The Tribune

With CHARLIE HARPER

EVERY morning for the past three weeks has brought with it news reports of a different potential solution to a paralysing problem that has rendered inoperative the American legislature.

Fortunately, only a few issues require that legislature’s attention. Some examples are: Two active wars, both requiring urgent American attention and assistance to one long-time ally and one very recent, desperate ally. But both Israel and Ukraine are fighting against resolute American foes in Islamist extremism and Vladimir Putin’s Russia.

But wait. There are other pressing matters for America’s lower house to decide. Foremost among them is its own ongoing leadership. In 2022, American voters gave a razor-thin margin of control in the House of Representatives to the Republican Party. In today’s political maelstrom, this created a position of pivotal influence for a group of ideologues who will not publicly acknowledge that their guru Donald Trump lost the last presidential election.

These right-wing “conservatives” also regard their internecine feuds with more moderate GOP colleagues and especially with their Democratic Party opposition as the primary focus of their governance. This makes it hard for them to focus on issues such as national security and the fiduciary future of the United States.

As to the latter issue, many years of political brinksmanship over extending the US national debt limit and even passing budgets for federal agencies and departments has led to a succession of artificial crises that can only sap the will of the world to continue denominating most of its commerce in values pegged to the American dollar. This confers obligations – but also privileges – on the American economy. If this were to change, the US would regret it.

These political extremists generally operate under the misleading banner of the “Freedom Caucus”. Its first chairman in 2015 described the caucus as a “smaller, more cohesive, more agile and more active” group of conservative House members. That chairman was Ohio’s Jim Jordan, a former collegiate wrestling coach and Trump acolyte who failed this week to strongarm his way to House leadership.

Members of the Freedom Caucus have now not only sabotaged the speakership of Kevin McCarthy of California and several others, including the comparatively reasonable Tom Emmer of Minnesota, but they have also failed to persuade their colleagues to support one of their own members.

A solution might be at hand, but it’s reasonable to expect that whoever is chosen as the new speaker will likely be ineffective.

As this disgraceful display has unfolded in Washington, an unnoticed irony has lingered. There was always a simple way to solve the situation that now exists in the American legislature. Many European and other democratic nations employ it regularly.

That solution is called a legislative coalition. If one political party cannot muster an outright governing majority, it forms an opportunistic partnership with another party to achieve enough voting strength to lead. Western European nations like Germany, Italy and France do this all the time. So does Israel.

So since the American GOP cannot effectively act as a unified party in today’s House of Representatives, some Republican members could and should have formed an ad hoc alliance with the solidly (for now) unified Democratic minority to form a government.

Perhaps the chair could have still been a Republican. More likely, it would have been the highly-regarded Hakeem Jeffries of New York, a steady, articulate congressman who was long and ably tutored by former House speaker Nancy Pelosi as her successor and who has certainly looked good since becoming minority leader.

Jeffries’s calm, measured articulation of Democratic talking points, occasional glimpses of public humor, and his ability to fashion a durable party unity in contrast to the Republican chaos all mark him for future leadership.

Meantime, the coalition option is steadfastly foreclosed by all current leaders – including Jeffries. They all oppose this commonsense solution because they believe it’s in their own and their parties’ best interest to maintain the current political duopoly of two political parties and admit no others.

What nonsense. But we may well see during the next year how impenetrable are the barriers to entry for American third parties.

It’s hard to imagine a scenario whereby the current Republican and Democratic parties could open their minds and the door to entry for other competitors. Nor is it easy to contemplate what event might compel them to do so.

But if the world continues to plummet toward the abyss and the US financial picture continues cloudy due to legislative paralysis, we might just find out.

NFL borrowing from rugby?

While we’re on the subject of things America should borrow from Europe, how about something they’ve already appropriated? This example is from the world of sports, and America’s premier sports league has borrowed a play from English rugby.

The play is vernacularly called the “tush push”. And it’s become a regular feature of the offence of the Philadelphia Eagles, who might just be the best team in the NFL after they bullied the heretofore largely unstoppable Miami Dolphins over the weekend.

The tush push is a glorified sneak where the quarterback is pushed forward by teammates lined up behind him. It’s used when a team needs about one yard to achieve a first down or even a touchdown.

The Eagles, who are the leading practitioners of this play, had run it 37 times in the regular season in 2022 and early this season. They made a first down or scored a touchdown on 34 of those attempts.

That computes to a success rate of 92%.

Naturally, success breeds backlash. Critics are saying it’s more rugby than football and should be outlawed. The NFL’s powerful rules committee will review the play in the offseason. Meantime, opponents aren’t happy.

“It’s not being officiated as illegal, so we just have to prepare for it,” Washington Commanders defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio told reporters. “I would personally like to see it eliminated, not just because the Eagles run it better than anybody, although they do run it better than anybody. But I don’t think that’s a football play. I think it’s a nice rugby play, and it’s not what we’re looking for in football.”

We’ll see. If other teams stop the tush push, it will be forgotten. If it continues to succeed for the Eagles, maybe the rules committee will outlaw it. But for now, American football and its English rugby progenitor can share.

Swift and Kelce capturing headlines

While the Eagles are setting the pace in the NFL this year, by far the league’s biggest story concerns a tight end for the Kansas City Chiefs, who now look like Philadelphia’s most likely Super Bowl rival.

That tight end is Travis Kelce, arguably one of the five best to ever play this position and a stalwart on a Chiefs team that could easily become dynastic with its prolonged success.

Kelce, from the upscale neighbourhoods of Cleveland Heights, Ohio, has a Midwesterner’s inherent charm and modesty. He’s also good looking and, as indicated, very accomplished. He’s got a podcast with his brother (who plays for the Eagles) and is a frequent, likeable and articulate guest on various media shows.

None of this has prepared him for what he “signed up for” now. Because for the past several highly-publicised weeks, he has become Taylor Swift’s boyfriend.

Swift, who’s the same age as Kelce, has been attending his Chiefs games for over a month. America’s favourite game has now joined hands with America’s sweetheart. Swift, now on the US music scene for over a decade, is poised to become the most successful woman entertainer whose income is primarily derived from music.

Gloriously attractive and wholesome, she has earned an estimated $800m and has achieved nearly unsurpassed fame. Kelce’s parents now fawn over her; her Hollywood pals join her sports reporter fans in promoting this new romance. Teenaged girls now pay attention to the NFL. Will wonders never cease?

“It’s certainly been weird, the level that it is now,” Kelce’s brother said of the attention his brother’s new romance is attracting. “On one hand, I’m happy for my brother that he seems to be in a relationship that he’s excited about, that he is genuine about. But there’s another end of it where it’s like, ‘Man, this is a lot.’

“This is another level of stardom that typically football players don’t deal with.”