The House Speaker's Race Is Worth Celebrating

There's a lot of alarmism going on right now about the race for speaker of the House. Many are calling it a crisis or a "three-ring circus." What it is really is the first sign that the reckoning and subsequent healing needed among Republicans may finally be upon us.

There is a huge split within the Republican Party. The party establishment sees an America that's fundamentally the same as it was in 1985 and has a policy agenda fit for just that moment. These Republicans still see big business as their allies. They equate policies that help big business with policies that help America.

The other wing of the Republican party -- some call themselves populists, some reformists, some national conservatives or "natcons" -- sees a country slipping away. They want real reforms. They see the establishment as too tied to corporate America. They see corporate America as too tied to international interests, especially China, and not focused enough on the lives and well-being of everyday Americans.

This is a debate worth having. It's a debate that's been kicked under the rug for too long. It's not chaos; it's democracy.