Originally published April 21, 2021
As a Californian, I try not to think about Kevin McCarthy. Who likes thinking about their region’s most embarrassing people? However, since his slavish, sycophantic behavior towards trump has become world-renowned as he angles to be the next Speaker of the House, it is more than understandable that many are asking, “Who is this Kevin McCarthy character and what is he really about?”
For most Californians, McCarthy is nothing more than a running joke as a smooth-talking empty suit and duplicitous Republican windbag, completely lacking in any core principles, morals, integrity or intellect.
From a distance, what most Americans see from McCarthy is just another cynical, power-hungry Republican, and they would be correct. In the immortal words of fellow Southern California congressman Adam Schiff, “Kevin McCarthy is as close as you will find to pure ambition without any sense of principle. That is sadly who he is, and I think that anyone who has worked with him, or spoke with him, recognizes that is all he amounts to.” Translated into California slang: “Kevin McCarthy doesn’t go too deep.”
McCarthy was elected House Minority Leader in 2018, after the Republicans lost their majority, but only because no one of any true stature or self-respect wanted the thankless job of being trump’s whipping boy. That’s right, McCarthy’s only competition for the job was from America’s most obnoxious member of the House, democracy’s toxic abuser Gym Jordan of Ohio, who he easily defeated 159-43.
It’s no coincidence that McCarthy previously had been one of the few assembly members willing to take the mostly powerless Republican minority leader job in the California State House. Clearly, he gravitates toward the positions few want, likely because he doesn’t have the knowledge or skill set of a competent leader and he brings so little to the table. In fact, McCarthy has primarily risen up the GOP ladder by spending his career schmoozing, fundraising and marketing for the priorities of others.
It seems McCarthy’s main contribution to both leadership jobs has been to recruit a guy who frivolously sues cows and Maddows and to insist on being called “GOP Leader” instead of the traditional “Minority Leader,” so definitely don’t call him “minority leader.” This is a key McCarthy pattern. He almost always focuses on spinning words for some political advantage over accomplishing anything of substance.
Therefore, it is unproductive to waste much energy trying to understand McCarthy from a political or psychological standpoint, because he is who we thought he is. His mind is rarely his own, and when he does use his own words, he shows there is little there beyond ignorance, snark and pathological ambition to advance his position.
Much of this is now well known, but what still perplexes most people is how and why he initially sounded coherent and forceful when speaking out against trump’s January 6 terrorist attack on his own workplace, only to crawl back begging for forgiveness days later. It was a flip-flop of biblical proportions.
McCarthy’s erratic post-insurrection behavior is easily explained as a narcissist’s primal urges of self-preservation and self-interest, because that is as deep as he goes.
The only reason McCarthy spoke out against trump was because, like most in Congress, he was frightened and angry that his life was endangered, so the spineless jellyfish took the easy path of momentarily going along with reality, but quickly flipped back when he remembered his only hope to stay in power and advance is as trump’s “My Kevin.” Yes, spineless jellyfish is redundant, but Bakersfield’s Kevin McCarthy’s lack of spine needs to be emphasized.
Spineless Republicans also quickly realized they could not lose the trump cult’s vote, because if they do, GOP “playtime is over.” That is why virtually every single thing they have done since January 6 is aimed at rigging American elections into a “heads we win tails you lose” system. It is their last desperate attempt to hold onto power, because like Kevin McCarthy, they have little left except “pure ambition without any sense of principle.”
Unfortunately for Republicans, most now see that McCarthy as a leader was a horrible idea, because his every political instinct is wrong (and those he has are only about his own self-preservation). Regardless, Kevin, like the GOP, is in a damned-if-they-do, damned-if-they-don’t situation with trump, and their only way out of this vicious bottomless cycle is the Republican Party’s long-overdue reckoning.
Perhaps this sounds hyperbolic, so let us look at just a few of the GOP Leader’s ill-considered and sloppy mistakes since January 6 to show what an incompetent leader he is. To Kevin, everything is just another game of how do I sell the latest lemon.
Indeed, many are still shaking their heads at how foolish McCarthy was for deputizing Rep. John Katko to negotiate the best possible deal for Republicans on the commission to investigate the January 6 attack. The Democrats gave Katko virtually everything he asked for, including veto power over subpoenas, but once negotiations were completed, McCarthy rejected the commission altogether. This forced Speaker Nancy Pelosi to choose between a select committee 100% the way she wanted or to just forget the whole thing. Somehow, McCarthy acted shocked when she proceeded without him.
Believe it or not, after McCarthy’s smooth move left Republicans powerless to whitewash, sabotage or obstruct a non-partisan investigation committee, he declared victory. Pelosi then wisely reserved the right to reject any member she deemed inappropriate, and Kev declared victory again when he pulled all GOP members from the Democrats’ Select Committee.
Yet again, McCarthy overplayed his hand by gambling she wouldn’t reject Sedition Caucus members on the committee meant to investigate sedition. The end result was Pelosi showed her strength, the Democratic base cheered, and Republicans were left with nothing.
McCarthy must have assumed he could dismiss the committee as a partisan witch hunt, but after the first day of serious, powerful, moving and deeply emotional testimony from just a few of the brave, patriotic Capitol Hill Police officers who fought off domestic terrorists that day, another McCarthy strategy was up in smoke. No doubt Republicans are now greatly regretting refusing to participate in the January 6 Select Committee because they surrendered the power to interfere with what will become some of the most consequential hearings in American history.
Not convinced gaffe machine McCarthy will keep self-destructing? He says things like the GOP is “a big tent party” and “unlike the left, we embrace free thought and debate,” all while kicking Liz Cheney out of leadership for calling trump’s Big Lie a lie. Now the Sedition Caucus wants to boot Cheney from the House Republican conference altogether, claiming the far-right Cheney is in league with Democrats. See how Kev’s words are shameless gaslighting that drags Republicans down to even crazier depths for nothing more than a quick suck up to trump’s crazy Q train? That’s the GOP Leader, folks!
Who beyond a cult member or the completely misinformed are going to buy that Democrats demanding racist Q-lady be removed from her committees for being a racist Q-lady is a “partisan power grab?” That is what Kev called it. Clearly, few outside of the Sedition Caucus and the Big Liar himself would be stupid enough to defend Q-lady’s steadily flowing sewage pipe of her perQliar brand of overt bigotry, conspiracy and racism.
Meanwhile, in reality, as the ever-mutating Covid variants are ripping across America and the world among the unvaccinated and unmasked, what does “public servant” Qevin do? He mocks mask and vaccine mandates that would save thousands of lives as “un-American.” Qevin the politician continually shows us he is devoid of shame.
Additionally, if you want to go deeper into the spineless jellyfish’s psychology, viewing him through the trump And His Party Of Flying Monkeys filter shows how pathology compels “My Kevin” to be one of trump’s favorite and most loyal flying monkeys.
In the 1990s, I wondered, “What is this new human mutation of politician that promises something with total conviction one day, and then does the exact opposite soon after?” Because these kinds of people made no sense to me. As this pattern continually repeated, it seemed like all the most immoral, manipulative and trickster used car salespeople had gone to work for the Republican Party, because the new level of dishonest spin and lies was dramatic. What other logical explanation was there for the identical shamelessness and con artist ways implemented by this new brand of GOP used car huckster?
Guess what one of Kevin McCarthy’s last jobs was before he became a so-called public servant. That’s right: a used car salesman.
Author’s Note: This piece was meant to be a psychological profile into why you never need to think of Qevin again, since he is only a follower on the pathological narcissism spectrum. However, once his political patterns were noted, there was little more psychology could reveal. He is exactly who we think he is.
