Friday and here comes the weekend, which will hopefully give us all a break from the drama on Capitol Hill where Kevin McCarthy has now failed in 11 rounds of voting to be elected speaker of the House. Twenty Republican members of the House refuse to vote for him, denying him the 218 votes he needs to be elected.

This is the first time in a century that the vote for speaker has gone beyond one ballot and is now the longest contest for speaker in 164 years. To put you at ease, the longest went 133 rounds and took two months. We’re not even close to that.

There’s a variety of reactions to the fight for speaker. Most of the GOPe and the media are talking about it as if this is a horrible development, putting the Republican party at risk and delaying the start of getting about “the people’s business.”

Others, like me, think this is good for not just the party, but for the country. Our Founders gave us a system of government that is meant to be contentious, with checks and balances that are supposed to keep any one branch or party from becoming too powerful. We’re now testing the limits of that intention across the federal government, but I see this intra-party squabble as a good thing.

What we’re witnessing now is the messy, glorious republican form of government our Founding Fathers laid out in the Constitution. Many Americans are tired of the uniparty that exuberantly passes pork-laden omnibus spending bills in the dead of night and plays by Marquess of Queensberry Rules as our country plunges toward insolvency, immorality, and anarchy.

At least some of the Trump-supporting Republicans have found their cajones and are taking a principled stand against business as usual and are demanding a change instead of just going along to get along. Every moment McCarthy is delayed from getting the gavel is a moment that prevents the feds from robbing us blind and imposing more restrictions on us.

I’ve asked this before, but seriously: when have the Republicans removed obstacles to freedom and let us keep more of our money? When they helped Democrats pass the unconscionable $1.7 trillion omnibus spending bill that no one was able to read before voting on it? There was some of that under Trump, but even he signed massive spending bills and made poor choices with the Chinese Lung Pox.

So spare me the hand-wringing over this little tussle in the House. Nobody will even remember it come 2024.

In the end, we’ll probably end up with Speaker McCarthy and it’ll be back to a do-nothing House that will hold showboat hearings that mean nothing while allowing Democrats to skate without consequences for their traitorous behavior the last six years, will fleece the American taxpayers, and will continue doing next to nothing for the people.

The Federal government is not what it was intended to be and I don’t know if it can ever be restored to its former glory. Probably not in my lifetime.

But a nice first step is throwing some wrenches in the gears so that the grifting uniparty gets the message that we’re not happy with them and we’re going to make life as difficult as possible for them if they don’t start listening to us and make some concessions.

Have a great weekend.