Four tedious rounds of voting results appoint of Mike Johnson as Speaker of the House.
Staff Writer, Asher Miles
After weeks of exasperating votes, all of the right-wings drivers have finally exited their clown car, as the House Republicans appointed election-denier Mike Johnson (R-LA) as Speaker of the House. However, Johnson’s religious conservatism may continue to stake a divide within the disjointed party.
In a dramatic fourth round of votes, Mike Johnson, Trump surrogate, was crowned, but not without enduring criticism from left-wing advocates for his unwavering opposition to LGBTQ+ rights, abortion privileges and his defense of the former President Trump in the 2020 presidential election.
The fight of internal party dynamics caused a fluid swirl of preferences within the Republican Party since the ouster of Rep. Kevin McCarthy on Oct. 7. If anything, Johnson is a conservative’s conservative, which may be able to hold the many factions of the Republican Party together.
Compared to former Speaker McCarthy, who was willing to put on new faces to acquiesce to his Party, Johson has been nebulous in his stances. He is a die-hard conservative who is so wrapped up in “free market and free trade agreements” that he bothered with little else, just as his website boldly proclaims.
Hence, the ongoing tussle between social and religious conservatives persists, despite the fact that their stances on hot-button topics often don’t quite match up with what American people actually want. Now, it makes one wonder, just how many fissures can appear in the Republican stronghold before Trump-y conservatives find themselves regulated to the sidelines.
On the other hand, if the conservatives wholeheartedly jump on Johnson’s stark conservatism, then saying au revoir to McCarthy, while perhaps a tedious endeavor, could ultimately prove to be a winning bet.
While the sluggish Democratic Party could seize on the opportunity in the midst of a deeply divided opposition, hoping for them to capitalize on it would be as unrealistic as expecting Humpty Dumpty to perch comfortably on the wall. In other words, things are going to crack.
The 22-day interregnum to find a competent House Speaker is a symptom and proof of the broken House majority - a Republican party that is unwilling to coalesce for their Party’s greater good.
In the end, critical issues such as a looming government shutdown and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict were on the line, and the House majority lacked the necessary judgment to make a comprehensive decision. As a result, the American people are granted a House Leader that doesn’t resonate with the majority of American’s politics and appears to be the last person picked on the playground. It’s quite lamentable.