House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) is a putative leader in a party predicated on rejecting leadership. He is the manifestation of the institutional establishment for an institution that rejects its own establishment. He is a member of the D.C. elite representing a party that loathes few groups more energetically than elites from D.C.
Asked this week whether he agreed with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s (R-Ga.) characterization of the death of Ashli Babbitt, a rioter killed at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, as a “murder,” McCarthy said he did not. He said he didn’t because he wouldn’t, as someone who quite obviously views the party’s right-wing fringe as something apart from himself, something to be managed.
McCarthy secured the speakership by figuring out how to retain a Spider-Man-like grip on both the surprisingly small part of his caucus that is traditional and centered largely in reality and on the surprisingly large part of his caucus that is focused on conspiracy and centered largely on disliking the other part. He will always be more successful at this strenuous task when he’s not asked to pick between the two sides, since he will generally side with the former.
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And because there will always be some test posed by the fringe that he simply can’t pass.
The evolution of how Babbitt is viewed on the right is a great example of how Republican politics works in general. The facts are straightforward: There was a massive riot, triggered by Donald Trump’s...
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