With House Republicans electing Rep. Mike Johnson as Speaker of the House, there is absoultely no further question (not that there really was previously, for anyone paying attention) as to what we’re dealing with when it comes to the Trumpified, radicalized, extremist, “insurgent outlier” Republican Party. See below for some information on this anti-abortion absolutist, climate science denier, anti-democracy insurrectionist, etc., as well as some observations and reactions from Democrats. Also, for some more perspective on this disturbing and dangerous turn of events, see Thomas Zimmer Explains: “Republicans are engaged in a deliberate, systematic, and highly successful project to entrench minority rule” (“They will either *be stopped* – or install a system in which only they and those who reflect their image back at them are entitled to rule and recognized as equal”). And yes, this REALLY highlights what’s at stake in Virginia on 11/7.
P.S. I was chatting with some Dem politicos this morning about whether Mike Johnson’s even more dangerous in some ways than Jim Jordan, because Johnson doesn’t have Jordan’s “baggage,” because he’s more disciplined than Jordan but just as extreme (and as much of a far-right/MAGA “true believer”), etc.
For the fourth time, I proudly cast my vote for @RepJeffries for Speaker. pic.twitter.com/QoX7h73f1m
— Congresswoman Jennifer McClellan (@RepMcClellan) October 25, 2023
“With today’s election of Mike Johnson as Speaker of the House of Representatives, the Republican Party has completed its devolution into chaos and extremism. Instead of working with Democrats toward a responsible, bipartisan governing coalition, Republicans – including supposed ‘moderates’ – have weaponized the bad behavior of their most extreme members and cemented far-right extremist rule in the House. Having served with Mike Johnson on the so-called Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, I know him to be a far-right ideologue and a defender of insurrection. House Republicans have had three weeks to decide between bipartisan governance and MAGA extremism. Today, they made their choice.” – Rep. Gerry Connolly
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