In Federalist 55, James Madison declared, “Had every Athenian citizen been a Socrates, every Athenian assembly would still have been a mob.” He hoped our House would not resemble that ancient chaos. Let us hope it no longer does sometime soon.

In The Federalist Papers, numbers 52-61 discuss the House of Representatives as part of defending the then-newly proposed Constitution. Madison argued that the House would be an institution grounded in deliberation, using that common counsel to exercise well its task of lawmaking for the American people. Madison would go on to serve in the first House, embodying the characteristics he described in these papers.

What would that great Founder say about the House this week? For the first time in its history, the House voted to vacate the chair, thus ousting Speaker Kevin McCarthy from his leadership role. Democrats made up all but eight of the votes to remove McCarthy. But make no mistake: This ouster was the work of a small group of fellow Republicans. They instigated this process, and they provided the votes to put it over the top. The Democrats were willing, even happy supporters of that effort.

The current House falls far from the institution Madison hopefully described. When he originally defended the House, Madison argued it presented a way to find persons who combined “an upright intention and a sound judgment.” This meant they manifested both moral virtue in desiring the common good and intellectual wisdom to understand how to achieve that good. In addition, Madison added these persons would know the issues that would be the object of its lawmaking.

Instead of these qualities, the current House members have showcased their contrasting vices. Rather than upright intention, they seek personal ambition . This ambition has placed political parties over institutions or, even worse, individual advancement over everything and everyone else. Instead of sound judgment, they sow the seeds of their own impotence. The firing squad for McCarthy’s speakership was more circular than its enactors and proponents realized, both Democrat and Republican.

And let’s not even get into the capacity to legislate well. This House continues exhibiting the strange sight of a legislative body uninterested and unable to make laws of any consequence, much less benefit.

McCarthy certainly was a victim of the House’s malfunctioning character. But he also was part of the problem, trying to placate some of the very tendencies that brought him down. He played with fire and was scorched. Perhaps this end was predestined — the logical conclusion of the mess that was McCarthy’s selection as speaker in January.

But we should not be frustrated because of how this week’s events changed the prospects for McCarthy or for any other particular politician. Instead, we should be frustrated because the people’s House is acting like a clown show. It seems unable to manage itself. And being unable to manage itself, it certainly stands in no position to exercise its constitutional role as a legislative body. In a country built on the rule of law, the current House presents a problem at the core of our form of government.

What is so strange about all of this is how much these politicians do not understand their offices. They are ambitious, a quality Madison knew existed in 1788 and knew would exist as long as human beings engaged in politics. But they seem not to realize that their ambitions would best be fulfilled by doing their job, not in grandstanding to gain attention from enabling media.

Since the Constitution gives the legislative power to Congress, it thereby gives its members a way to find the glory politicians seek. But, channeled through lawmaking, this ambition actually can serve the common good, even when not the sole or even primary intention of the lawmakers themselves. Yet today’s congressmen spend their time trying to gain power by other means.

Adam Carrington is an assistant professor of politics at Hillsdale College.