'Shrewd moves': Columnist says speaker posed as 'righteously persecuted' to gain power

House speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) ascended to second in line to the presidency but somehow still seems to believe that he and other conservative Christians are a persecuted minority, according to a report.

The Louisiana Republican rose to power through the backchannels of the religious right networks that exert tremendous pressure on conservative politics but largely operate outside the view of political reporting, and he's fond of quoting Matthew 10:16-18 to advise fellow Christians to be "wise as serpents and harmless as doves" in the "hostile world" of American society, wrote New Republic staff writer Melissa Gira Grant.

"Johnson is no harmless dove, or a wise serpent," Grant wrote. "He is a man who has been steadily accruing political and religious power, largely outside the limelight, for years. When he assumed the speakership of the House of Representatives last week, it seemed to be despite or perhaps precisely because he had effectively assumed the guise he once advised fellow Christians to take: a nice guy, one who knows how to make shrewd moves with an air of absolute innocence.

"Now, even as he stands second in line to the presidency, Johnson hopes to retain the role of the righteously persecuted."

Johnson rose through the ranks of the religious conservative legal world, where he served as the public face of the anti-LGBTQ Alliance Defending Freedom and internalized that organization's signature thesis — "inverting the victim and the oppressor," as Grant wrote.

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"It would be comforting to look at this argument, alleging Christians in the United States are victims of discrimination and persecution who are owed protection by the state, and see it merely as a ploy, a way of gaming the legal system," Grant wrote.

"But Johnson appears to sincerely believe it. After nearly a decade of the MAGA movement, and opposition to it too often confined to fact-checking and prosecuting a cast of out-of-touch extremists, untalented grifters, and shameless con men, Johnson appears to have scrambled the playbook — because he does seem to really believe in something more than his own self-advancement."

Johnson stepped into a Louisiana state legislature seat without facing an opponent and then later attempted to help Donald Trump remain in office despite losing his 2020 election, and as a state lawmaker tried to pass legislation undermining marriage equality by citing "specific examples" of clergy members and religious groups “prosecuted, fined, [and] punished” for refusing to perform same-sex weddings – but there's no evidence of that happening.

"How far of a leap is it from fake prosecutions to fake electors?" Grant wrote. "The distance is considerably narrowed if you believe God wills you to go there."

"Johnson’s election denialism and his anti-LGBTQ politics emerge from the same ideological commitments," she added. "After all, if under democracy white Christians are being 'replaced' — by immigrants, by Muslims, by trans kids, by drag queens, by a whole litany of scapegoats — perhaps the only way to save the United States and white Christians is to end democracy. Democracy leads to abortions and gay sex. Democracy means that the candidate ordained by God can maybe lose an election."