Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA) is a junior member of the House, who came to Washington as a federal elected official concurrently with Trump, in January 2017. He served less than one term in the Louisiana House before running for Congress, having been elected in 2015 to fill an open seat.
On a party-line vote (220-209), Johnson did what House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA), Jack Bergman (R-MI), Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL), Rep. Tom Emmer (R-MN), Rep. Kevin Hern (R-OK), Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), Rep. Dan Meuser (R-PA), Rep. Gary Palmer (R-AL), Rep. Austin Scott (R-GA) and Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX) could not: secure enough votes to replace McCarthy as Speaker.
His official positions illustrate that his political beliefs are an anathema to most Americans.
Johnson supports a national abortion ban. Only about 1 in 10 Americans believe abortion should always be illegal.
Johnson opposes same-sex marriage, which is the law of the land and supported by almost three-in-four Americans. He has “argued support for homosexuality could lead to support for pedophilia.”
Johnson opposes no-fault divorce (first implemented in 1969). He supported the successful push by the “Louisiana Family Forum — the powerful association of conservative Christian pastors and congregations — and its national affiliate Family Research Council” to make it harder to obtain a divorce in Louisiana.
In 2003, Stanford University researchers reported that states with no-fault divorce laws saw that “domestic violence dropped by a third in just 10 years, the number of husbands convicted of murdering their wives fell by 10 percent, and the number of women committing suicide declined between 11 and 19 percent.”
Johnson blames abortion for school shootings. “When you break up the nuclear family, when you tell a generation of people that life has no value, no meaning, that it’s expendable, then you do wind up with school shooters.” In the U.S., most mass shooters are White and male. Johnson’s abortion comments are conservative code directed at Black women.
In 2019, while serving as a member of Congress, Johnson and his wife ran a seminar series asserting the U.S. is a “Christian nation.”
[The seminar was] organized by Onward Christian Education Services, Inc., a company owned by his wife, Kelly Johnson, a Christian counselor and anti-abortion activist.. The website for her counseling service — which was taken down shortly after Johnson became speaker — [stated the seminar] explor[ed] several questions, such as … “Can our heritage as a Christian nation be preserved?”…
[I]n April 2019, Kelly Johnson proclaimed that “Biblical Christianity” is the only “valid worldview”… Mike Johnson referred to the Bible as the “owner’s manual” for “how things are supposed to operate” and called for “Biblically-sanctioned government” (emphasis added).
The United States is not a Christian nation. See the First Amendment:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances (emphasis added).
This inconvenient fact has not dissuaded Johnson from asserting that the Constitution does not force a separation of church and state.
Unfortunately, Pew Research revealed last year either (1) what a poor job our schools are doing in preparing students for citizenship or (2) the power of repetitive propaganda.
Overall, six-in-ten U.S. adults – including nearly seven-in-ten Christians – say they believe the founders “originally intended” for the U.S. to be a Christian nation. And 45% of U.S. adults – including about six-in-ten Christians – say they think the country “should be” a Christian nation. A third [a clear minority] say the U.S. “is now” a Christian nation.
Nevertheless, most Americans think that religion should butt out of politics.
Where are the mainstream news stories that point the degree to which the new Speaker is out-of-step with most Americans?
AWOL.
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Known for gnawing at complex questions like a terrier with a bone. Digital evangelist, writer, teacher. Transplanted Southerner; teach newbies to ride motorcycles. @kegill (Twitter and Mastodon.social); wiredpen.com