“The embodiment of white Christian nationalism in a tailored suit”
Democrats could find it a challenge to turn House Speaker “MAGA Mike” Johnson into a Republican boogeyman before the 2024 elections, the Washington Post suggests. His “mild manner” and previous low profile makes him less of a household name than Nancy Pelosi before the right tried to tag every Democrat running as a clone of “San Francisco liberal” Pelosi.
Nonetheless, the DNC and DCCC campaigns think publicizing “Johnson’s views on the 2020 election (he worked to overturn the results), abortion (he has talked of banning it nationally) and social programs (he has advocated cutting Social Security and Medicare)” can be a useful campaign weapon against Republicans.
There is lots of Beltway he said/she said in the Post story. “Republican strategists say Democrats are misguided if they think they can turn Johnson into a mascot for the entire GOP” even though Democrats have gotten a nice fundraising bump from Johnson’s elevation. Republicans helpfully caution that if Democrats focus too much on Johnson, “they will not be talking about issues that voters truly care about like the economy, crime and the border.” As if Republicans actually run on policy these days.
Oh, tut-tut, say Democrats:
“There is a very good chance he is going to end up being a boogeyman and/or he will end up being the embodiment of the MAGA extremism of the Republican conference,” said Viet Shelton, a spokesperson for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which coordinates the party’s House races.
MAGA Mike is not “a serious partner for American allies or for those who still believe that governing is not a petty little game,” declares David Firestone of the New York Times Editorial Board:
Specifically, he stripped money for Ukraine and Taiwan from the $105 billion package requested by President Biden, leaving only the $14.3 billion the administration wants to send to Israel. But then he imposed a condition on the Israel money: Mr. Biden must agree to cut the same amount out of the money the Internal Revenue Service uses to chase down high-income tax cheats. So essentially the U.S. can protect Israel as long as it also protects rich white-collar criminals.
Thomas B. Edsall jumps in to examine Johnson’s Christian nationalism:
“Johnson is a clear rebuttal to the overall liberal societal drift that’s happening in the United States,” Ryan Burge, a political scientist at Eastern Illinois University, wrote by email in response to my query. “His views are far out of step with the average American and even with a significant number of Republicans.”
Yet significant Republicans such as Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, the engineer of the former speaker’s ouster, thinks Johnson (Gaetz calls him MAGA Mike) is just the guy for thumbing reactionary noses at the left and any Republicans who never jumped on the MAGA train.
Matt Gaetz to Steve Bannon: "If you don't think that moving from Kevin McCarthy to MAGA Mike Johnson shows the ascendance of this movement and where the power in the Republican Party truly lies, then you're not paying attention." pic.twitter.com/Fl5l3iO4i9
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 25, 2023
“If you don’t think that moving from Kevin McCarthy to MAGA Mike Johnson shows the ascendance of this movement and where the power in the Republican Party truly lies, then you’re not paying attention,” Gaetz told Steve Bannon, calling Johnson “honorable and righteous.” Gaetz is an authority on honorable and righteous.
Refreshing to see Matt Gaetz fuck someone over 18
— The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) October 3, 2023
But I digress. Edsall continues:
Robert Jones, president and founder of the Public Religion Research Institute, described Johnson in an email as “the embodiment of white Christian nationalism in a tailored suit.”
What is Christian nationalism? Christianity Today describes it as the “belief that the American nation is defined by Christianity, and that the government should take active steps to keep it that way. Popularly, Christian nationalists assert that America is and must remain a ‘Christian nation’ — not merely as an observation about American history, but as a prescriptive program for what America must continue to be in the future.”
Johnson’s election as speaker, Jones went on to say, “is one more confirmation that the Republican Party — a party that is 68 percent white and Christian in a country that is 42 percent white and Christian — has embraced its role as the party of white Christian nationalism.”
Jones argued that “while Johnson is more polished than other right-wing leaders of the G.O.P. who support this worldview, his record and previous public statements indicate that he’s a near textbook example of white Christian nationalism — the belief that God intended America to be a new promised land for European Christians.”
As is Edsall’s habit, he cites polling and several other academics. What does it mean for the country that dominant within the GOP are Christian nationalists with a mandate from God to turn the U.S. into an anti-democratic, authoritarian theocracy? Democrats with the stomach for it could turn that into one helluva set of explosive campaign ads.
And how does a Christian nationalist justify undying support for Donald Trump, self-absorbed, amoral hedonist?
Perhaps Johnson thinks of Trump the same way Trump thinks of evangelicals: “as a means to an end, people to be used, suckers to be played.” Good luck, MAGA Mike, in getting the better of Trump in that deal.
I don’t know. The photo of mild-mannered Johnson that the Post placed atop its story immediately evoked Leland Townsend, the similarly mild-mannered, conservatively dressed ally of demons in Paramount’s EVIL. Mild-mannered and conservatively dressed can be creepy as hell.