In a dropping twist. Representative Mike Johnson of Louisiana is now the fifty sixth Speaker of the House, and he's also an an extremist who's not shy about his views. A superhero of the religious right, he often calls the Bible when strongly opposing a little bit Q run. After weeks of GEOP in fighting, Johnson managed to unite the party with charisma and a deeply court servative stance. He played a leading role in the GOP's efforts to overtend the twenty twenty
election, and he's not a fan of the truth or even democracy. Now, Johnson's got a packed agenda, preventing a government shutdown, tackling international crisis, and pushing his conservative agenda with the Bible in his hand. A political circus with Johnson as the ring master. Surprisingly, this speaker is known as a nice guy in Washington. Let's see if he can keep the House in order while sticking to his cowured principles. It's a political drama worth watching,
and we're going to look into that. This article is from NBC News by Scott Wong, Alibally, Rebecca Kaplan, and Kyle Stewart on October twenty fifth, twenty twenty three, Kelly, do you want to see well? In the article, Republican Representative Darren Lehood says, excuse me. I think he was viewed as the least objectionable person in the process, and he was in the right place at the right time, And I think that just says it
all right there. They had already had three failed candidates. They were becoming the laughing stocks of half the USA, and the handler half was wondering if they were actually worth the votes that they gave to them and voted, and worth the votes they were going to give to him again. And the fact that Johnson hasn't made any enemies in the GOP also played into his hands. He hasn't come out as an extremist, even though he is like, he
didn't. He's not Marjorie Taylor Green, he's not Lowen Bobert. So he hasn't, you know, gone out and been challenging the powers that be within the GOP. And I'm pretty sure that anyone who had a clear nomination or that was in that position was going to get it, no matter who they were, whether it was Johnson or some other guy. So no surprise that a guy like him got it. It's a real surprise that he got it.
I had no idea who he was until it happened, and I'm usually pretty sharp on American politics, so it kind of threw me for a loop. But there he go. So, Aaron, what are your thoughts about it? Yeah, he may look normal, but he is not normal. No, he is. He is part of the MAGA crowd. He wants the government to burn. He wants he does. He's not interested in governing. He's interested in in fighting an ideog ideological war and in making this He's
a Christian nationalist. He wants to make this a Christian country, full stop. And you know, part of me, through the whole process of the GOP ousting the former speaker and then trying to get a new speaker, Party was just laughing in glee at the total dysfunction at this on display, because I don't think that's gonna just that's kind of served them well in the in the upcoming election. Uh, magas as A is the most vocal part of the GOP right now, and so all the GOP politicians they kind of have
to cater to MAGA. But you put them, you put anybody that's MAGA against somebody who's not, and most of the time they're going to win because most of the most of the country they do not they do not subscribe to MAGA. Magas just a very very vocal minority. And so I'm looking forward to the consequences to the GOP in this next election, in this next election in twenty twenty four, because I think they're just going to get slammed.
And then you know, party is also really sad and weeps that the GOP is so dysfunctional and it's so hamstrung by people that aren't interested in governing anymore. They just they just want to fight this ideological culture war and instead of governing and moving the country forward. And personally, I think people people that don't want to govern them and are somewhat traitorous to be honest, Why are you in the government, Why are you have an elected office if you don't,
if you're not interested in governing and I'm moving the country forward. A lot of these people put God first. They put God first above the country, and absolutely I think those people are traders because you can't be an elected official in government and putting your God first. You have to put your country first. It's the whole point of being an elected official is putting your country first, putting the people first, and moving us forward and solving problems and
making democracy stronger and better and moving forward. Jimmy, Yeah, I totally agree, and I will depart I think a little bit on this though, from this idea that you know, maybe we were surprised that this guy got elected. So I can see that because I didn't know who really who he was either. I remember the name, but I you know, never really associated him with anybody of any prominence. But that was probably what he had
working in his favor. Right, Like I Aaron alluded to, he probably didn't really pose much of a threat to more of the hardline opponents of the MAGA crowd who are Republicans and kind of have to stick with these people, and so it was easy to throw their support against him. But I don't really find the article all that unique, because all we have is just another MAGA puppet who has risen to a position of prominence inside the Republican Party.
The first thing that he did, which was really disheartening, was prey on the House floor after being elected speaker, and it just goes to show you that the wall between the government and religion is thinning, and that's not going to lead to anything good at all for anyone that Christianity opposes, so or
anybody that opposes Christianity or religion or religious endorsement by the government. You know, the most frustrating thing about this is that he's really constantly described as this man of faith, and we hear this a lot about Christians or people of faith. I should say, I shouldn't limit it to christian you know, being characterizes these good people just because they believe in some invisible deity that can't
be proven. And being a person of faith, especially as a member of government and a lawmaker at that, should be alarming, not reassuring, and putting the Bible in government will result in greater constitutional violations, the continued targeting minority groups, immigrants, the LGBTQ community, women, although many millions of women still continue to support this cult. And so I just don't have a whole lot of optimism when it comes to having to govern with the MAGA Party.
