'Lies' and 'personal vendettas': How Republicans furious with Gaetz helped pave the way for his 'vengeance'

Some allies of Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-California) are furious with far-right Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Florida) for the role he played in McCarthy being ousted as House speaker. Gaetz triggered a "motion to vacate," and when a full House vote came up, McCarthy was removed from his position.

After being ousted as speaker, McCarthy lamented, "My fear is the institution failed today."

But Washington Post opinion writer Dana Milbank, in his October 6 column, argues that the far-right Gaetz didn't come out of nowhere. Gaetz, according to Milbank, is a product of a modern GOP culture that encourages extremism.

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"McCarthy's allies cast Gaetz as aberrant," Milbank observes. "But the same demagogic techniques that Gaetz used against McCarthy — dishonesty, conspiracy, vengeance — have been deployed routinely by House Republicans in recent years, and particularly for the past nine months, against the Biden Administration and congressional Democrats. Gaetz was merely doing as his Republican colleagues taught him."

Milbank continues, "When you govern on lies, you can't be surprised when one of your own lies about you. When you govern on personal vendettas, you can't be shocked that one of your own acts on a vendetta against you. When you govern with contempt for democratic norms, you can't be sanctimonious when one of your own trashes the norms that protected you."

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Dana Milbank's full Washington Post opinion column is available at this link (subscription required).