OPINION: The Decline and Fall of Congress

The Republican contest to avoid being House speaker, one of the most storied and powerful positions in American governance, should tell us that something in our politics has changed profoundly. Kevin McCarthy, Paul Ryan and Trey Gowdy are ambitious men of exceptional talents and highly developed conservative convictions. They have already sacrificed family time to get where they are. Individual circumstances cannot explain why they all wish to stay off center stage.