Mike Johnson Might Be an Upgrade but Not Because of What You Think - Top 3 Takeaways – October 26th, 2023
- Not necessarily an upgrade...but at least the nonsense is over (for now). That was my initial take on the back of the vote to make Mike Johnson the next speaker of the House. After all, all the ouster of former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy ever really was, was a personal vendetta carried out by Matt Gaetz and his small gang of malcontents who almost like being the center of attention as much as him. As I said at the outset of the House spectacle a few weeks ago... Gaetz will take a victory lap and lean on the ignorance of others who still don’t know or don’t want to account for why he has spear-headed a yearlong effort to circumvent the conservative agenda all because his top concern isn’t a conservative agenda. It isn’t what’s in the best interests of this country. It hasn’t been serving his constituents. It’s been about the House ethics investigation that’s ongoing into Gaetz for alleged bribery and sex-trafficking. The investigation that he blackmailed McCarthy into attempting to end and that resulted in a personal vendetta against him when he didn’t. So now that that is settled so too (?) is the matter of having a new speaker of the House. Mike Johnson. He of the 84% Heritage score and 74% Liberty score who now finally replaces Kevin McCarthy of the 88% Heritage score and 54% Liberty score, which means that from a conservative’s perspective what’s happened here isn’t really much of an upgrade. Now, that’s not at all meant as a slight to Mike Johnson – he may well prove to be an outstanding House speaker. It’s my hope that he will. But now it’s time to get back to reality. And it’s a reality I spoke of just prior to the vote to ousting McCarthy from the Speakership: Democrats control two-thirds of the Federal government. Expecting McCarthy to act as hardline ideologue as opposed to a conservative pragmatist is unrealistic. If you want more conservative policies in Congress – win more elections. Because Republicans didn’t win more elections last year – especially in the Senate – compromised policy is the only policy that exists in this Congress. It is literally the only policy that can exist. And that’s the reality in which House Speaker Mike Johnson will now have to operate within. For three weeks all of the congressional investigations have been on hold. For three weeks the impeachment inquiry has been on hold (and does that even exist anymore since it was McCarthy’s unilateral decision to begin it?). For three weeks all forms of legislating have been on hold. But now it’s back to reality, one in which Democrats still hold most of the power in the federal government and in which the only way there will be any policy is through compromise. If you squint you might be able to try to make the case that Mike Johnson kinda, maybe, possibly is ever-so-slightly more conservative than Kevin McCarthy, but the fact of the matter is that he’s not really an upgrade from anyone’s perspective generally and that’s no fault of his own. It will not be his fault when he necessarily negotiates and legislates like his predecessor did – which is what must happen when you only hold a third of the power. But hey at least Matt Gaetz and his small gang of malcontents are happy here. That’s all this was ever about anyway. That said...
- Damage has been done. This three plus week fiasco came with the potential for political consequences. Some are more apparent than others. The lost weeks of congressional investigations into DOJ weaponization and the Biden Crime Family are evident. Lost weeks working on and negotiating over a new spending bill with a looming November 17th deadline is significant too. Over three lost weeks working on any legislation that you might personally care about. But then there’s the political perception of all of this. Perception is reality especially when it comes to voting and guess what? Persuadable people in the middle who decide close elections don’t like dysfunction. Presiding over the third longest vacancy for a House Speaker in US history, which happened to be the longest since the Civil War, and shutting down the People’s House for over three weeks is frowned upon. The average generic ballot poll conducted prior to the ouster of Kevin McCarthy compared to the average poll today shows Democrats having benefitted by 2.5% during this process. It goes without saying that a 2.5% swing politically is an awfully big deal. How big? Republicans won the tiny House majority they currently hold by winning 2.8% more of the congressional vote last year. The net effect of it in real-time is that Democrats are now slightly preferred over Republicans on the generic ballot for the first time in this cycle. The question now becomes how permanent was the damage that was done in the minds of those in the middle who were turned off by this. There’s a year to change perceptions which is a lot of time, but what’s required is responsibly legislating as opposed to political posturing and personal vendettas. Hopefully that’s now what will be allowed to happen here. And based on his speech...
- Mike Johnson will get the job done. From God, to inflation and the southern border he delivered a speech upon becoming speaker that had me cheering. And his first spoken action as House Speaker – to commence a committee to oversee this country’s unsustainable debt spending for the purpose of seeking recommendations to dramatically reduce it. I mentioned that he spoke of God. It’s that message which was without a doubt the most meaningful to me. He said this: I WANT TO TELL ALL MY COLLEAGUES WHAT I TOLD THE REPUBLICANS IN THAT ROOM LAST NIGHT, I DON'T BELIEVE THERE ARE ANY COINCIDENCEES. I BELIEVE THAT SCRIPTURE AND THE BIBLE IS VERY CLEAR THAT GOD IS THE ONE THAT RAISED UP EACH OF YOU AND GOD HAS ALLOWED US TO BE BROUGHT HERE TO THIS SPECIFIC MOMENT AND TIME. I BELIEVE EACH ONE OF US HAS A HUGE RESPONSIBILITY TODAY TO USE THE GIFTS THAT GOD HAS GIVEN US TO STRIVE THE EXTRAORDINARY GIFTS OF THIS GREAT COUNTRY AND THIS IS THE GREAT BEACON OF LIGHT, HOPE AND FREEDOM IN A WORLD THAT DESPERATELY NEEDS IT. Maybe Mike Johnson will prove to be an upgrade after all. Not based on voting records and partisanship but rather by putting God first in a world and in a chamber where people have long been putting themselves first.