They did it!
Last week I published some schadenfreude at the GOP's expense, seeing as how they cycled through countless candidates for Speaker while they sabotaged any chance at keeping the House of Representatives under their control in the next Congress. They finally elected one! And...
People tend to misunderstand what the Speaker's role is, or what it entails. It's a thankless, hideous job that requires expert deal-making, vote-whipping, and fundraising. The Speaker is a political animal that needs to lack a certain measure of humanity to succeed. John Boehner and Nancy Pelosi, whatever you think of them, were mildly effective Speakers. They managed their majorities well and kept the things moving. They worked to get their incumbents re-elected with fundraising and shrewdly targeting ripe districts. GOP Speaker Dennis Hastert had the job for awhile before we found out he fucked kids.
The Speaker of the House isn't some right or left wing champion, or some beacon of political righteousness. These people never run for higher office for a reason. You don't elect policy wonks or true believers to this job, a mistake made previously when Paul Ryan was elevated to the role. My man left Congress altogether after a couple of years on the job. Boehner cries in public all the time and pounds red wine.
What stumps me about Mike Johnson is how GOP's moderate or even conservative members saw fit to elect Johnson with better, more experienced options available. He checks every wrong box:
- Trump/MAGA election conspiracies? Check
- Mike Pence abortion militancy & Bible humping? Check
- Paul Ryan-style economics? Check
- Inability to fundraise? Check.
- No opposition research published? Check.
This is the person you elect if you expect to lose the House in 2024 and pivot to the minority, where the Republican Party seemingly wants to be. All he's talked about since being elevated to the role is the Bible and his wife being on her knees for days praying to God for her husband.
If you're into that sort of thing, that's fine. If you happen to like election conspiracies, religious peacocking, or draw a hard line on abortion? Sure, whatever.
But what you can't possibly like is a firebrand social conservative with limited national appeal and no record of effectively fundraising or pushing hard legislation. I suppose if you're a Republican you can just be happy they got around to electing a Speaker, but this was an odd choice!
It just reinforces the belief that Republicans prefer extremism and chaos to compromise and governing. Of course, with Johnson at the helm of the majority, good luck getting election results certified if Biden happens to top Trump. I suppose we'll deal with that constitutional crisis when or if we cross it.
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