Who is popular today?

Many Republicans have no interest in public service, an ideological hostility to functional government and an insatiable thirst for attentionIn times of chaos and dissension, you will often hear pundits, professionals, and those who self-identify as serious call for an “adult in the room”. The “adult in the room” is a person willing to make difficult compromises, a person willing to sacrifice vanity for pragmatism, a person with a clear eye of their own priorities and needs and more determination to achieve them than a desire to make a point.Over the past weeks, some have called for “an adult in the room” at the Republican caucus in the House of Representatives: as the House majority party fails, over and over again, to find a new speaker, having exiled Kevin McCarthy from the post on 3 October, it can seem that what the Republicans need is someone more level-headed and serious, someone willing to accept imperfect compromises and to subvert his own ego for the good of the party, someone who might even possess a quality that passes for dignity.Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnist Continue reading...