‘He is theocratic’: Top Democrat on Speaker Mike Johnson’s leadership style
Johnson’s a Baptist. So is Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD), who served as Democratic leader for eight years. But Hoyer says that’s about where the comparisons end.
“He is theocratic,” Hoyer told Raw Story.
Hoyer and other Democrats are monitoring the extent to which Johnson infuses the House speakership with religion, now that he has the speaker’s gavel.
“He obviously has a record that does not speak to moderation,” Hoyer said. “I talked to him and I congratulated him on being speaker and I said, ‘It is hard to be bipartisan. It's easier to be with your clique or faction or side of the aisle. What is difficult is to know that we are one nation under God, indivisible.’”
Some Republicans, such as Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), claim the mantle ‘Christian nationalist,’ but Johnson doesn’t, even if he asserts that America was founded as a Christian nation — it wasn’t — and wants to make society reflect the Bible.
Just because Johnson isn’t a digital bomb thrower doesn’t mean he’s not dangerous, according to Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD).
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“He's got much better manners than Matt Gaetz or Marjorie Taylor Greene or Donald Trump, and he's a knowledgeable guy,” Raskin said. “Having said that, his politics tend towards the theocratic direction, and he's a leading champion of federal abortion ban. He's anti-gay. He opposes all gun safety measures. So he is a MAGA extremist in substance.”
Raskin says Johnson is emblematic of a broader transformation of today’s GOP.
“It demonstrates that there are no public policy values that unify the Republican caucus anymore. They don't have a secular program, so they have fallen back on theocracy as the final binding mechanism of their caucus,” Raskin said.
Democrats are making much ado about nothing, according to Sen. James Lankford (R-OK), one of the louder evangelical voices in Congress.
“If your faith only affects your weekends, that's not really a faith. That's a hobby. A hobby is something you do on weekends. Faith should affect how you treat other people, how you treat your spouse, how you drive, how you interact with people you agree or disagree with,” Lankford told Raw Story.
Many Democrats read the same Bible as Johnson, yet come to drastically different conclusions than him.
“I have concerns about what his faith apparently teaches him about homosexuality, women and women's rights, the trans community — LGBTQ community,” Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-PA) told Raw Story. “I’m a person of faith. I always think: What would Jesus think? I think Jesus would just lift people up where they are. Just the way they are. Just the way they are.”
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Dean served with Johnson on the Judiciary Committee and says he’s a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
“He’s anti so many of the things that I hold dear and value and am here to fight for. The wicked things he’s said in connection to abortion,” Dean said. “As a member of the Judiciary Committee, what always bothers me is when anybody spews lie after lie after insinuation after disinformation, and sadly, the speaker … has been guilty of that over and over again.”
Johnson’s religiosity has already factored into one political priority: campaign fundraising.
The National Republican Congressional Committee is fundraising off Speaker Mike Johnson's religious faith, urging supporters to "help Speaker Johnson bring his pro-God, pro-family agenda to America!" Credit: NRCC fundraising message
The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) this week blasted a message to supporters with the subject line, “Are you praying for our new Speaker?”
The email urged them to “sign” a “prayer card” for Johnson. Those who offer up their name, email address, cell phone number and ZIP code are then asked to donate between $15 and $1,000 to the NRCC, the House campaign arm of the Republican Party.
“We need to hit our donor goal so we can help Speaker Johnson bring his pro-God, pro-family agenda to America!” the NRCC proclaimed.
Johnson himself sent a similar message.
A fundraising message on Nov. 2, 2023, from House Speaker Mike Johnson's congressional campaign committee. Credit: Mike Johnson for Louisiana
"I know our country is in desperate need of prayer," he wrote today in a fundraising email from his congressional campaign committee. "Today I am asking if you share my faith in God and for the future of our nations, you'll join us. We cannot allow the radical Left to destroy the ideals our country was founded on."
Johnson then asks supporters to donate between $5 and $3,300 — the legal maximum for one election — to his campaign committee.