Republicans fight over speaker of the House – but whoever wins, the party loses

‘All of these phases – what remains of the small-government establishment, the cultural warriors and the hate-filled authoritarians – are engaged in hopeless, hapless combat with each other.’ Photograph: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

On Tuesday, as Republicans in the US House of Representatives convulse over electing one among them as speaker of the House, with Kevin McCarthy attempting to outmanoeuvre his hardcore Maga detractors, the civil war in the Republican party comes into the open.

But it’s not particularly civil and it’s not exactly a war. It’s the mindless hostility of a political party that’s lost any legitimate reason for being.