Coop Scoop: Speaker Johnson A True Believer Extremist

An election denying religious zealot is now top GOP dog

October 25, 2023

By Marc Cooper

MAGA has completed its takeover of the House political leadership.  A Mr. Nobody, Mike Johnson –a back bencher from the Louisiana swamps—has been elected the new speaker of the House by 220 Republican members of the House.

Well, we might not know him very well but the knuckle-draggers in the GOP love and revere him. Why not?  Johnson is a TOTAL stooge of one Donald Trump who just yesterday helped kill off a somewhat better choice.

Johnson has been identified as one of the “main architects” of the Trump conspiracy to deny the legitimacy of Joe Biden’s election, he whipped votes to deny Biden’s certification, he touted the whole bonkers Dominion voting machine lie. He is virulently anti-gay, he is zealously anti-abortion and in favor of a national ban, and is a fervent apostle of merging Christianity into the public and government sphere.  If he spoke Arabic he could be a valuable political adviser to HAMAS theological department (though his personal manner is described as “polite” rather than barbaric). There are good reasons that extremist Rep.Matt Gaetz hails the new speaker as “MAGA Mike Johnson.”

And let’s give some credit to Gaetz.  He has almost single-handedly, but with an assist from a couple of hundred congressional cowards, handed the formal leadership of the elected Republican Party to the most extreme of insurrectionist factions.  One third (and arguably two-thirds) of the US government are firmly in the hands of anti-democratic authoritarians.

This is exactly what Donald Trump wants.  So prepare yourselves.

There WILL be a government shut down on November 17. And it will be indefinite in length.

Current and future funding to help Ukraine resist Russian aggression is now in grave danger and is in peril of simply being cut off (Code Pink might now get its wish for a ceasefire cementing Russian control over much Ukrainian territory).

If the score or so of so-called “normie” Republicans (misbranded by the media as “moderates”) are stupid and craven enough to elect a speaker whose views are so antithetical to those of the mainstream in this political year than they just might be stupid enough to go ahead with what will be a catastrophic (for them) outcome in impeaching Biden.

No question the Republicans are doing everything they can to force a Blue Wave 13 months from now.  But we know that it is dangerous territory to speculate in this area.

We also know that while incumbent Biden is the favorite for 2024 it’s no slam dunk. Even though Trump is almost 80, about 75 lbs overweight and cannot for more than 30 seconds maintain an oral narrative before is melts into a sputtering muddle.  The media has made Biden’s age an obsession while avoiding not only Trump’s physical status but his publicly obvious degraded thought processes.  It’s truly maddening.

Biden and the Democrats also have a number of obstacles to face.  As has been the case for a half century, American economic inequality has is alive and thriving.  Wages are too low.  Prices are too high.  Gouging has become the norm for American business.  Housing is now unaffordable to many. As is higher education. 

It’s also true we are still emerging from a crushing pandemic and the American economy is actually doing quite well compared to the rest of the globe.  Even with its ragged edges, jobs are plentiful, in many place the prevailing wage has as much as doubled, and the bogey man Recession that the media has touted and and guaranteed for the last 18 months refuses to materialize as job growth continues strong.

Yet, the predominant narrative from the GOP, parroted by a lot of others, is that the economy is in total ruins and that Joe Biden is working as hard as he can to finish it off.  This groupthink is a mortal danger to the Democrats who are having great difficulty in knocking it down. Chanting about the wonders of “Bidenomics” seems like a death wish to me.

There’s also worrisome numbers coming from polling of young voters on whom a Democratic victory depends.  Biden’s favorability among the youngest quintile of voters has plummeted to below 30%.  In great part, it seems, the dissent comes from their view of Biden’s willingness to involve the US, at least financially and diplomatically, in the two current hot global wars.

The election is now 13 months away.  The first balloting in Iowa is less than 90 days from now.  We are gonna lose a month to the “the holidays” giving the makers of tinsel, plastic Xmas tress, and other useless crap their annual chance to make a killing and then…boom. The voting starts.

MAGA can now claim Mission Accomplished in locking up the House as one more instrument to unravel American democracy.  The Supreme Court is back in session and will be lending its hand.  The media will continue to wring the Old Biden and the Broken Economy stories dry. The Trump show will continue with the courts and there is a danger the American people are just going to tune out at just the wrong moment.

How about we make this House speaker election the high tide of MAGA and we work our butts off for the next year to once and for all smash MAGA, Trumpism and incipient American fascism.  Either that or kiss constitutional rule good bye. ++

The year ahead of us is going to be consequential.  The 2024 election could easily determine the course of the country for decades to come.

I want to have the resources available to properly cover what is coming.

Indeed, I would like to spend a week reporting only for Coop Scoop from the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary.

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