11 months ago
54
Meet the new House speaker who doesn't believe in democracy
Oh boy, have you seen this new House speaker? Just when you think Republicans can’t get worse, they dredge up something like Mike Johnson to be their public face. He’s so, so bad. It’s impossible for any summary to do him justice, so click on that link and read the story. In short, he literally doesn’t believe in democracy, saying, “You know, we don't live in a democracy [but a] Biblical" republic. He views LGBTQ+ people as “a deviant group.” As Mark Sumner writes, “Johnson believes that Christians have an exclusive right to rule the United States.” When it comes to same-sex marriage and other rights, he doesn’t want to drag us back decades: He wants to drag us back centuries.
Johnson is a zealot and he falters where party leaders usually excel—he doesn’t even know how to raise money. Since 2016, ousted Speaker Kevin McCarthy raised $77 million for House campaign committees, funding Republican efforts nationwide. Johnson? He’s only raised $4 million in that period, and it was all money for himself. In a tough cycle for Republican House incumbents, 18 of whom represent districts carried by President Joe Biden in 2020, the lack of McCarthy’s money spigot will become a real hindrance to their efforts to retain the majority.
Meanwhile, Donald Trump is taking all the credit for Johnson and celebrating the pick. This ensures more future pain for those Republican “moderates” in Biden districts, no matter how much they hysterically pretend to be a stabilizing force in their caucus.