I do hope that it does work against them, because it has been incredibly chaotic. Johnson not being one of these actors in this political theater. I think again was a strength of his, but also just goes to show that we're still dealing with more of the same. But why do we not consider a person of faith as someone who endorses horrific atrocities, bigotry, and fairy tales. Why are we considering them these great people and not somebody who
kind of, you know, adheres to these weird beliefs. Because for centuries we've stood idly by while Christianity has just kind of hijacked morality and this is what we end up. So it's kind of my take on that sin. What do you think? Yeah, I agree with what you just said. It's important to mention that at the same time, there is so much to say here because so much happened since he was elected. But yeah, the firing of McCarthy was lovable. The three weeks of in fighting were pathetic.
The way the Orange man is was trying to influence this election was just ridiculous. And yet nothing comes close to the horror of seeing this guy become the Speaker of the House. Because one could argue that we shouldn't be surprised or horrified. It's perfectly in line with what's been happening since twenty sixteen and maybe even before, with the country slowly descending into chresto fascist territory. And yet
the more we learn about Johnson, the more infuriating it gets. He claimed that if you want to know his position on a topic, just open the Bible and you will have your answer. He claimed that homosexuality is an abomination that could destroy society. He claimed that abortion should be banned so that all those unborn children could become part of the well, become productive members of the slaves, not slave trade society, that's what he wants to call it.
And then his first two acts as a speaker were first to condition aid to Israel to reduction of IRAS funding and then condition Ukraine aid to funding the Orange Meness's wall that tells you everything you need to know about the guy. First of all, reducing the IRS funding means reducing the income it gets. So if you claim you want to be fiscally responsible and want to make sure that the money you send to Israel is paid for, then the reason you should
give it would be something that brings money and that costs money. And that wall again in twenty twenty three, seriously, what the hell I mean, it's it's unbelievable Eron to say, Oh yeah, sure, I sure do. I always have something to say. He honestly, he has a job. I don't envy him for We have a looming government shutdown and the GOP that is in meetings right now and have been for several days, and they
can't come to any agreements. The word is now that Johnson will probably have to propose another stopgap measure like they did last month, so that Congress can keep the government open for a few more weeks while they try to work something out. But I mean, they passed the last stop stopgap measure on September thirtieth, and I understand they had three weeks of chaos since then, but
they haven't been able to come to any agreements since then. I don't know what's going to happen in another thirty days, so I don't know that another stopgap measure is going to solve anything rather than just kick the can down the road. They've already said that they fear being forced to back a rival funding measure from the Democratic led Senate, which is why they want to pass another stop gap so they don't have to accept the Democratic proposal. I don't see
how Johnson is going to get out of this. Honestly, it only takes according to the new rules, it only takes one member from the speaker's party to call for a no confidence vote and remove him. We just saw it happen. It could happen again if he has to sit down and work with democap crats to keep the government open. And it might be something he doesn't like doing, but it might be something it's necessary for him to do.
And you're going to get those people that like the Freedom Caucus who are not going to go along with it. So, like I said, I don't eNB you the job he's got ahead of him. I was wondering what everybody thought was his most problem attribute, And do you really think he has control
of House members at this point? Aaron, what do you think? I think the most problematic attribute is that he tried to overturn the results of the last election, an election widely considered to be the most secure and accurate in the United States history. He fought to have those results overturned. He fought to have the voice the voters overturned. That's not someone who's interested in democracy. That's not someone who's interested in the rule of law. That's not someone
who is taking their oath to defend the constitution. Seriously, that's someone who, in my mind, is a trader and they have no business being in government and should be kicked out. Forth with Jimmy, Yeah, yeah, I agree. The term that I put in my notes is accessory to treason that took place on January sixth. Yeah, that could very well be the worst attribute about him. However, I think what's really not going to serve him well is his well lack of reputation. Right, He's just not outspoken
enough. I think if he is going to serve his idol, Donald Trump, that he needs to start getting angry and start being a little bit more fierce and kind of echo echo what you know, his his idol is really all about. You know, he's not going to fit in well. Granted, I think he's going to make a Maga puppet for sure, but I do think that you're going to start to see a little bit of an attitude
change from him if he is going to fit in city. Yeah. I'm thinking about what you just said, and it's hard to say because as much as I agree with the sentiment that he's pro Trumper. I think he is just out of self interest. I think his his will to turn the US into a theocracy, he's stronger than his allegiance to Trump. And so I
don't know. The future will will tell us if I'm right or wrong, but I think he will be kicked out because he's not pro Trump enough, and the moment he has to choose between Christopascism and trump Ism, he will choose the former. Well, allow me, allow me to circle back. Then, Sorry, Kelly, if you will no go for it, go
for it. I would like to ask Cindy, though, if he's if you think that he's in it for self interest, do you think that he would be willing to for go his goal to make the government of theocracy if Trump can promise him more power. Because while I see where you're coming from, I see people get a little taste of power and then they become very,
