Of course they chose a Christian Nationalist. The party that offers nothing for the future, and clings fearfully to America’s cruel racist past was never going to choose an actual leader. Rather, the party of “conservative values” has spent years purging anyone with actual leadership skills, moral values, and a sense of inclusivity. Interested in social safety networks? Get out! Interested in basic human equity? Not here! Want to improve the country and the world? We don’t! We are Republicans! We want to bring back the good old days when those coloreds knew their place! We’re going to teach the kids that slavery was pretty OK.
Christian Nationalism is toxic to everyone but those who practice it. Mike Johnson is therefore toxic to the majority of Americans. Johnson is part of a group of people who believe everyone else should be forced to follow their particular worldview’s parameters. Individual rights are irrelevant to Christian Nationalists. They already have all the answers to life’s important questions, and they have a rulebook that must be followed regardless of whether it is logical (it’s not).
No group has been more supportive of Donald Trump — and more likely to believe that the 2020 election was stolen — than Christian nationalists, who believe God wants the U.S. to be a promised land for their religion. Their champion may no longer be president, but, in Johnson, they now have a true believer second in line to the presidency. An enthusiastic backer of bogus legal theories seeking to overturn the 2020 presidential election, the 51-year-old Johnson was first elected to the House in 2016. Before then, he cut his teeth trying to erode the separation of church and state and abortion and LGBTQ rights as a lawyer for the Alliance Defense Fund—the Christian right legal powerhouse now known as the Alliance Defending Freedom.1
Are you looking forward to a national abortion ban? Mike Johnson is. Want LGBTQ rights rolled back to when being gay meant going to prison? Mike Johnson does. Do you support enforcing religious values on non-religious people? Mike Johnson will happily force you to follow his god’s rules.
Christofacism is a real threat. The mob that attacked the Capitol in a foolish attempt to overturn a presidential election was composed of militant Christian zealots. The mob wants “free and fair elections,” but only if the mob gets who they want. Which cancels out the free and fair part.
Around 20% of Americans are religious fascists hell-bent on forcing the other 80% of Americans to follow their rules.
Johnson did his best to help Trump stay in office after Republicans lost the election. He believes that the rules of his imaginary sky daddy are the rules that everyone should be forced to follow. In his mind, Christians are being discriminated against when others do not want to participate in Christian fantasies. Other religions or no religions are intolerable to this man. Johnson needs to reshape reality to fit his fantasies about who should be powerful (his tribe), and who should have the national stage (his tribe). The core problem is that his tribe is inherently anti-equity. American Christianity encourages mental myopia, greed, and pointless cruelty.
People who are detached from reality and want to force everyone else to share their fantasies about the world and humanity’s place in it should not hold power. Mike Johnson’s ascent into power will end badly. This Republican party is nothing but a clown show. The problem is that the clowns have power and followers willing to do violence in the name of god and country. This insanity cannot be tolerated. I do not want to live in a whitewashed world of full of Mike Johnson mini-mes.
A man who opposes abortion, marijuana, same-sex marriage, and sending aid to Ukraine is not good for the America or the world in general. He also believes in “conversion therapy” which is where religious zealots “pray the gay away” while using various unethical techniques to try and force individuals to pretend they are not attracted to the same-sex.2 Don’t you dare have the audacity to be gay around Mike Johnson or his god.
I am just scratching the surface of this problematic development. Human rights are under assault and Republicans just doubled down on their evil.
Scripture is very clear. Your opinion does not matter if you disagree with Mike Johnson.
This is one of your finest pieces in my humble opinion. Scathing. Acerbic. Direct. I loved it as much as I was sickened by his election.
The Log Cabin Republicans endorsed Johnson...a literal abnegation of the entire purpose of this group. The lengths to which Republicans will stoop to abase themselves is without peer.