Paul F. deLespinasse: The speakership: Why not a coalition of moderates?

There was an obvious solution to the prolonged inability of the House of Representatives to elect a new speaker, but a major political obstacle stood in the way. Although overcoming this obstacle was not impossible, doing so could have threatened the careers of politicians from both parties.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy was ousted by a tiny minority of his own Republican Party combined with all House Democrats. Steve Scalise then sought the nomination but withdrew when unable to secure the nearly unanimous support of his fellow Republicans necessary to win the speakership with strictly partisan voting.

Next in line came Jim Jordan, but his support went down each time his colleagues voted. By a secret ballot the Republican caucus withdrew his nomination.

Tom Emmer's attempted candidacy didn't even get to a floor vote.

Meanwhile the "People's House" had been unable to do any business. The interim speaker, Patrick McHenry, was only authorized to preside over electing a new speaker. Many pressing policy decisions were therefore left in limbo — the federal budget, aid to Ukraine, aid to Israel, to name a few.

The Senate had its act in order but could not enact legislation without the concurrence of the House.

Still, the budget needed to be enacted and other policy decisions were overdue. An obvious solution, perhaps only temporary, had been pointed to by members of both parties: a coalition of moderate members of both parties. They could have joined to elect a new speaker or at least to authorize Patrick McHenry to preside over all legislative business until a new speaker was chosen.

A coalition of moderates made so much sense that one wonders why it didn't happen. The difficulty of forming such a coalition is due to the separate party primary elections by which candidates for the House are nominated in nearly all states.

Unfortunately it is mainly extremely liberal Democrats and extremely conservative Republicans who turn out for their parties' primary elections. A much larger number of moderates in both parties just show up for general elections, where they have to choose between the candidates nominated in the party primaries.

This system makes it risky for legislators to make compromises with the other party, no matter how much sense they might make and how much they might appeal to majorities in the next general election.

A Republican supporting a coalition of moderates risks being unseated in the next primary by a rival claiming that the incumbent is insufficiently conservative. Likewise, Democrats who support a coalition of moderates risk losing the next primary to challengers claiming that they are not liberal enough.

Changing the way we do primary elections could make a huge difference in how legislators act. If more states would emulate Alaska, bipartisan compromises and coalitions would be more likely. Alaska recently replaced separate party primaries with a single primary in which members of both main parties as well as independents and minor party members compete. The top four or five winners then go on the ballot for a ranked choice general election.

If the extremists in both parties vote in the same primary, they will tend to cancel each other out, making incumbents freer to make reasonable compromises, including a coalition of the moderates to get the House of Representatives back on the air.

For now, though, compromise will remain a risky business. But our country could use a few more politicians willing to risk losing their offices if necessary in order to do the right thing.

The election of Mike Johnson as speaker indicates that political courage is still lacking. His narrow victory on the secret ballot in the Republican conference suggests that many of his Republican colleagues did not regard him with enthusiasm. But in a subsequent open vote they overwhelmingly supported him.

Apparently these unenthusiastic Republicans preferred to vote for Mike Johnson, whose policy stances they probably strongly disagree with, rather than join with moderate Democrats with whom they would tend to agree more.

Paul F. deLespinasse is a retired professor of political science and computer science at Adrian College. He can be reached at pdeles@proaxis.com.

This article originally appeared on The Daily Telegram: Paul deLespinasse: The speakership: Why not a coalition of moderates?