The House is on a Hamster Wheel Going Nowhere: And That's Supposed to be Good for Democracy?

When my wife and I got married in 1974 we chose a hamster for a pet because they're low maintenance, and we were on the move a lot.

His name was Zig Zag and we only had him a few weeks before he ran himself to death! At least that's what we think happened.

For some reason he wouldn't get off his hamster wheel one day and ran in it around the clock for several days before collapsing.

When I look at the current situation in the House of Representatives, I think about Zig Zag and his wheel of death. 

House Republicans are making a mockery of governing with their display of confusion about who they want to lead them. It's been one hundred years since the Republican Party had this much of a problem selecting a leader.

They took nine votes before settling on a new speaker. So far this session there's been 11 futile attempts with no end in sight.

It really cracks me up when they say that chaos is good for the country. We're supposed to be satisfied with their claims that their dysfunctional attempt to agree on something is what democracy is all about.

"It's supposed to be messy," more than one MAGA Republican claimed. No. Romper Room at the schoolhouse is messy. Adults should work things out in a reasonable way.

That's not what's happening. If anything, the dialogue between MAGA holdouts and moderates is getting nastier by the day.

Understand. With no functioning House bad things are going to happen in the near future. The world is already bemused by our inability to even pick a leader in a winning party.

No legislation can be passed. It cripples a third of our government. It also hurts our national security. That's just not cool.

Idealogues would rather argue about getting their way than actually taking action and moving the country and party forward. That stalemate gets more serious with each passing day.

There's something else that concerns me about what's unfolding in the House. It's looking like a MAGA minority (10 percent) is going to be calling the shots for the next two years. 

It appears that the other 90 percent of Republicans are just going to have to go along with what the crazies want.

As it stands, if the GOP can't pull their head out of their asses that interparty schism assures there will be more chaos for the country and no meaningful legislation passed in the House before 2024.