“The natural cure for an ill-administration, in a popular or representative constitution, is a change of men.”
—Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 21
In a moment long awaited by conservatives around the nation, House Speaker John Boehner announced Friday that he will resign both his post and his seat at the end of October. An aide claims Boehner had intended to resign at the end of last year, but he delayed the transition after then-Majority Leader and presumptive successor Eric Cantor lost his seat in a huge primary upset. The trouble with Boehner is that he failed to lead — perhaps not surprising given that his entire goal seems to have been merely winning the position of speaker. Donald Trump’s rise in the presidential field is almost directly proportional to failed GOP leadership. As Mark Alexander noted recently, “Trump’s support reflects very little about his qualifications, but a lot about his message and how dissatisfied millions of disenfranchised grassroots conservatives are with Republican ‘leadership.’ The status quo represented by Speaker John Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has, in effect, underwritten Trump’s rising stardom. Despite greatly increasing the numbers of conservatives in the House and Senate in the historic ‘Republican Wave’ elections nationwide in both 2010 and 2014, the much-loathed ‘establishment types’ still hold the reins and they have failed to counter Barack Obama’s socialist policies. GOP leaders continue to marginalize or ignore the concerns of the conservative/Republican base — grassroots conservatives — and we are rightly outraged.”
Resigning now means Boehner loses nothing from stopping a shutdown over Planned Parenthood funding. And while it’s likely that Majority Leader and close Boehner ally Kevin McCarthy will step in to the speakership, he will undoubtedly be under pressure to move Right.
Your move, McConnell.
