His Republican colleagues call him a bookworm. Mike Johnson has the face of what was once called a nerd and now a nerd, when Halloween has retired the chestnut trees and the panellets.
His election as president of the House of Representatives, after twenty-two days of anxiety, ridiculous chaos and humiliation, is a political thermometer of the United States and the Grand Old Party (GOP), at a time when one in four citizens considers it legitimate resort to violence, according to a recent survey, to save the country.
Maga Mike, as he is already known for being one of the hooligans of Trumpism, believes more in God than in democracy. The Almighty and Trump are his hallmarks. Although he boasts of being a constitutionalist – the Constitution does not allow any reading other than the literal one – this does not prevent him from demonizing the consecrated commandment of the peaceful transfer of the presidency.
This 51-year-old evangelical Christian is one of those who thinks in the 21st century that the Church and power must go together. “The founders wanted to protect the Church from an invading State, not the other way around,” he stated in 2022 in the podcast he makes with his wife, Kelly, with whom he has four children, titled Truth be told. .
Staunch anti-abortion and anti-homosexual, fundamentalist of moralism, this inexperienced congressman elected from Louisiana, who entered the House in 2017, has already earned the merit of being described as the most conservative and extremist president of the House of Representatives that this body has ever had. . Analyst Jamelle Bouie considers that he was “too dark” a character to have enemies. “He is neither moderate nor institutionalist. Quite the contrary, he comes from the far-right and anti-institutionalist wing of the Republican Party,” he said in an article.
If he had no enemies to annoy and stop his emergence, he did cultivate a great friend, Donald Trump, who has made the party his own with his bellicose and intimidating rhetoric.
The former president sabotaged the third nominee for the position, the moderate conservative Tom Emmer, who did not endorse his coup d'état and voted to certify Joe Biden's victory at the polls. Trump destroyed it.
Instead, Johnson's victory was attributed as a personal success. This time he didn't exaggerate. One of their own, one of the main architects of his coup strategy, has risen to the third position in the US command ladder.
President Biden assured that he is not worried that in 2024, if he wins again, Johnson will try again to overturn the popular will. Although he is mitigated by the control of the Senate Democrats, that concern is palpable.
Little known for his legislative contributions, despised even by his own people due to his radicalism, his name will forever be linked to the denial of the result of the polls in 2020, which led to the tragic day of January 6, 2021 with the takeover of the Capitol by the fascist hordes, sorry, Trumpists.
He went much further than anyone else in creating and spreading the falsehood of electoral theft. Legal arguments are due to his work, such as the unconstitutionality of electoral measures due to Covid or Venezuela's conspiracy with counting machines, all those ideas that were not only despised by justice but even ridiculed. It was normal that a journalist, as soon as he was elected, would question him about the matter. Johnson dodged it, while his fellow Republicans responded with a “boo.”
Despite the whitewashing that the Fox network is trying to do about his figure, a network to which he gives interviews, the Democrats have already designated Johnson as “the boogeyman” for 2024.
He is pursued by his proposals for zero dollars for social aid or for Ukraine, for the total abolition of abortion or for annulling the “diabolical behavior” of gay marriage. “You will end up marrying his pet” or “there is no right to sodomy in the Constitution,” she wrote.
