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The biggest political story of the week, bar none, is Kevin McCarthy’s humiliating bid to become speaker of the House. Over several days and numerous roll call votes, a far-right segment of House Republicans repeatedly denied the party’s leader in the previous House the votes necessary for any Republican, the chamber’s majority party, to lead the current Congress.
McCarthy’s very public struggle revealed one of the realities of a slim House majority. But the spectacle of the speaker fight aside, that narrow majority guarantees more legislative difficulty ahead.
Charles R. Hunt, an assistant professor of political science at Boise State University, explains not only why the GOP’s narrow majority is problematic, but also the additional ways such a razor-thin margin could get smaller and cause more problems over the next two years.
And, on the eve of the second anniversary of the Jan. 6 insurrection, poet and classics scholar Rachel Hadas, from Rutgers University-Newark, writes about how an ancient Greek historian’s insights on civil unrest and democracy explain our present moment.
Also this week:
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Lorna Grisby
Senior Politics & Society Editor
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GOP House leader Kevin McCarthy wants to be speaker of the House.
Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
Charles R. Hunt, Boise State University
The Congress that ended on Jan. 3, 2023, had 15 vacancies, a rate unmatched since the 1950s. If that rate continues, whoever leads the now-closely divided House will face trouble.
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Rioters break windows and breach the Capitol building in an attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
Lev Radin/LightRocket via Getty Images
Rachel Hadas, Rutgers University - Newark
The insights of an ancient historian show that the causes of civil unrest are often the same over time and across societies.
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Donald Trump supporters take over the steps of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
Deion Scott Hawkins, Emerson College
The events of Jan. 6, 2021, have been called an insurrection. The same word has often been used to describe the mostly forgotten rebellions against plantation owners by enslaved people.
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Dominik Stecuła, Colorado State University; Matthew Levendusky, University of Pennsylvania
In-person conversations between Republicans and Democrats lasting just 15 minutes were found to lessen political animus, research shows.
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Robert Kozinets, USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism; Jon Pfeiffer, Pepperdine University
A key piece of federal law, Section 230, has been credited with fostering the internet and allowing misinformation and hate speech to flourish. Here’s how it could be reformed.
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Laurel Elder, Hartwick College
For decades, there were growing numbers of Democratic and Republican women in Congress, but the number of Republican women has stalled.
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William R. Wilkerson, State University of New York at Oneonta; Alana Jeydel, Fresno City College
Many factors contributed to a record number of women winning the governor’s office in 2022. Among them: It helps to have political experience.
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Claire Leavitt, Smith College
The House Jan. 6 committee’s final report is the latest in a long series of congressional studies that have tried to answer hard questions about government failures and suggest ways to avoid them.
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Jerald Podair, Lawrence University
If Donald Trump decides to leave the Republican Party and start his own, Teddy Roosevelt and the presidential election of 1912 offer the GOP an ominous warning. Hint: The Democrats win.
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John A. Tures, LaGrange College
Democrats have ridden the West to presidential electoral success since 1992, reversing their poor performances from the 1950s through the 1980s.
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Blessing-Miles Tendi, University of Oxford; Ahmet T. Kuru, San Diego State University; Ayesha Jalal, Tufts University; Carl LeVan, American University School of International Service; Eduardo Gamarra, Florida International University
Zimbabwe, Turkey, Argentina, Pakistan and Nigeria all have presidential or general elections in 2023.
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