Let’s suppose.

¯ Suppose that you belonged to a team that proposed a rule allowing not only your team but also the opposing team to remove your team’s captain.

Wouldn’t you think such a proposal was nutty? Why let an opposing team remove your team’s captain?

¯ But let’s suppose that–for whatever reason–your team adopted such a rule.

Wouldn’t you expect all of your teammates–except in extraordinary and grave circumstances–to avoid siding with the opposing team in removing your team’s captain?

¯ But let’s suppose that some of your teammates–in circumstances that weren’t extraordinary and grave–sought to side with the opposing team in removing your team’s captain.

Wouldn’t you think the opposing team should have the decency not to take part in this?

Alternatively, wouldn’t you think the opposing team would have the brains to understand that what goes around comes around? What the opposing team does to your team now, your team can do to the opposing team in the future.

Then again, maybe the opposing team wouldn’t adopt such a rule in the first place.

Or maybe the opposing team would have enough team spirit or team discipline to avoid or squelch–in circumstances that aren’t extraordinary and grave–some opposing team members’ siding with your team in removing the opposing team’s captain.

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Besides, if such a rule is a good thing, then where is the stopping point?

Should the opposing team also have a voice in removing your team’s coaches and players?

Should the opposing team have a voice in changing who plays in which positions on your team?

And what of your favorite professional team’s opposing team? Should it have a voice in removing play-by-play announcers? How about in changing where fans get to sit?

How much must go awry before your team comes to understand that the opposing team doesn’t have your team’s best interest at heart?

Just how much?

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Which brings us to the U.S. House of Representatives’ rule that led to the removal of Kevin McCarthy as House speaker.

Comparing the removal of your team’s captain to the removal of a House speaker is a bit off, because the speaker is the speaker of the whole House, not of one political party.

Nevertheless–as with the removal of your team’s captain–there’s something wrong with the House rule that led to Republican McCarthy’s removal.

Whatever the solution is, there’s just something wrong. One goal of most minority parties–the House Democrats are no exception–is to become the majority party, so the minority party doesn’t have the majority party’s best interest at heart.

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With that in mind, let’s pick up where we left off nine months ago today.

House Freedom Caucus members received several concessions in organizing the House with 2023’s new Republican majority.

One of them was what the New York Post had reported: “‘a single member will be allowed to introduce a “motion to vacate (the chair),” a vote on ousting the speaker, House insiders confirmed. Previous versions of the rules deal would have required five members to make such a motion.’

“It’s true that this allows one member alone to cause turbulence. Yet no matter how many members it takes to make such a motion, it still needs a majority to pass.

“It could be one, five, or however many. It still needs a majority to pass.”

What could go wrong?

Well, now we all can see the answer that, in hindsight, seems obvious: The motion to vacate the chair goes before the whole House, not the majority-party conference.

That’s key. In all candor, it’s what this column missed nine months ago today. It means a small minority of the majority can join forces with a large majority of the minority to vacate the chair in whatever circumstances the small minority of the majority chooses, if a large majority of the minority is willing to go along.

And that’s what happened to McCarthy: Just under 5 percent of the minority joined forces with all of the minority to oust the speaker.

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This is no way to run a railroad, much less a legislature, much less the U.S. House of Representatives.

No way at all.

Certainly not for a party that is worthy of being a majority party.

Randy Elf joins those believing the rule needs to change.

COPYRIGHT ç 2023 BY RANDY ELF