Teamwork wins big games and championships. Disunity and selfish ambition destroy organizations. The Republican Party in the U.S. House of Representatives just crumbled from the failure of unity and teamwork.
Kevin McCarthy is no longer Speaker of the House. By all accounts the House GOP, under McCarthy’s leadership, racked up several legislative wins by advancing legislation to secure the border, reduce energy costs and restrain spending.
These successes weren’t enough to satisfy the concerns of eight “players” on the GOP team from bolting and taking down McCarthy. I’m very pleased that our U.S. House members from Oklahoma did not join the mutiny, even though these members are among the most conservative in Congress.
Family fights and teammate disagreements need to be handled internally and behind closed doors, but in public and on the playing field, teammates need to stick together. We faced this in the Oklahoma Senate in 2009, when Republicans finally got the majority, but with 26 members out of 48 total, we could only lose one vote to maintain the necessary 25 votes to pass legislation.
Tension, fatigue, arguments, egos and personalities sometimes made the work tough in the background, but on the Senate floor, we stuck together with the solid leadership of Senate Pro Tempore Glenn Coffee and passed historic legislation for roads and bridges, workers compensation reform and school choice.
Hopefully, the next Republican Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives will have teammates that won’t cause mutiny in the middle of big budget fights. In order to fix our fiscal mess, we need dedication to conservative principles and to one another. The Democrat policies have made a complete mess of the economy and our finances. Only with teamwork will Republicans be able to get our financial house in order.