Kevin McCarthy. Steve Scalise. Jim Jordan. Tom Emmer. 21 days of deliberation, secret ballots, and full House votes, as representatives cycled through these four candidates. However, they landed on none of these. Instead, Mike Johnson earned the job as Speaker of the House.
Johnson is currently serving his fourth term as a member of the House of Representatives, and the Republican majority in the House elected him as Speaker. He is a controversial figure, but he looks poised to be Speaker until 2025.
Mike Johnson is a unifier. This is evident by how he brought a deeply divided House GOP together. Eight Republicans, led by Florida Representative Matt Gaetz, ousted Former Speaker Kevin McCarthy in a historic vote. Steve Scalise and Tom Emmer dropped out for unknown reasons. Jim Jordan lost three consecutive House votes because many considered him a far-right figure.
Johnson unified all of the House Republicans. If this hadn’t been done, the United States would have entered a government shutdown where all government employees would have gone without pay. In addition, key aid packages for Israel would never have been given.
Johnson has also called for long-missing unity between Democrats and Republicans. In his opening speech, he stated, “I know we see things from very different points of view, but I know that in your heart you love and care about this country, and you want to do what’s right. I look forward to working with you.”
One of the main criticisms of the new Speaker is that he is a Christian nationalist. However, there is no evidence of him ever disparaging other religious groups, and it almost feels like far-left people and groups say this to diminish and dehumanize his faith, likely for their own political gain. Actions such as that should not be tolerated by our society.
The only truly warranted criticism of the new Speaker is his extreme homophobia.
The only truly warranted criticism of the new Speaker is his extreme homophobia. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, who is a member of the LGBTQ+ community, stated, “I actively feel like my kids are less safe every time we pass the Capitol building, and we know that it is led by [Johnson].”
This discrimination is never warranted, and we as a country should not accept this. However, we can still distinguish his fallacies from the fact that Speaker Johnson is a unifier of a deeply divided country.
