Subject: Re: Speaker of the House - Epstein Vote
They are. We vote for our Representatives. The Representatives choose the speaker.
In a two-party system (which ours is de-facto), the minority party effectively doesn't get a vote. In a parliamentary system, that is less the case because they have to form coalitions. So at least the coalition parties have some say. It's not a direct vote, but at least there is more than one party represented (usually) as part of the coalition.
But I would be OK with a FIFO agenda system, to remove that power from the Speaker.