… On Tuesday, McCarthy won House approval, in a party-line, 221 to 211, vote, to create a Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, with Jim Jordan, one of the most outspoken supporters of Trump and the MAGA movement in Congress, as its chairman.
It’s possible, although not very likely, that the MAGA electorate will rise up en masse in 2024 to reward House Republicans with another two years in the majority while pushing state-level Republicans who have moved from the right to the center, joined bipartisan alliances or challenged the party’s extreme wing into political exile.
But the problem for House Republicans under the nominal leadership of Kevin McCarthy is that they have left themselves no choice. They are locked into a high-risk, take-no-prisoners, governing-be-damned strategy by the totality of McCarthy’s concessions to the Freedom Caucus, by his promised appointments to key committees and by the adoption of rules that turn any move toward moderation or bipartisan cooperation into political suicide. CONTINUED
Thomas B. Edsall, New York Times
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