U.S. Rep. Kevin McCarthy was removed from his role of House Speaker Tuesday after all Democrats and eight Republicans voted 216-210 for him to vacate the seat. 

The House of Representatives is now on pause as it transitions leadership from McCarthy to interim speaker Patrick McHenry from North Carolina. While the House is in turmoil from McCarthy’s ousting, this historic event has shown the failure of the two-party system, and it’s time for it to go.

In George Washington’s farewell address, he warns the country of the dangers of political parties, specifically within a two-party system. Obviously, the country did not listen, and now it is removing a Speaker of the House that took 15 rounds of voting to elect. Politicians have become so polarized in their agendas that there are two sides within each of the Democratic and Republican parties with their own agendas, and no one can agree. 

The modern division between the two parties began in 2009 with the Tea Party movement, a fiscally conservative movement within the Republican Party.

The movement has since been increasing since the election of Donald Trump in 2016, causing many Republican politicians to believe they must follow this far-right agenda in order to be elected. If this opposition and inability to compromise continues, the country cannot function. 

Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz proposed the resolution to remove McCarthy as House Speaker after he crossed party lines on Saturday, relying on the vote of Democrats to pass a new spending deal that averted a government shutdown.

McCarthy made a compromise, but Gaetz and other Republicans could not see that McCarthy did what was best for the country because it was not what they wanted.

But this country was built on compromises.

The most famous of these is the Great Compromise from the Constitutional Convention of 1787 that gave the United States the bicameral legislature that it still has today. A government built on compromises cannot function on disagreements.

In fact, McCarthy made a compromise to get elected as speaker in January when he changed the rules, making it easier to remove someone as House Speaker. While McCarthy’s first compromise backfired on him, it was what was necessary to elect someone as House Speaker, and it worked. But the disagreements have come again, and the House is in disarray.

The two-party system forces politicians into boxes, telling them what they must agree with to hold their position, and it prevents the two parties from working together to create legislation that is most beneficial for the nation. 

The system needs to go.