I would say that the circus in the House of Representatives is over, but I think it’s just entering a new phase – Act 2, if you will. The clowns did elect a lead clown so there is now an official Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson from Louisiana! Mike Johnson is relatively unknown and, in terms of previous Speakers, relatively inexperienced. Now, he is second in line to the presidency!! Mike Johnson’s apparent biggest qualification is that he is an ardent Trump supporter and, in fact, was a key player in the effort to overturn the 2020 election. Great job, Republicans!! I’m not quite sure how this squares with Article 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment which says that anyone who “shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof,” is ineligible to hold office. Then again, when, in recent history, have the Republicans really cared about the Constitution?
The previous speaker, Kevin McCarthy, was virtually being blackmailed by the MAGA extremists throughout his entire tenure so it will be interesting to see how things go now that one of their own is driving the boat! Mike Johnson is an evangelical Christian who is staunchly anti-abortion, anti-LGBTQ rights, anti -same sex marriage (he actually pushed to criminalize homosexual sex!) and, spent his early career trying to tear down the walls between religion and government despite the longstanding precedent supported by the Constitution calling for the separation of church and state. Yet another example of how the Republicans don’t really care about the Constitution regardless of what the say. Their actions do not support their words!
Mike Johnson has voted against additional funding for Ukraine so it will be interesting to see how that plays out. In his acceptance speech, he mentioned aid to Israel but said nothing about Ukraine. This got me to thinking about why the primarily MAGA and hard-right Republicans have been against providing additional aid to Ukraine. This position is certainly music to Putin’s ears so why are these people taking that position. And then a light bulb went off!
Russia, under Putin, is essentially the Russian version of a white, Christian, nationalist state which is exactly what the MAGA Republicans wish to implement in the United States. Putin has the backing of the Russian Orthodox church. Last year, Putin signed into law more restrictions on the LGBTQ community. Even though Russia is nominally secular and there is a decree stating there is separation of church and state, in reality, it is not true. There is a very tight relationship between Putin’s government and the Russian Orthodox church. If you look at the world through a religious lens rather than a geopolitical lens, it makes perfect sense why these MAGA Republicans more interested in not opposing Putin than in fighting for democracy!
The MAGA Republicans strength comes from the fact that they have been able to stir up all kinds of culture wars to convince white, Christian Americans that they are under attack from non-white, non-Christian (at least their brand of evangelical Christianity), progressives. They have, in essence, created an enemy where there isn’t one but hate and fear are strong motivators and that is what the MAGA Republican are counting on.
Yesterday I mentioned that I am reading Rachel Maddow’s book1, Prequel, which is about an effort to bring Hitlerist, fascism to the United States prior to and during World War II. I came across a passage yesterday that really struck me with its similarity to what is going on today. The ‘enemy’ that the proponents of fascism used back then was the Jews, just like Hitler. Today, the MAGA Republicans, in their effort to bring fascism to America have created a different enemy in racism and wokeness but the words used to inflame hate and fear against the Jews in America they could be written today. William Pelley, a key player in trying to bring fascism to American back then, wrote the following in his weekly newsletter, Silver Legion Ranger.
“Per Pelley, the Jews had a universal and secret global plan to ‘’corrupt youth through subversive teaching’; ‘destroy family life’; ‘dominate people through their vices’; ‘abase art and corrupt literature’; ‘undermine the respect for religion’; ‘ruin the nervous system through inoculations and various poisons, and germs of disease’; ‘poison the relations between masters and men through strikes and lock-out’; ‘let industry exhaust agriculture and gradually transform industry into wild speculation’; ‘grant universal suffrage, so that the destiny of each country is entrusted to men who lack culture and breeding’; …”
The current efforts by Republicans across the country to ban books, pass anti-LGBTQ legislation, pass voter suppression laws, wage the anti-mask/anti-vaccine campaign and continue to challenge the premise of separation of church and state can be traced right back to these words uttered in a previous attempt to bring fascism to America. These words could come right out of a Trump speech or a MAGA rally. That is where we are today. The country survived the previous fascist assault. The question is, can we survive the current assault?
- Prequel: An American Fight Against Fascism, Rachel Maddow, 2023
