"Two nights (and) we look like idiots..."
This was what was said by John Spencer in his amazing role as White House Chief of Staff Leo McGarry in the penultimate episode of The West Wing's sixth season, "Things Fall Apart". The DNC to appoint a nominee for the 2006 presidential election (as per the show's universe) was deadlocked among four candidates, with none receiving the required 2162 nomination votes from the delegates of the fifty states who were gathered to appoint one. After almost a year of campaigning, no one clear front-runner had been identified around which the Democratic Party could coalesce, and votes were bouncing madly back and forth between four potential candidates. So, the convention was going to recess for the night and come back the next evening to do it all again. Leo, for his part, is pissed off - "One night of this is entertaining," he tells them, but a second night would be unbearable, and if it got to a third night, the President himself would be asked to weigh in and pick his potential successor, which would be ugly and look bad to everyone!
John Spencer as Leo McGarry in The West Wing 6.21 "Things Fall Apart"
And, almost twenty years later, we're seeing this happening in the US House of Representatives. Worse. We're not seeing a Presidential nominee not being chosen. We're seeing the "chamber of the people" frozen into inaction because the candidates for Speaker are all unappealing to a majority of its members.
Speaker of the House in US politics is a little more involved than in Canadian or British politics, as I understand it. Similarly they are the chief parliamentarian in the room, making decisions about who/what is in order and what is not; if something is in order, it can make it to the floor, and if it is not, it doesn't get there. They keep things sane in terms of commentary and cat-calling from the floor. The role in British models is to be more-or-less impartial, holding the feet of all sides to the fire for conduct and process. I've tended to view it over the years as a "lost voice", if not a "lost vote" because the duty of Speaker is to be the voice in the middle.
But in the American system, the Speaker sets the agenda, and since the Speaker generally comes from the majority, the agenda almost always favours the party with the majority in the House. The minority party may get a few things here and there, and moreso in years when bipartisanship is something that is being celebrated and lauded, but right now, the American HoR is hopelessly divided with a tiny majority and enough deciding votes among those who hate the other side that they are deadlocked. A Speaker needs 217 votes to get elected. Since the difference between the Republicans (221 seats) and Democrats (212 seats) is 9, any vote cannot afford to have more than four (4) Republicans oppose it, lest it fall. It's simple majority mathematics.
McCarthy made concessions to keep the Government functioning - scandal! Bounce him! (Thanks, Matt Gaetz, he of the smarmy attitude, small eyes and wonky wild eyebrows!) Scalise realized he couldn't get the votes because of things he had done that offended a few - just a few! - sitting Republicans, and now Jordan is finding the same thing! He voted to not certify Biden's victory on January 6, 2021, and some Republicans just can't forgive him for that. As they should not! If they feel that his conduct was injurious to the party, if not to the country as a whole, then they should absolutely not vote for him! Not for "the sake of party unity", not for the sake of anything. That's what principles are for - they guide you when you know that something is wrong and keep you from doing other things that are wrong.
The Democrats just sit across the floor and smile. Hakeem Jeffries has consistently received 212 votes for Speaker, the maximum votes possible from the Democrats. The Republicans don't dare ask for concessions of any kind; anyone who did would get bounced in a heartbeat by the extreme wing of the party! That extreme right wing knows what they want, knows they can't get it, and so they are throwing this tantrum as a result. They would rather freeze the workings of the government and "burn it all down" than concede anything.
"Two nights (and) we look like idiots..." the man said!
In Canada, the Prime Minister (for there would still be one of those) would have gone to the Governor General and said, "I cannot govern; I request an election to determine the will of the people." A new election would take place. It would take less time than these current squabbles to see what "the people" think and put a potentially different slate of lawmakers in position! But the US system is what it is - Representatives elected every two years, and they haven't even completed the first year of this term!
How the Republicans can claim any kind of legitimacy is beyond me. And legitimacy is what they crave - the will of the majority of the people to follow where their government leads them. They have a LOT of people who believe that one idea is legitimate, and a LOT of people who believe that another is the way to go, but just because millions of people believe a thing does not make it "legitimate" in a global sense! Trump is correct that he received more votes for a Republican presidential candidate than any predecessor ever did, but is boggled by the thought that still more voted for Biden - his convictions are not legitimate ones, in a legal sense, and thus he is under indictment for working to make them so, or at least for inspiring those who believe his is the legitimate claim to take illegal actions in order to try to bring the situation about so that he could be named President again!
And here's the funny part: MTG recently claimed that there should be a secession of marjority-Red states from majority-Blue ones, and some other seemed to agree with her. I think that would be a disaster on many levels. If the recent Republican troubles have proven anything, its that the extremists and the moderates cannot get along; anyone not sufficiently "Red" enough is threatened with expulsion! (Remember when "being a Red" was considered the worst thing in the world you could be?!) If this secession were to happen, civil war immediately! They can't stand each other! They'll kill each other, then call it patriotism!
Right now, in the opinion of the world, the Republican Party in America, and not Joe Biden, look like idiots.