Good luck to us all. Finally, the Republicans in the House got their act together and elected a new speaker. Finally, Congress can get moving again. But to where?
Steve Bannon, the take-no-prisoners right-wing firebrand, admiringly said yesterday on his podcast that Mike Johnson is “by far the most conservative speaker in the history of the country.” Matt Gaetz, the bomb thrower who engineered the three weeks of paralysis in the House, excitedly told reporters, “MAGA is ascendant.”
And Donald Trump is over the moon. Sitting now in the speaker’s chair is a man who echoed the ex-president after he lost the 2020 election by citing “massive fraud and irregularity” and calling the election “rigged,” a man who told Trump after he lost to “stay strong and keep fighting, sir,” a man who recruited most other House Republicans to sign a brief in a lawsuit that would overturn the results in key battleground states and nullify citizens’ votes, a man who joined the majority of Republicans electing not to certify Joe Biden’s victory, a man who served on Trump’s defense team when he was impeached for his role in the January 6th insurrection.
This man now is two heartbeats from the presidency and one of the most influential people in America. This man is your new speaker.
But what’s done is done. At this point, re-litigating the far-right history of Mike Johnson is not meant to stop him from getting the gavel. He’s got it. It’s meant to understand him and to understand how he might try to reshape this nation. As one sardonic internet meme last night put it, he will be “the greatest speaker of the 17th Century.”
In her speech yesterday nominating Johnson, Elise Stefanik, the third-ranking member of the Republican leadership team, said that he and his party will “save America.” It’s ironic, since these are the people America needs saving from.
If Michael Johnson has his way, gay rights will be decimated. Writing for The Times, his local newspaper in Shreveport, Louisiana, he fought to prohibit gay marriage, arguing, “If we change marriage for this tiny, modern minority, we will have to do it for every deviant group. Polygamists, polyamorists, pedophiles, and others will be next in line to claim equal protection. They already are. There will be no legal basis to deny a bisexual the right to marry a partner of each sex, or a person to marry his pet.” He even endorsed the criminalization of same-sex intercourse.
This is your new speaker.
He has voted for a national abortion ban. He has opposed reimbursement for troops who have to travel out of their assigned states for abortions. He has supported deep cuts in the food stamp program. He’s in favor of prayer in public schools. He has fought against diversity programs and the teaching of critical race theory in the military. He spoke out in Shreveport’s Times against the U.S. joining the Paris climate accord. He argues that “cycles of climate change have always been part of the earth’s history,” which minimizes man’s obvious role. And he has been against further funding for Ukraine.
This is your new speaker.
And then there’s that pesky 2020 election. To his credit, Johnson condemned the insurrectionists’ violence after January 6th. But he didn’t condemn the lies of the deniers, the lies that put our democracy at the edge of a cliff. To the contrary, Steve Bannon told his listeners yesterday that Mike Johnson was “one of the intellectual architects of pushing back on the stolen election.”
There was a revealing exchange yesterday at the Capitol when the newly minted speaker stood before a gaggle of reporters and one asked, “Mr. Johnson, you helped lead the efforts to overturn the 2020 election….” But that’s as far as she got. His House colleagues, surrounding him on all sides, booed the reporter. It’s as if to say, “Are you going to hold that against the guy forever?”
In my opinion, yes. It’s not ancient history, it’s part of the shameful history of the Trump presidency. And of Michael Johnson’s inexcusable work to keep that presidency alive. It’s not about his policies. It’s about his principles.
The Democrats have to be rethinking their silence the day before yesterday. That’s when, for a few hours, Congressman Tom Emmer was the Republican choice for speaker. He wasn’t perfect, but when you’re in the minority, perfect isn’t in the cards. Occasionally having shown streaks of common sense bi-partisanship, he was the best of a bad lot. Maybe they should have sent a signal to Republicans that if Emmer’s nomination came to the floor, they would support it. But evidently they didn’t. And now, Michael Johnson is our new speaker.
Meanwhile the ultra far right has to be feeling their oats. They must feel emboldened. They finally got a speaker of like mind. Whenever there’s an issue where the House must decide between fulfilling Donald Trump’s will or defying it, which way will Michael Johnson go? For that matter, if Trump does win the nomination next year and loses the election but once again disputes it, and again it falls to the House to certify or reject the results, which way will Michael Johnson go? His history is not encouraging.
At least yesterday he did start out on the right foot. His first order of business was a resolution reinforcing America’s support for Israel. It passed with the votes of all but one Republican and all but nine Democrats. It was a smart move. And maybe it was a signal that he’s willing to work across the aisle when issues of common interest come up. If our new speaker is a practical man, however conservative at his core, it won’t be the last time.
Over more than five decades Greg Dobbs has been a correspondent for two television networks including ABC News, a political columnist for The Denver Post and syndicated columnist for Scripps newspapers, a moderator on Rocky Mountain PBS, and author of two books, including one about the life of a foreign correspondent called “Life in the Wrong Lane.” He also co-authored a book about the seminal year for baby boomers, called “1969: Are You Still Listening?” He has covered presidencies, politics, and the U.S. space program at home, and wars, natural disasters, and other crises around the globe, from Afghanistan to South Africa, from Iran to Egypt, from the Soviet Union to Saudi Arabia, from Nicaragua to Namibia, from Vietnam to Venezuela, from Libya to Liberia, from Panama to Poland. Dobbs has won three Emmys, the Distinguished Service Award from the Society of Professional Journalists, and as a 37-year resident of Colorado, a place in the Denver Press Club Hall of Fame.
So scary 😟
If Mr. Johnson said that the election was rigged he must also say that his own election is in question, for it represents the same electors. I find it astounding that it is only the Democrats who would think of cheating in elections. The facts that have come to light indicate that cheating lies more heavily on the other side of the aisle.