A lesson from the fall of Kevin McCarthy

The House of Representatives has witnessed the first ousting of its Speaker.

Joseph Postell is Associate Professor of Politics at Hillsdale College.

When the motion was last used in 1910 against "czar" Speaker Joseph Cannon, the Republican Party was internally divided, much like today. The key difference lay in the fact that, at the time, the Democratic Party was no more progressive than its Republican counterpart. The key division was between progressives and conservatives within the Republican Party itself. Progressive Republicans believed that political parties were inherently corrupt and undemocratic. Like many Freedom Caucus members, they thought our laws were largely the product of interest groups using their influence to control the government. But the power of political parties a century ago ensured that a small minority could never dream of taking over an entire party.

It’s not hard to see why: The power held by political parties in 1910 is unimaginable today. The Speaker today can determine the House’s agenda but does not have the power to influence members of the House to vote for it. Cannon's era, by contrast, was marked by a Speaker who wielded much greater authority. This authority rested on three pillars: the right of recognition, the power to select committee chairs and members, and control over the Rules Committee. These powers granted the Speaker the authority to regulate which bills made it to the floor, decide who got to speak on those bills, and set the rules for debating them. Speakers often wielded these powers to advance their party's agenda and ensure the majority party could enact the voters' mandate in Congress. They also wielded them to sideline progressives from the policy-making process. A conservative Cannon consistently suppressed the progressives' influence in his own party.