On Tuesday, October 3, McCarthy was ousted from his position as Speaker of the House.

With eight Republicans joining the Democrats that voted for his removal, Kevin McCarthy has made history as the first person voted out of his position as the Speaker of the House of Representatives by a 216 to 210 vote. 

To put McCarthy’s situation into context, compared to his predecessors, there have been 118 speakers (elected through the regular process) in the House so far, and over 30 have served multiple terms either consecutively or non-consecutively. Compared to the others, McCarthy’s removal and his plans of not running for his position have given him one of the shortest times as speaker of the House of Representatives.

Kevin McCarthy tweeted a while back about his place in the house: “I don’t view myself as a team manager, but a team captain. I’m part of a team, but everyone else as well.”

On September 26, McCarthy proposed a bipartisan plan in hopes of avoiding a government shutdown. However, this did not prevent his removal from the position, an event that had never occurred in the US before. It has created a vacancy in the position with no clear plan ahead, besides an election within the GOP for a new speaker. 

Just as in our world today, our school shared many different opinions on this event, but a point of consensus seems to be the collective shock and interest to see what will happen next for our government after this historical moment.

Daniel Heras, an MK junior, drove home the point that even though this event may not drastically affect our community at Morris Knolls, it surely piques the interest of many. Daniel relayed that he “found it quite interesting, and although it doesn’t affect me much I wonder where this is going to go.”

Freshman Samantha Reger expressed a similar perspective: “It’s intriguing to see what’s next to come.” She also adds, “This is the first time hearing about this but it’s really interesting to see the changes that have happened so fast in the past year.”

Diya Patel, a sophomore, shared her thoughts on the matter as being something that affects America as a whole rather than each individual person. She expressed, “I didn’t really know about this until recently and although I personally don’t think it really affects me, it does greatly affect the whole of America.”

Opinions on the outcome of the event vary depending on the individual. Some are quite happy about the change, wanting a new speaker or even what it means to be a speaker. On the other hand, some believed that a speaker change was unnecessary and continued to uphold McCarthy’s beliefs as he declared that he would not be running to reclaim his position.

As for the future of the house, Patrick McHenry will hold the position in the meantime as a new speaker is being elected by the GOP.

Unprecedented events such as this one encourage new paths for America’s future. On a more personal scale, it affects the future government that students in Morris Knolls will soon be active members of, both directly and indirectly.