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First Things First
The House Will Be in Order
Don’t Be Fooled by This “Polite Extremist”
Until his recent ascension to the Speakership of the US House of Representatives, Congressman Mike Johnson (R-LA) was a relative nobody. As one of his colleagues noted on the day he was elected, Johnson was, unlike other nominees who lost including Jim Johnson (R-OH), Steve Scalise (R-LA), and Tom Emmer (R-MN), the person most Republican US House members were least mad at.
Johnson’s cheery outlook and optimistic demeanor do not — in any way, shape, or form — diminish his policy extremism. Behind a carefully constructed facade of “country club” politeness and religiosity, lies a gun-loving political extremist of the worst kind. How could one possibly oppose such a nice guy?
If You Don’t Succeed At First...
Mike Johnson’s public demeanor reminds me of what I wrote about the chauvinistic behavior displayed by Bobby Riggs in this two-part 2021 diary about the 1973 “Battle of the Sexes” tennis match between Billie Jean King and Riggs — “The Male is King, the Male is Supreme, and Women Should Know That." (Part I)
I could tell you dozens of stories but suffice it to say, it is an environment where, even to this day, you will find many 1%ers like Mitt Romney — perfectly pleasant, rather privileged, incurious men who are totally at ease practicing a phony kind of civility one often sees in business circles.
Rarely if ever, are such men forced to examine their core beliefs. Why would they? The system works for them and in their isolated world, that's all that counts. Proles are, after all, more a nuisance to be tolerated or exploited and in their way of thinking, of limited use to society.
Uneasy is The Head That Wears The Crown
While his brief tenure and low profile in the US House of Representatives makes him a difficult target for the Democrats to define, the sooner it is done, the better. Tying vulnerable Republican US House members — who won in US House districts that Joe Biden won in the 2020 Election — to this “MAGA Extremist” is something the Democratic Party has already started to do. After all, his political strategy for funding the federal government is suspect, at best. A recent report revealed his virulent anti-LGBTQ positions and belief in “conversion therapy” — a suspect and discredited theory that claims that gays and lesbians can be cured of their “deviant behavior!”
Who Will Control Him?
Is such a person worthy of being second in line to becoming the President of the United States? An article in the anti-Trump publication The Bulwark details Johnson’s social views and hostility toward democracy.
The new speaker of the House has deep ties to proponents of the New Apostolic Reformation, a movement that helped fuel the January 6th insurrection.
HOT-OFF-THE-PRESSES PROFILES of Mike Johnson, the new speaker of the House, contain a seeming paradox. Some emphasize that he is a “mild-mannered,” “soft-spoken,” and temperamentally courteous individual. They similarly describe him as a “Christian conservative” and a “deeply evangelical Christian.” But many of the same profilers have also highlighted Johnson’s troubling activity surrounding the 2020 election and Trump’s attempt to overturn the American people’s verdict. Johnson’s involvement was substantial enough that he has even been labeled the “mastermind of the January 6 plot” and “a threat to democracy.”
So which is he: an anti-democratic politician and an insurrectionist, or a mild-mannered Christian? Part of the problem is that we have come to imagine that a person cannot be both at the same time. Mike Johnson shows that you can…
There is no contradiction in observing that Mike Johnson is both a mild-mannered, courteous, conservative evangelical Christian and a politically extreme ideologue. He has surrounded himself with some of the most dangerous, anti-democratic Christian leaders in the country—the same people who theologized the January 6th insurrection—and offered them his public support and praise.
Is there any doubt about the flock to which he belongs?
Congressman Jamie Raskin (D-MD) Telling It Like It Is
Updates Posted Here
What Does Mike Johnson Stand For?
Not a Legislative Record to Be Proud Of
Oh, It’s Totally Fair
When Will It Stop?
What’s Good for the Goose…
Introducing Himself
The Keeper of the Faith
Just As He Planned It
It’s An Outrage
His Man in the US House of Reps
Safe Travels in Texas
A Message for the New Speaker of the House
Damn, All the Witches Are Against Him
The Law is After This Guy
Being Decisive
Telling the Truth
Play Ball
Not Him Again!
The New US House of Representatives
He’ll Fit Right In
Attribution for the above cartoon: Jack Ohman, Tribune Content Agency, @EandPCartoons
The Long Goodbye
No Escape
Behind the Phony Civility
Gun Lovers
The Solution? Vote Them Out!
His Worst Nightmare
Turning Against Him
Stormy Weather
Next Year’s Most Popular Halloween Costume
Giving Up
Any Friends Left?
Leaving a Bad Taste
Not Very Popular
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