“480 Minutes” - MAGA Envelopes GOP
After weeks of idiocy, dysfunction, infighting, & violent threats to members of their own caucus & their families, Republicans finally chose a Speaker of the House. The white Christian man (specificity included for comedic value only) they chose, Mike Johnson, is a more charming but no less misguided real-life version of Stephen Colbert’s idiot right-wing blowhard from The Colbert Report days. The man is downright giddy about how absolutely right he is…about everything…& he just can’t wait to make it legal for his Morality Police to peer into your bedroom to make sure you’re not doing anything those voices in his head are telling him you shouldn’t be doing. He is EXTREMELY pro forced-birth, EXTREMELY anti-gay, & EXTREMELY against the very idea of a separation of church & state. He’s also against aiding Ukraine’s effort to repel Vlad The Invader and, oh yeah, was one of the leaders of the attempted coup in the House. This American Taliban fundamentalist claims to be a man of god but his interpretation of the Bible somehow encourages to him to help a godless, vain, vulgar, gluttonous, serial lying, serial philandering, serial criminal to overturn an election.
Explaining his view of American government, Johnson said (with zeal), ‘“You know, we don't live in a democracy” but a “biblical” republic.’ For years he worked for the Alliance Defending Freedom, a far-right Christian-dominionist legal group whose goal is to “inspire a distinctly Christian worldview in every area of law, and particularly in the areas of public policy and religious liberty.” it is not at all an exaggeration to compare Mike Johnson’s views, methods, & goals to those of the Taliban.
Perhaps worst of all, unlike his orange hero who posed for a photo op in front of a church holding his “favorite book” (from which he could not quote a single passage), the Bible, upside down, Johnson is a true believer. He believes we should all live cowering under the thumb of dominionist theological law as he interprets it. His worldview is insanely un-American.
To quote former American senator from Arizona & Republican nominee for president in 1964:
“If and when these preachers get control of the [GOP] party, it's going to be a terrible damn problem. Frankly, these people frighten me. Politics and governing demand compromise. But these Christians believe they are acting in the name of God, so they can't."
― Barry Goldwater
One possible silver lining is that we have ample evidence of who he is & what he stands for, & it is not what the vast majority of Americans stand for. We saw this in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling striking down Roe vs. Wade — during the midterm elections Republicans underperformed, & the miserable failure of multiple deep red state “slouching towards Gilead” ballot initiatives were a rebuke of GOP extremism. Hopefully the GOP unanimously voting in to the Speakership an extremist who wrote the Mississippi Law the Roberts Court used to overturn 50 years of reproductive rights precedent will produce similar revulsion & backlash.
Wishful thinking aside, the GOP’s now total capitulation to the election-denying, conspiracy theory-warped, pro-Putin MAGA wing of the party represents one more terrifying step closer to the end of the American experiment in self-governance.
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Videos
480 Minutes / Episode 851
