McCarthy's Failed Speakership Reflects Chaos and Decline in Today's House GOP

McCarthy's speakership was an illusion from the start and ended in self-abasement. He joins a line of diminished GOP speakers.

The GOP once valued authority and order, but now is animated by nihilism, turning contempt inward on its leaders.

McCarthy never made a strong case for being consequential as a leader and wavered on Trump.

The House GOP resembles a failed state, electing powerless leaders and undisciplined members.

McCarthy is forgettable, like the short-lived Soviet leaders between Brezhnev and Gorbachev.