Mike Johnson is House speaker. But will GOP chaos actually help Biden win reelection?

In the three weeks since House Republicans elected to descend into chaos, terrorists launched the deadliest attack against Jews since 1945.

America's commander in chief, in response, has dispatched two carrier strike groups − and thousands of U.S. military personnel − to the edges of a war zone, one that could spiral out of control with one missile strike.

Our nation, meanwhile, lurches day by day closer to a self-made fiscal disaster, which only the House of Representatives, by constitutional design, can prevent.

Then there are the everyday matters that Americans should be able to count on their elected representatives to address. Things like grocery prices wrecking family budgets, sky-high interest rates pricing workers out of buying a home, chaos at our border with Mexico so bad that it's overwhelming local governments as far away as Chicago and New York, millions of students still so far behind in school because of COVID-19 shutdowns that they might never catch up.

You know, the "little things."

At least little in the eyes of a small faction of House Republicans who are determined to hand the next presidential election to Joe Biden and ensure that Democrats control both the House and Senate for years to come.

Mike Johnson stepped up, but House Republicans keep flunking leadership test

On Tuesday, the burn-it-down caucus torched a perfectly fine candidate for speaker, Tom Emmer from Minnesota. Two weeks ago, they lit up another well-qualified candidate, Steve Scalise from Louisiana. Three weeks ago, the chaos clowns dumped Kevin McCarthy of California, the first time in the history of these United States that a House speaker was fired in the middle of a congressional session.

Rep. Tom Emmer's out. Are Republicans playing a game of 'not it' for House speaker?

Finally on Wednesday, the Republican caucus settled on Louisiana's Mike Johnson as the new House speaker. Johnson, a lawyer first elected in 2016, is perhaps best known for lobbying fellow House Republicans to vote against certifying Biden as the winner of the 2020 presidential election.

But why did House Republicans put the nation through this embarrassing and dangerous ordeal? No one seems to know.

Matt Gaetz, the Florida representative who initially led the descent into chaos by chasing out McCarthy, certainly doesn't. (Important life tip: If you find yourself following Gaetz anywhere, turn around and run, don't walk, the other way).

Now, this is not just another partisan rant by another progressive journalist. I haven't voted for a Democrat for president in this century (didn't vote for the Republican nominee in the past two presidential elections either, but that's a different story).

Republican Party and conservative movement have lost their way

I've witnessed during six decades of living that Americans and the nation as a whole tend to flourish better when right-moderate Republicans are in charge. And I'm old enough to remember practical conservatism − the kind that champions individual liberty, a regulated but vibrant capitalistic economy, strong national security, the core roles of faith and family in personal well-being, and the well-founded belief that individuals can with appropriate support lift themselves and their children onto a sustainable path to prosperity.

But it seems that practicality is a lost virtue among certain factions of today's Republican Party. Today, far too many Republicans and so-called conservatives believe that if you say something, no matter how out of touch with reality, often enough and loud enough, then it's true.

Listen up, Republicans. The world is in chaos, so why are you playing stupid games?

That's nonsense, of course. But it's a nonsense that has taken hold of enough Republican leaders and Republican voters that the health of the party is in critical condition. And with it, I'm afraid, the long-term health of our nation also is in jeopardy.

The chaos in the House was only one symptom of this disease. Another, even worse, sign of the GOP's morbidity is the outrageous, dangerous, pernicious popularity of Donald Trump. How can any true conservative vote for a candidate who has demonstrated such disdain for the Constitution, for the rule of law, for national security?

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But here we are. Not where we should be. Not where anyone, even Democrats, should want us to be. Yet, it's here where we have landed after asking Thelma and Louise to take the wheel.

And so I am left with questions. For the burn-it-down wing of the GOP and for those who carry their matches.

Why are you helping Joe Biden win reelection? Why are you making Democrats appear to be competent and rational by comparison? Why are you poisoning the Republican Party and the conservative movement for emerging generations of leaders and voters? Why are you risking Americans' security and prosperity for ill-defined, unarticulated goals? Why do you keep giving a platform to extremist oddballs like Matt Gaetz and Marjorie Taylor Greene? Just how low does Donald Trump need to sink before you wise up and acknowledge his self-centered recklessness?

When will the Republican Party and the conservative movement heal themselves?

Meanwhile, the world burns. And Republicans can't put down the fiddle.

Tim Swarens is deputy opinion editor of USA TODAY.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: We finally have a speaker. But will GOP vote chaos help Biden in 2024?