Clown Show on Capitol Hill

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Capitol Hill has long stood as a formal symbol of American democracy and ideology. However the tide seems to be turning with a shift away from civility and decorum that is fitting of the institution toward juvenile hijinks that mock our country’s very foundations. 

Just weeks after his ouster as Speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy was accused by Rep. Tim Burchett of elbowing him in the kidneys while walking down a Capitol hallway. Though McCarthy denied it,  footage released by the NPR reporter who was accompanying Burchett at the time certainly seems to support his claim. Fellow Republican Rep. Ken Buck rallied behind Burchett and pronounced  that “Kevin McCarthy and lying are like peanut butter and jelly.” 

And not coincidentally, Buck and Burchett were among the eight Republicans who voted to remove McCarthy from his position as Speaker. 

McCarthy’s petty attempt at payback culminated with his braggadocios assertion: “If I'd kidney-punched him, he’d be on the ground."

The same day that McCarthy was playing schoolyard bully, a near-physical altercation broke out in a Senate hearing with Independent Bernie Sanders, of all people, breaking it up. 

Republican Sen. Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma and Sean O’Brien, a Teamsters Union leader, engaged in verbal sparring that included a rehashing of O’Brien’s previously posted Twitter jabs aimed at Mullin. 

Highlights included “#LittleManSyndrome” and “clown & fraud.” Mullin countered with a challenge to  “stand your butt up” before Sanders intervened to admonish Mullins: “Stop it! No, no, sit down! You know, you’re a United States senator."

Not to be outdone, the Democrats recently showed their disregard for the ceremony of Capitol Hill with Senator John Fetterman’s request to “vote and preside” wearing casual clothing, including his trademark shorts and oversized hoodies. 

Fellow Democrat and Majority Leader Chuck Schumer initially believed this was a good idea as he acquiesced to Fetterman’s desires to relax the dress code. 

Because heaven forbid that anyone dress with the formality equal to the gravity of this elected position. 

Thankfully, cooler heads prevailed through a bipartisan resolution from Republican Sen. Mitt Romney and Democrat Sen. Joe Manchin that solidified  a “business dress code” that includes  a coat and tie for gentlemen. 

And in this week’s edition of the Trump Trials, former president and current presidential contender Donald Trump finds himself on trial for inflating the value of his assets and defrauding lenders out of over $250 million. Within the last week, Donald Trump and his attorneys requested a mistrial, a motion denied by Judge Engoron who called the arguments “nonsensical” and “without merit.”

Trump attorney Alina Habba has publicly decried putting Trump’s sons Donald Jr. and Eric on the stand to testify, saying, “And now these CHILDREN are being brought in! Away from their families, for doing nothing wrong!” 

Ms. Habba may have suffered a moment of temporary amnesia as she “may” have forgotten that Donald Jr. and Eric are both named as co-defendants and both took over managing the company in 2017. 

Perhaps Republican Representative Matt Gaetz from Florida has best summed up the situation: 

“This Congress has seen a substantial increase in breaches of decorum unlike anything we have seen since the pre-Civil War era.”

It’s farcical. Our entire system seems like a Saturday Night Live parody of American politics. 

Image courtesy of Unsplash

Some of our  elected officials are playing the roles of childish bullies who have resorted to threats of actual physical violence to solve conflicts. 

How many times have we as a nation looked at the governments of other countries and cast a condescending look? Maybe we even relished watching the drama unfold, all the while silently touting our civil and superior traditions. 

Now we are the spectacle. The political grandstanding and theater embraced by some of our politicians has led to nothing but gridlock and divisiveness.

Americans deserve leaders who value the needs of their constituents above their own personal egos. 

We need to vote better. We need to be better.