Back to the drawing board.
That is the current state of the US House of Representatives, who ousted its former speaker, Republican Kevin McCarthy, two weeks ago – by members of his party, no less.
And they haven’t been able to replace him.
The House of Representatives is one of the two bodies that make up Congress, the legislative branch of the US government.
The House, among other things, makes laws, provides oversight to the President (a check on executive power), proposes/approves the national budget, can propose to change to US constitution (the founding document of the United States of America), and impeach (or charge) a president with offences.
It’s also involved in international relations, from treaties to foreign aid.
And the person in charge of permanently leading the House of Representatives, presides over it, sets the agenda – in layman's terms, making sure stuff gets done – is non-existent.
He’s also second in line for the presidency if something should happen to the president and vice-president.
In their place is a temporary speaker, with limited powers. He got the job thanks to a relatively recent rule in which an elected speaker writes a somewhat secret list of successors if he was incapacitated. Or ousted.
This week they tried to elect the same man, Jim Jordan, three times. And three times he didn’t get enough votes. His party has now asked him to step aside.
It's chaos resembling a bad early 2000s political TV drama.
But it’s also happening against the very real backdrop of a world that’s getting more dangerous by the day.
A lot of the world, rightly or wrongly, survives on American money, military, or management.
A sizable portion of Ukraine's defence against Russia is largely funded and supplied by the US.
For years, it has been Israel’s strongest ally, spending billions of dollars on things like Israel’s Iron Dome Defence system that is designed to shoot down rockets.
Late this week, US president Joe Biden asked for a huge funding package (almost $180b NZD) to help provide Ukraine and Israel with urgent military assistance as well as humanitarian aid for Ukraine, Israel, and the Gaza Strip.
There were also billion-dollar funding requests for things like US-Mexico border – hiring more border officers, immigration judges, and asylum officers – to help US states build better migrant shelters, and counter rising Chinese influence in the Indo-Pacific region.
A lot of these things are deeply political here but at the moment, it doesn’t really matter. As it stands right now, the chance of any of it coming to a vote in the House soon is very low.
The House has to either elect a speaker or give the temporary speaker more powers. Otherwise, all of what Biden wants is in limbo. Half of the US legislative branch is paralysed.
And as much of the world still relies on the US for military assistance, funding and leadership, time is very much of the essence.
America needs to get its House in order.
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