Real Time With Bill Maher: The MAGA Party

Source:Real Time With Bill Maher- FNC anchor Jessica Tarlov.

"Jessica Tarlov and Scott Galloway join Bill to discuss the threat posed to democracy by the GOP's embrace of Christian nationalism." 

From Real Time With Bill Maher

I hate to sound like a traffic cop whose always telling people to slow down, or even a political traffic cop, whose telling people they need to think about this and hold off a little bit, before reaching a final conclusion on this, because that's like considered so old school in today's modern 24 hour, pop political culture, where everything is about trending on social media and so-forth, but we don't know who Speaker Mike Johnson is. 

We should wait on him and see what his Speakership will be like, a few months even, before we decide to call him MAGA Mike, or just plain Speaker Mike Johnson, because he's actually doing the job as Speaker and not trying to act like the next lord and savior of the MAGA movement, perhaps even replacing their national cult hero, also known as Donald J. Trump. 

We know who U.S. Representative Mike Johnson is, before he became Speaker of the House. And to paraphrase former U.S. Representative Adam Kinzinger, who is now a political commentator for CNN, Mike Johnson when they were in the House together during the last decade, he would tell you that Representative Johnson was a center-right, establishment Republican, who would work others in order to pass positive legislation. 

But then Superstorm Donald hit the Republican Party and it just occurred to Johnson, that he represents Shreveport, Louisiana in the House, which is one of the state capitals of the MAGA movement and he figured he needed to be The Donald of Shreveport, to keep his job and to advance in the Republican Party. Which is exactly what he did when he personally represented former President Trump when Trump got impeached for the 2nd time in 2021 and he represented Trump at the 2nd Senate trial. And of course was personally involved in the Trump's Campaign to try to overturn the certified 2020 presidential election as well. 

I'm not saying that Speaker Mike Johnson is not MAGA Mike, because he could very well be MAGA Mike, which is what Representative Matt Gaetz (whose not as politically braindead, as he seems to want people to believe) calls him. I'm just saying that there are other things and possibilities that people need to think about here and also take a lesson from fairly recent political history and at least consider this before making up their minds on the new Speaker. 

Go back to the mid 1990s and the House Minority Whip Newt Gingrich, when he was campaigning for House Republicans to win back the House in 1994. Newt was as wildcard, and right-wing populist as Matt Gaetz is today. Most establishment Republicans didn't like Newt either. 

But then Newt becomes Speaker and realizes that there's still a Democratic President and for him and House Republicans to get anything done, for any of their agenda, their Contract With America to actually become law, they would not just have to be able to work with President Bill Clinton, but have to work with Senate Republicans, who tend to be more moderate anyway, because they represent entire states and not just gerrymandered House districts. And he might have to work with at least some so-called moderate House Democrats, just to get their bills out of the House. And look at the results of the Gingrich Speakership, at least from a Republican perspective: 

Welfare To Work

Balanced budgets

Entitlement reform

Tax cuts 

Line item veto

All of these proposals were part of the Gingrich Contract With America from 1994 and all of them became law, by the time that Newt Gingrich left the House by the end of 1998. And none of this happens, if he doesn't work with not just so-called moderates in the House Republican Conference, but Senate Republicans, as well as President Clinton. 

I'm just saying there's another road for Speaker Johnson to take, that he could take, if he wants to be remembered as a Speaker who did something besides become the highest ranking member of the MAGA movement, in the Republican Party, as well as the 3rd ranking officer in the entire U.S. Government. 

If Mike Johnson is just MAGA Mike, that's all he'll be and we can expect another year of: 

government shutdowns 

government defaults 

no appropriations bills 

no budgets being passed 

the House almost in complete gridlock, because of how tight the Republican majority still is, and with their inability to even work with their own members, let alone House Democrats, 

with House Republicans, especially the 20-30 House Republicans who'll have nothing positive to run for reelection on, who are endangered of losing their House seats next year to Democrats 

and Democrats winning back the House as a result, because American voters are fed up with the gridlock and want their government working and representing their interests again. 

Or we could see Mike Johnson become Speaker Johnson and decide to work with what's left of the center-right in his own conference, as well as Senate Democrats, and The White House, to keep the government running and operating as it's supposed to be and create some real positive change in a bipartisan way. Or he could decide after he becomes Speaker of the House, that he's nothing but another MAGA soldier, but who now has a speaker's gavel. But it's too early for this. Let's see where the House is in a few months from now. 

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