously begin the majority promised to stymie Democrats’ agenda for the next two years. But surprising?
The speakership debacle reminded me of a comment from former Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.), who served a single term before losing his primary this past fall after a string of scandals. In 2021, newly elected, Cawthorn said in an email to colleagues that he’d “built [his] staff around comms rather than legislation”—that is, that he intended to use his congressional office as a way to get media attention, not to govern.
That’s a bitterly cynical approach. But for a first-termer like Cawthorn, it’s hard to argue that focusing on messaging was a bad tactic. Given how most meaningful legislation is passed these days—in negotiations among a small group of congressional leaders and administration officials playing a pseudo-legislative role—he stood little chance of lawmaking anyway. And messaging is a skill Cawthorn demonstrably has. Writing law almost certainly isn’t.
The same could be said of many (most?) of our national elected officials. Modern U.S. politics doesn’t really select for governing competence. Sometimes we get shrewd managers and effective leaders, or sometimes, with arguably overlong tenures, they learn that stuff on the job. But our system attracts people who are good at talking, glad-handing, and attracting eyeballs. These are valuable skills, but they’re not necessarily the skills that would make a lawmaker well-suited to pragmatic, working-level governance, which is generally handed off to staff and/or party leadership.
In that context, the new majority’s failure to choose a speaker and get to work doesn’t come as much of a shock. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), one of the GOP members voting against McCarthy for speaker, allegedly said behind closed doors that he doesn’t care if the Democratic House leader, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.), wins the speakership instead of a Republican.
Gaetz’s comment makes no sense if you assume he’s in Congress to govern. But if his interest is more comms than competence, a Democratic speaker leading a Republican House would sure be good for business.
2. What I'm reading this week
“What you get is the world,” by at . An excerpt:
When I think about the forces shaping modern society, I tend to characterize them as centrifugal rather than centripetal forces, which is to say that these forces tend to pull us apart rather than bring us together. When I consider the forces operating on the person, however, a different frame comes to mind. These I think of as forces which deplete rather than renew us. As I used to observe with some frequency, the arc of digital culture bends toward exhaustion.
What I mean by this is simple: when we think of the way our days are structured, the kinds of activities most readily on offer, the mode of relating to the world we are encouraged to adopt, etc.—in each case we are more likely to find ourselves spent rather than sustained. The default set of experiences on offer to us are more likely to leave us feeling drained and depleted rather than satisfied and renewed. In our consumption, we are consumed.
Read the rest here.
3. A recommendation
Linden Frederick, an artist whose prints have been on my to-buy list for a while now. He does a lot of small-town Americana, and I’m especially fond of the ones that look like a summer night warm enough to visit the neighbors barefoot.
4. Recent work
Narrow your news focus | my contribution to a list of New Year’s resolutions for Tish Harrison Warren’s newsletter at The New York Times
Skip the ‘reckoning’ if you want the GOP to move on from Trump | The Daily Beast
Taiwan shouldn’t count on U.S. support | Reason (no link yet; see below)
5. Miscellaneous
My first print piece at Reason! I’m not sure I’ve ever had a paper copy of the mag in my hands before, which I maybe shouldn’t admit somewhere my Reason editors might read it.
This is in the February issue, so the full article won’t be free online for a while yet, but it’s about the differences between the Taiwan/China and Ukraine/Russia situations where the prospect of American military support or intervention are concerned.
Just a reminder, this is the last free post before the alternate-weeks paywall starts with a paid post next week on Wednesday, Jan. 11. However, you can still subscribe—and support my work—at a discounted rate:
Thanks for reading!
Best,
Bonnie