“Skilled, Likable, and Lovable”
While the origin of American Christofascism is debated among historians, the ascent of smiling Christofascist Mike Johnson to Speaker of the United States House of Representatives on October 25 demonstrated the grip fundamentalists have on the nation today. A man who looks a bit like Stephen Colbert, Mike Johnson was described by some of his fellow Republicans as “skilled, likable, and lovable” (words we might use to describe Colbert). However, unlike Stephen Colbert, who is also a Christian, Mike Johnson wants everyone to behave in accordance with what he believes parts of his holy book are telling him.
You may have wondered how Donald Trump (who much more resembles the Antichrist than Jesus Christ) got the vote of America’s most extreme fundamentalists. Sure, some Americans are single-issue voters supporting any candidate determined to take reproductive rights away from women. But for dogmatic Christians to get behind a political candidate en masse, it takes special interest groups to push messaging. In 2016, one such group did this for Mr. Trump: the Council for National Policy (CNP). Don’t be fooled by their generic, innocent-sounding name.
Time for a true zealot
The CNP, founded in 1981 by right-wing fundamentalists and oil barons, is a retrograde, shadowy organization that is happiest when the rich stay rich and the poor stay controlled by church dogma. What was the CNP’s quid pro quo with Trump? They helped with his ascent to the highest office in exchange for Donald agreeing to install extremist judges who are out of step with the American public on abortion, citizens’ rights, and environmental regulations. (It turns out that 4 of 5 Americans don’t want abortion banned, that most think their compatriots should have the same rights, and that they don’t want to be poisoned by corporations).
What does the CNP have to do with the ascent of smiling Christofascist Mike Johnson? Well, the CNP realized that Trump is a loser. A top-down neofascist party where nobody is allowed to disagree with the leader becomes a problem when that party loses so many elections from 2020-2023. Even with gerrymandering and a rural-rigged Electoral College that gives the GOP a substantial advantage, the nation’s radical religious extremists know they can’t count on a loser like Donald Trump to bring wins in 2024. They can’t put a bona fide Bible-thumping zealot in the Oval Office, but they can (and did) push for one as Speaker of the House of Representatives. In the line of succession, this individual is two heartbeats away from becoming POTUS.
U.S. Rep Mike Johnson / Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi
The Iranian political system is a tangled mess that presents itself as some kind of democracy because it offers voting yet in practice is an authoritarian, totalitarian theocracy. The Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi might be considered as roughly equivalent to Mike Johnson in his power level since Iran’s “Rahbar” is their POTUS. Mike is probably quite envious of the Rahbar’s theocratic accomplishments and Iran’s authoritarian government — not dissimilar to how Trump praises totalitarian world leaders.
As usual it’s not about Christ, it’s about Power
There are many Christians in the “United” States who can accept reality. Mike Johnson is not one of them. Mike does not believe that Trump lost the election. Unfortunately in today’s America, belief overrides truth and reality, so Mike will figuratively get away with murder within the political system. (Is it any wonder that a person who bases their life around belief in a supernatural story from 2,000 years ago would also be fanatical about other beliefs, independent of facts and reality?) Mike voted against impeachment, and there’s only one reason he did: power. Just like Jesus always said, “thou shalt force people to conform to your beliefs”. jk, Jesus never said anything of the sort.
In fact, the ascent of smiling Christofascist Mike Johnson has little to do with Christ and has everything to do with power. Does the Bible tell you that stealing is good? Not last time I checked, but Mike voted against removing verified crook George Santos from the House. Why? Power, or course. Anything that decreases Christofascist power takes priority over ethics, morality, or what Jesus would have done. Mike Johnson really could care less about the teachings of Jesus. Mike is the very definition of a hypocrite.
The Descent of Smiling Christofascist Mike Johnson ?
01/10/2024. Uh-oh, Mike messed up. Instead of burning his country to the ground, he decided to hash out a deal with the nation’s non-Christofascist political party. Some far far-right radical extremists in his House (the “Freedum Caucus”) are punishing him for not being fascist enough. Should the CNP zealots be worried that zealot Mike could be booted from his position by zealots of a different stripe? It’s hard to imagine that the GOP wants to undergo another grueling process to find a replacement for Mike, but GOP House simians like Marjorie Taylor Greene are so psychotic that nobody knows what to expect from them.
Remember the American rightwing panic over “Sharia law” during the Obama years? As with most things GOP, it was pure fearmongering, untethered to reality. Conversely, Mike has forecasted his sickly Christofascist machinations; we don’t need to postulate, for they are well-documented. While he’s as clueless about governing as Trump was in 2016, there’s no reason to think he won’t also do the opposite of what Jesus would do in most scenarios.