In the weeks long chaos that it took to finally elect a Republican Speaker of the House, there was a brief, shining moment when the small, sane part of the party might have prevailed. Jim Jordan, who was roundly endorsed by former President Donald Trump, was shot down by Republican House members who didn't want to vote for someone who denied that Joe Biden won the 2020 election. Instead, Tom Emmer, a Minnesotan moderate was ready for a vote. While I certainly don't agree with Emmer on much, he did vote to certify the 2020 election for Biden. Sadly, that's what did him in, as Trump took to social media and branded Emmer as a "RINO", and his name was withdrawn without a vote (perhaps because an open vote would have allowed Democrats to vote for Emmer, outweighing the conservative votes against him). Oddly, Trump didn't have enough clout to get Jordan elected, but he did enough to get Emmer tossed.
In any event, after Emmer the House went back to the drawing board and elected someone just as extreme as Jordan. Oh sure, eventual winner Mike Johnson may not be as outspoken as Jordan, nor does he have Jordan's checkered pre political past (google "Jim Jordan's wrestling coach career controversy" to read the jaw dropping charges), but when it comes to election denial and conservative views, he's even worse. Ignoring the rejection of Jordan, Trump crowed on social media that Johnson should be called "MAGA Mike" because he not only voted against certifying Biden's victory, he has been called one of the chief congressional architects in Trump's attempt to undo the election.
Along with endorsing Trump's election lies, here are some of the other political views that Johnson is well out of the mainstream on: He's compared abortion to the Holocaust. Wrote that “Experts project that homosexual marriage is the dark harbinger of chaos and sexual anarchy that could doom even the strongest republic.” in 2004. In 2006 said this about the left: “In the space of a few decades, they have managed to entrench abortion and homosexual behavior, objectify children into sexual objects, criminalize Christianity in the popular culture, and promote guilt and self-doubt as the foremost qualities of our national character.” He is on the record as wanting to increase the retirement age and decrease Social Security and Medicare spending along with other social safety net programs. In 2016 he blamed no fault divorce, abortion and feminism for school shootings. And he's not just a Christian, he's a fundamentalist who thinks that the earth is only around 6000 years old.
Yes, despite his mild mannered, soft spoken demeanor, Johnson is an extreme right winger who should never have been given the power of being Speaker of the House. Amazingly, he still may prove to not be extreme enough for some House Republicans, who may wind up resenting any kind of upcoming deal he makes to avoid a government shutdown in the coming weeks. Yes, the modern Republican party is so ungovernable, with a vocal, far right wing that thinks that a federal government shutdown is a good thing, that even Johnson may wind up being tossed out like McCarthy was after he "betrayed" the right and cut a deal with the Democrats to keep funding the government. The best thing that can happen here is that next year all those moderate Republicans serving in districts that Biden won in 2020 will lose and the Democrats will run the house again. As imperfect as they may be, at least the Democrats don't want to blow up the federal government.
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