A new CBS News poll found that a majority of Americans support the House’s move to oust Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) as speaker, with 60% of adults in the U.S. backing the removal.
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Notably, 54% of Americans who identified as conservative expressed approval for ousting McCarthy, while 70% of Americans who called themselves liberals backed the move.
The house wasn’t productive before McCarthy getting the boot, so I don’t see why you view this as a step back. McCarthy was a terrible speaker for most Americans, even most Republicans. He let himself be completely held hostage by the most radical wing of his party, constantly broke public promises, refused to work across the aisle (until he was getting voted out when he expected the left to bail him out, immediately after reneging on several promises, both regarding the govt shutdown and the impeachment).
The only thing he managed at all in his final days was to narrowly avoid a govt shutdown due to squabbling among his own people, and even there he only barely delayed it.
The hope is that his successor will learn from his mistake and get the votes he/she needs from moderate democrats rather than bowing down to every demand from the most unhinged members of his party
Tl;Dr he was objectively terrible at his job, even for moderate republicans and the odds are low that we’ll be worse off with whatever replacement is chosen for him