House Speaker Mike Johnson is doing for Kevin McCarthy what disgraced former President Donald Trump did for James Buchanan. He keeps him from being the worst person ever.
Under his short-term leadership, the dysfunctional 118th Congress further collapsed. For a party that promised to govern and won in the last election, it has produced little other than infighting, partisan conflict and chaos. That’s not the kind of accomplishment voters should reward in November.
Johnson told the National Association of Christian Legislators that God chose him to be Moses to lead Congress because “we are in a Red Sea moment.”
Historian Michael Beschloss says it’s more like Mr. Johnson is a messenger for Mr. Trump. “The great Speakers of the House in history did not act like ventriloquist dummies,” he wrote. The speaker has been nicknamed “MAGA Mike” for his candor in seeking direction from Trump, but his biggest fear is that the same extremists who gave him McCarthy’s gavel will take it away from him. It might be something to take up.
He negotiated another temporary spending deal with Democrats to avoid a costly government shutdown in the face of demands from his party’s anti-government extremists to include a poison pill in the bill. At the same time, I am trying to keep my job.
Many hardline conservatives who openly want a government shutdown are convinced that their brinkmanship will bring Democrats to their knees. This is a flawed strategy that has historically been prone to backfire and could cost Republicans dearly in the next election. .
Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-North Carolina), who was acting speaker in October, said Prime Minister Johnson was unable to make progress on important issues such as border security, the budget, and aid to Ukraine due to fears of President Trump and the far right. accused of interfering with the The twice-impeached former president ordered Johnson to block bipartisan action on border security, citing his preference for inaction as a campaign issue.
Trump’s albatross is just one reason why Johnson may go down as the worst public speaker of all time. It’s no wonder he took the gavel just months after it passed into the hands of Nancy Pelosi, one of the most powerful and effective speakers in history. And when he goes to his office at 568 Cannon House Office Building, named after Illinois Republican Joseph Cannon, another influential speaker, he is reminded of his weakness. It will be done.
extremist politician
Maga Mike is an election denier, religious extremist, anti-abortion activist, and “violent homophobe.”
The latter designation was given to Meghan McCain, the daughter of former Sen. John McCain and an ardent conservative. Johnson is an outspoken opponent of LGBTQ rights and same-sex marriage, and has an extensive record in print and in court.
In court filings and newspaper articles, he asserted the state’s right to criminalize consensual same-sex sex, asserting that “there is clearly no ‘right to sodomy’ in the Constitution,” and Decriminalizing sex means legalizing prostitution and illegal drug use.
As a member of Congress, he not only voted to overturn the 2020 presidential election, but also played a leading role as Trump’s lawyer in the failed legal battle to advance the Big Lie. new york times He called him “the most important architect of the Electoral College challenge,” even though he offered no evidence to support his claims of voter fraud.
His pre-parliamentary legal career was dedicated to breaking down the wall of separation between church and state. That’s still the case today. “Separation of church and state is a misnomer. People misunderstand it,” he told CNBC.
A Jewish family in Bossier Parish, Louisiana, is suing Stockwell Place Elementary School, saying their children were “ridiculed and bullied” for not participating in classroom prayer meetings and Christian songs. Ta. Johnson, the school’s attorney, called the Jewish family’s lawsuit “a desperate effort by the radical left to silence all public expressions of religious faith.”
HuffPost quoted Johnson as saying it was a “spiritual war” and warned that “the enemy’s ultimate goal is to silence the gospel.” The superintendent told his family, “This is the Southern way.” they have moved.
Twenty years later, when a reporter asked about the incident, Johnson’s staff said that the first bill the new speaker introduced in the House would express support for Israel and condemn Hamas after October 7th. He pointed out. It’s nice to know he supports Israel. Although we need our own walls between religion and state, his overt homophobia and intolerance is unlikely to sway many Jewish voters.
Two weeks ago, Mr. Johnson spoke at a training camp for Republican leaders. His message sounded like a sermon, and some of his colleagues were displeased. Instead of talking about his own vision for his party’s legislative agenda, he talked about America’s moral decline, the decline in church membership and the shrinking of the nation’s religious identity, NBC reported.
His history of domestic extremism poses a clear and present threat to the First Amendment, the Constitution, and the United States, not to mention religious minorities like the Jewish community.
Looking overseas, Johnson’s hands are stained with Ukrainian blood. He has blocked the Senate’s bipartisan Ukraine aid package, which passed the Senate 70-29, and most observers believe it will easily pass the House.
The bill also includes aid for Israel, Taiwan and border security, which President Trump opposes.
President Trump has told Prime Minister Johnson not to do anything about border security because he wants to criticize Democrats for not addressing the problem. Ukraine is also part of the former president’s revenge plan. As noted in this column, President Trump is blaming Ukraine in his first impeachment since President Volodymyr Zelenskiy rejected demands for political dirt on the Biden family. President Trump also wants to see Biden lose that war, and as Sen. Mitch McConnell pointed out, doing nothing would be a victory for Vladimir Putin.
A White House spokesperson said Johnson’s refusal to vote on support for Ukraine “actively benefits President Putin and the Ayatollahs” by “enabling Russia’s war in Ukraine.” .
Unlike the Republican Party of the past 70 years, the MAGA cult, with Johnson as its top elected official, has become openly and proudly bigoted, isolationist, and xenophobic. Ukraine’s fate is another failure of a once-great political party’s descent into a cult of personality.
The author is a Washington-based journalist, consultant, lobbyist, and former Legislative Member of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.