The ouster of Kevin McCarthy shows Republicans don’t care about governing | Moira Donegan

The party is beholden to a base that it has fed misinformation and trained to view politics as high-stakes entertainment

The worst job in America has just become available. On Tuesday, after a weeks-long struggle with his caucus to fund the government and avert a government shutdown had proved fruitless and Kevin McCarthy had at last conceded to compromise with the Democrats, Republicans, led by Florida's Matt Gaetz and other members of the far right, Trumpist Freedom Caucus, voted McCarthy out of the House speakership.

He is the first speaker of the House to ever be removed from his post by a vote - a technique that was only possible because McCarthy had made so many procedural concessions to get the speakership in the first place. It took McCarthy 15 votes to achieve the speakership when the Republicans took control of the House back in January; it took him 269 days to lose it. Now, the job will be someone else's problem.