Mike Johnson is a larger threat to democracy than Jim Jordan. Here’s why.
Last week, every House Republican agreed that “mild-mannered” Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA) should be the man to replace Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) as Speaker of the House.
Whether that party-line vote came from chaos fatigue (22 days without a leader) or the support of disgraced former president Trump is possibly a coin toss. After blackballing Rep. Tom Emmer (R-MN) who voted to certify the 2020 election, the legally challenged former president (91 felony charges) threw his support behind Johnson.
One. Johnson is much more than an everyday MAGA election denier. He was a member of Trump’s defense team during his first impeachment trial.
Two. On January 6, 2021, Johnson proposed a legal-sounding argument (a “third option”) that provided cover for about three-quarters of the Republicans who refused to certify the election. The New York Times called him “the most important architect of the Electoral College objections.”
After his election as Speaker, Johnson refused to answer questions about his role in Trump’s big lie.
Bombastic, scandal-ridden Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), the previous Trump-endorsed nominee, was a “significant player” in Trump’s efforts to overturn the election, according to the House January 6th Committee. He spread lies about the election on FOX News, for example.
However, Johnson is the man who persuaded House members to vote againist certifying the election on January 6th.
Three. As the Financial Times notes, Johnson’s election “underscores [Trump’s] enduring influence over Capitol Hill, particularly as he seeks another four years in the White House.”
That’s three strikes. It should have been enough for the moderate Republicans to continue opposing anointment of a MAGA speaker. It wasn’t.
Scarier yet: he’s a biblical literalist
Johnson, 51, looks like the meek Clark Kent, unlike the rumpled (erh, coatless) Jordan. That’s not Superman hiding under his suit.
Instead, his aw-shucks facade masks a fanatical belief — Biblical literalism — that makes him the scariest of all the Speaker nominees.
Only 1-in-4 Christians believe the Bible should be interpreted literally.
Only 1-in-5 Americans hold this belief.
Johnson is a minority’s minority with outsized influence and power.
This minority group represents an alarming threat to democracy:
Christian nationalists sense that the nation is under cultural threat and biblical literalism provides an alternative (often anti-elite) source of information… [beliefs in ]Christian nationalism and biblical literalism) are also associated with higher levels of conspiracy thinking.
Biblical scholar and Episcipalian priest Dr. Wil Gafney warns against Biblical literalism thusly:
“But the Bible says…”
You better run whenever you hear those words. Run like the walking dead are coming after you.
Whenever someone tries to take 1300 years of literature written by different people in different periods for different purposes, edited in separate bundles then tied together in different canons of scripture so that not even we who are worshiping together in this room have the same number of biblical books in our scriptural tables of contents, and starts tal’mbout “the Bible says…”
You better run from that biblically illiterate a-contextual theology like it was witchcraft.
Johnson kicked off his stint as Speaker by asserting his election was God’s will. He then quoted Romans 5:3–4:
“I was reminded of the Scripture that says ‘Suffering produces perseverance, perseverance produces character, and character produces hope,’” he said. “What we need in this country is more hope.”
We do not need “more hope.”
What we need is a news ecosystem that clearly reports the state of the economy; eschews spin; and stops treating fringe Republicans as though they represent a significant percentage of Americans.
Having the Speaker of the House — second in line to the presidency, after the Vice President (Presidential Succession Act of 1947) — be a member of a conspiracy-minded culture that believes America is a “Christian nation” should be as frightening as a Utahraptor (the dominant carnivore 125 million years ago) would be if you ran into one today.
The peril is real, not “Spidey-sense”
Violence is GOP currency
There is a reason multiple judges have limited what Trump can say publicly about his ongoing legal troubles.
In 2020, ABC News found “least 54 criminal cases where Trump was invoked in direct connection with violent acts, threats of violence or allegations of assault.”
Trump’s rhetoric sparked the January 6th insurrection.
A few days later, one supporter called others to “KILL YOUR SENATORS: Slaughter them all.” A jury found that supporter guilty of “making a death threat against elected officials.”
Pete Santilli, a conservative “provocateur,” said if he were in charge he would order “every single Marine assigned to the Marine Corps barracks” to snatch President Biden from the White House, bind him “in freakin’ zip ties [and throw him] in the back of a freakin’ pickup truck” (emphasis added).
There’s Republican wannabe Arizona governor Kari Lake at a rally in my home state of Georgia with her not-so-veiled threat of armed rebellion:
“I have a message tonight for Merrick Garland and Jack Smith and Joe Biden — and the guys back there in the fake news media, you should listen up as well, this one is for you,” Ms. Lake said. “If you want to get to President Trump, you are going to have go through me, and you are going to have to go through 75 million Americans just like me. And I’m going to tell you, most of us are card-carrying members of the N.R.A.”
Earlier in October, 23% of those responding agreed that “because things have gotten so far off track, true American patriots may have to resort to violence in order to save our country.” Today, 33% of Republicans “say that violence may be the answer.”
I’m fairly certain somewhere in MAGAland at least two people are discussing, quitely, not only what they will do when Trump is convicted in one or all of his trials … but also how hard could it be to knock off both the president and the vice president and elevate Johnson to the presidency.
Hopefully our intelligence service has more on the ball today than they did in January 2021.
~~~
Featured image: SNL screen shot, edited.
