Virtually all Republican voters want “the swamp” drained.  Donald Trump won on that message in 2016, increased his vote total in 2020 over his 2016 total, and enjoys overwhelming support for 2024, far outpacing his closest primary competitors.  The voters are making their will abundantly clear. 

Most of us understand that a big part of draining the swamp is to force a course correction on the House of Representatives after years of having it run by wannabe mob boss Nancy Pelosi.  The voters are tired of omnibus spending bills and continuing spending resolutions designed to sidestep public scrutiny. 

Another part of draining the swamp is neutering the control that the Uniparty has over the Republican Caucus in the House.  It is essential to expose the truth about what “the Uniparty” is, and what RINO’s really are, to rank-and-file Republican voters who may not grasp it yet. 

When Republicans squeaked out a win in the House in 2022, they won because an ever-increasing percentage of voters have come to realize that drastic steps are needed, right now, to save the Republic.  The new representatives understood why the voters put them in.  They were sent there to end “business as usual,” come alongside the conservatives who were already there fighting (the Freedom Caucus), and work to get the House back into the hands of the people.

When the current Congress convened in January of 2023, Kevin McCarthy was the man the Uniparty put forward for speaker of the House.  As House minority leader, McCarthy had a well earned reputation as a squish and probable RINO.  Very few Republican voters wanted Kevin McCarthy as speaker at the time, but the Uniparty fully expected that their guy would be voted in, as usual.  

Something happened.  The Freedom Caucus refused to vote for McCarthy until he made concessions, placing Freedom Caucus members in prominent positions on important committees so they could advance the conservative priorities that the voters demanded in 2022.  The Uniparty was displeased at its loss of control over the Republican caucus.

McCarthy seemed as though he might be on board with conservatives in the early days.  He took out some trash and allowed important investigations to begin.

He soon began backsliding, however.  He unilaterally negotiated one continuing spending resolution.  He then recessed the House for six weeks, which necessitated another continuing spending resolution later.  This, despite promising to end continuing spending resolutions.  So much for that.  How about rejecting omnibus spending bills in favor of presenting individual appropriations bills to the House?  Never happened.    

McCarthy also balked at allowing an official impeachment inquiry into President Biden, despite compelling evidence of Biden’s corruption coming to light.  He agreed only after being threatened with removal.

Finally, the Freedom Caucus had enough and voted McCarthy out.

The ensuing struggle over the speakership wasn’t caused by a personality clash between McCarthy and Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.).  It wasn’t caused by politicians with outsized egos making ill considered decisions “without a backup plan.”  This was all brought about by the Uniparty working behind the scenes to bring the House back under its tight control. 

Don’t forget: McCarthy was originally a Uniparty pick.  Over time, the Uniparty managed to pull McCarthy mostly back onto the reservation, and that’s the reason he ended up being voted out.

After that happened, the RINOs proposed Steve Scalise to replace McCarthy.  Scalise is a good guy, but he’s still basically a Uniparty guy.  The RINOs all voted for him as the speaker designee.  The Freedom Caucus wouldn’t vote for him.  Scalise dropped out, and The Uniparty went ballistic (here, and here).

Next up was Jim Jordan (R-Ohio).  He’s probably the most popular conservative Republican in the House, and the voters love him.  He was supported by the Freedom Caucus, endorsed by President Trump, and got voted in as the speaker designee.  Republican voters flooded the House phone lines, clamoring for Jordan as speaker.  In a fit of infantile pique over the Scalise vote, the RINOs held a cowardly, closed-door session to vote Jordan out as designee so the public wouldn’t know who voted against him.  Jordan dropped out.

Then Tom Emmer (R-Uniparty) was put forward by the RINOs.  He was one of a small group of candidates who were proposed by Republicans after the shameful Jordan episode.  Emmer had the most votes at that point, so he was voted the speaker designee.  Emmer is the consummate RINO — so much so that there was talk of him receiving some Democrat votes if he was the eventual nominee.  That should tell you all you need to know about Emmer. 

President Trump quickly denounced Emmer publicly.  After what the RINOs had done to Jordan, they were suddenly concerned that Trump was clearly becoming more involved.  The RINOs were now intimidated, and Emmer tucked tail and slithered back into the swamp.

Mike Johnson (R-La.) had the next highest vote total among the candidates after Emmer.  Johnson wasn’t really on the radar of most Republican voters.  He’s a low-key guy, but his conservative bona fides are excellent (here, and here). 

The Freedom Caucus forced the RINOs, who were back on their heels at this point, to accept Mike Johnson as the speaker designee.  Trump immediately came out and publicly endorsed Johnson, adding the admonition “Get it done, fast!”  The RINOs recognized this for the veiled threat it probably was and saw their peril.  They know how wildly popular Trump is with Republican voters.  If Trump denounced those backroom, weasel RINOs by name and asked Republican voters to dump them in the primaries, the voters would probably do it.  As a result, Mike Johnson was voted in unanimously as speaker of the House.  The RINOs had capitulated and were in full retreat. 

When so many rounds of balloting were needed for McCarthy to win the Speakership in January, it was painted as a crisis and an embarrassment, even by pundits on our own side.  Those people couldn’t have been more wrong. 

After nine months of investigative work by House conservatives, a huge number of voters have had their eyes opened concerning their government.  They’ve been shown the swamp and the corrupt, slimy leeches who live in it, and they don’t like what they see.  Republicans have been winning the hearts and minds of the voters, and it’s a developing electoral disaster for Democrats. 

Those same myopic Republican pundits were back again, talking about what a catastrophe it was when McCarthy was voted out.  They were just as wrong this time around as they were back in January. 

Look at the reactions of Democrats to Mike Johnson.  Look at Jake Tapper's reaction.  And if that’s not enough, Johnson’s acceptance speech was a tour de force.  We obviously ended up with the right guy.  It’s a huge win.

Some pundits are now saying, “Well, they should have had a backup plan in place.  All this chaos was unseemly.”  Oh, please.  What did they expect this conservative takeover battle to look like?  The Uniparty is vicious and underhanded.  It cheats.  And it looks a lot as though it just lost.

Image: Mike Johnson.  Credit: Wikimedia Commons, public domain.