very obsessed in obtaining in maintaining it. And so I almost wonder if we'll see a change from this man so that he doesn't face the fate that you allude to, and that I think he might allude to too, which is why I said, this guy's going to change because his poorest attribute right now is at least speaking from you know, playing Devil's advocate here and speaking from the side of the Maga, the Maga cult, I would say that
his worst attribute is that he's not Maga enough. So I don't know what you think about that, but I thought, if he's acting in self interest, this guy's probably pretty likely to want to maintain power. I don't know. Yeah, Like I said, I think he's his will to turn the US into a theocracy. He's stronger than his will, his will to power, to be honest, that's how I see him. I listened to his
acceptance speech. I listened to many things he said, and he's I would describe him as a pure ideologue, and his ideology is the Bible, and so he will do everything he can to impose that to everyone. So yeah, I don't know. I think that time will tell. Yeah, Aaron, you have anything else you'd like to add? Well, what I really him not too happy about in Congress is that everybody seems to be and in our country and our culture, everything seems to be party first over constitution first,
over country first. And you know, it's I think it's okay to be party when you're out stomping and looking for votes and trying to tell people who you are, and and parties are a really good way of understanding what you know, just kind of at a quick glance, what somebody believes and what they want to accomplish. But once you get, once you enter those
halls of Congress, we need to stop putting party first. We need to put country first, and we need to work together, and we need to compromise, and we need to collaborate, and we didn't make things better, and just the way our democracy is structure right now is just not conducive to that. The two party system that we have, it's just it's not conducive to cooperation and compromise. And so what I really want to want to see
is some fundamental changes to our country and to our democracy. And I read some really great opinion pieces in the New York Times back in twenty eighteen that advocated for a few changes, and one of them was multi representational districts, so that when you divvy up who represents who in the country right now, it's one district, one representative. Well, think about what would be if
instead of one district one representative. There were like five representatives per one district, right, And when you do the analysis, you see that you actually get a more representative group of representatives in Congress where is today you get gerrymannered districts where you can kind of put all the Democrats in one district and then have a bunch of Republicans and so the Republicans have more control than they should
and vice versa. Democrats can do the same thing. When you have a district with multi mut multiple presentatives, that goes away, right, And it encourages not only to that, but it also encourages these representatives when they're out stumping and looking for votes, to actually cooperate with each other because they know, oh, I may not be the first choice, but I might be a second choice, or a third choice or a fourth choice. And so
it encourages people to get together. And as part of that, we also I think need to start adopting ranked choice voting. One of the problems with our single vote, single candidate approach is you can throw away your vote. Right. We have a lot of you know, there's the Libertarian Party, there's the Green Party, there's a whole bunch of other parties, but they never get votes. Why because a vote for that party is a vote for
your opponent party. Right. If I'm a Democrat, but I really want to vote for the Green Party, If I vote for the Green Party, I'm actually giving a vote to the Republican Party, and so I have to vote Democrat to counteract the Republican Party and vice versa. Right, that doesn't It goes both ways. But if you have a ranked choice vote, you can actually put in your vote. I prefer this Green Party candidate, but if they're not going to win, give my vote to this next person.
Or then then if they don't win, give my vote to this next person. So your vote all counts and you always get to get the candidate that you want, and so people are more likely. That would increase the number of parties that are being represented in Congress and in our government. Yeah, I agree. We have two states that are doing that now, Maine in Alaska. Yeah, and all the GUP in Alaska's claiming it's losing the elections for him. I don't know that that's true, but that's what they're claiming.
Yeah, And a couple more things I would also change is increase the size of the House of Representatives. We're too small. We haven't increased the size of the House of Representatives since we actually need to keep it at that at that size, yea, So it needs to be it needs to get bigger and decrease the size of our districts so there are more more people so the one one group can't take control. And then also we need publicly funded
elections. We have to take the private money out of elections. Seattle did this for their I believe city council votes, where everybody basically gets a little coupon I can't remember about this, for like five or ten or fifty dollars, and they can give that money to which whichever candidates they want. And I think we didn't do that. I think there needs to be public funded elections and everybody gets a certain amount of money they can then donate to whatever
candidates they want, and that's the only money that's available. No, that's a good idea. That's a really good idea. Something I just read today. Last week, we had talked about a spyware program called Covenant Eyes, so that you could spy on somebody to make to see what websites they were going to, and they would go to a partner who was making sure you were being not sinful with your surfing. And it turns out that Johnson and his son do this with each other, so they're spying on each other to
make sure they're not going to any bad websites. And Johnson didn't come out and say his son didn't go to any bad websites, but he didn't say what he had done, so I thought that was interesting, although I'm not sure that he did, but I think this has been a really good conversation. Again, if you'd like to get the nonprofits and podcast form, which is a great way to get us, you can do it at tiny dot cc slash am podcast. There's a bunch of the other shows over there.