"US Democracy Shaken"... Domestic Political Circles Also 'Alert' Over Speaker of the House Removal

Park Ji-won and Jo Eung-cheon Express Concerns Over 'Shaky Democracy'
Political Crisis Highlights Issues of Fandom Politics and SNS

Concerns are growing within South Korea's political circles over the passage of a resolution to remove Kevin McCarthy, the third-ranking official in the U.S. power hierarchy and Speaker of the House, led by hardline Republicans on the 3rd (local time).

The cause of this incident is attributed to the increasingly hardline and divided political landscape shaking democracy, and there is a perception that Korean politics is not free from such problems either.

Park Ji-won, a senior opposition figure and former director of the National Intelligence Service, expressed concern on MBC's 'Kim Jong-bae's Focus' on the 5th, saying, "We need to understand what results hardline politics bring in our country as well," adding, "It is a politics of division, and (American democracy) is greatly shaken."

[Image source=Yonhap News]

The group behind the removal of McCarthy, who was the third-ranking official in the U.S., is the hardline Republican caucus called the 'Freedom Caucus.' They opposed McCarthy's handling of a temporary budget bill to avoid a government shutdown and submitted a motion to remove him, which the Democrats joined, leading to the Speaker's ousting. This is the first time in U.S. congressional history that a Speaker of the House has been removed.

Former NIS Director Park expressed concern that former President Trump, the leader of the hard-right faction and the top presidential contender within the Republican Party, is a matter worth considering, saying, "Former President Trump is a president who completely undermined the U.S. Constitution and founding ideals, so at least President Biden should do well, but here too, he is performing far below expectations, making things difficult now."

Democratic Party lawmaker Cho Eung-cheon also expressed concern on BBS's 'Jeon Young-shin's Morning Journal,' saying, "It is very humiliating that such a thing happened even in the U.S.," adding, "I thought American democracy is heading toward extremism."

He diagnosed that the U.S. fervent supporters are immersed in social networking services (SNS) rather than legacy media, holding confirmation bias and rejecting the opposing camp. Lawmaker Cho pointed out, "This democratic crisis came because of SNS," adding, "Rather than legacy media, they are completely addicted to SNS algorithms like YouTube, communicating only with people who share their confirmation bias, forming political tribalism, and are completely immersed in it."

The concern over the U.S. situation stems from the fact that domestic politics is not free from such trends. Lawmaker Cho said, "It is the same in our country. Both the far right and far left, the People Power Party side and our Democratic Party side, have YouTubers, and the hardline supporters do not trust legacy media," adding, "People like former leader Lee Hae-chan tell people not to watch newspapers or broadcasts but to watch YouTube. So it is gradually moving further to one side."

People Power Party lawmaker Jung Woo-taek also expressed concern on his SNS about "the U.S. political situation that has reached extremes through confrontational politics without dialogue and negotiation," saying, "Instead of being mired in domestic political offensives and party interests, it is time for the ruling and opposition parties to monitor external situations and cooperate in response for our national interests."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.