Along with the rest of the congressional Republicans, Rep. Mike Garcia voted to elect Rep. Mike Johnson speaker of the House. Why is this important? The speaker of the House guides the vision of the Republicans in the House. What he decides is important is what the House Republicans work toward. He also is second in line for the presidency after the vice president. Who is Mike Johnson, the man Mr. Garcia believes is worthy of this position? Let’s see.
The first problem with this vote is that Mr. Johnson is decidedly unqualified to be speaker. According to Politico, “He is the least experienced speaker of the House in 140 years.” He has only been a member of Congress since 2017 and has never won a contested election. He has said on camera that his positions are based solely on the Bible. By the way, the First Amendment of the Constitution guarantees the separation of church and state. Mr. Johnson wants to use his church to run the state.
Mr. Johnson supported the “big lie” that Donald Trump had won the 2020 election. He created the excuse used by some Republicans (including Mike Garcia) to not vote to certify the electoral votes. He was a lead organizer of the December 2020 amicus brief in support of Texas v. Pennsylvania, the Supreme Court lawsuit contesting the election results.
Remember, none of the 60 lawsuits filed by Trump’s supporters ruled in favor of election fraud and several of the lawyers indicted for fraud for their support of the “big lie” have pleaded guilty.
Johnson’s views on marriage are singular and conservative. He and his wife are in a “covenant marriage” — a kind of marriage that makes it harder to get a divorce. He is an ardent opponent of same-sex marriage. In the Louisiana House, he proposed the Marriage and Conscience Act, preventing adverse treatment by the state of anyone based on their views on marriage. The bill, in the view of critics, protects people who discriminate against same-sex couples. He defended Louisiana’s same-sex marriage ban before the Supreme Court in 2004 and again in 2014.
His actions against the LGBTQ+ community continue that pattern. Johnson wrote editorials for his local paper that called homosexuality “inherently unnatural.”
“Your race, creed and sex are what you are, while homosexuality and cross-dressing are things you do,” he wrote. “This is a free country, but we don’t give special protections for every person’s bizarre choices.”
He recently led a hearing on limiting gender-affirming care. “Sex isn’t something you are assigned at birth. It is a prenatal development that occurs when every unborn child is in its mother’s womb. You can’t surgically free yourself, or someone else, from this fact of life,” he said in his opening statement. “Today, nearly one in four high school students identifies as LGBTQ. Whether it’s by scalpel or by social coercion from teachers, professors, administrators and left-wing media, it’s an attempt to transition the young people of our country. Something has gone terribly wrong.”
Throughout his career, he has authored many bills aiming to restrict abortion access, including the Unborn Child Protection from Dismemberment Abortion Act, the Second Chance at Life Act (regarding reversing medical abortions) and the Protect the UNBORN Act.
He opposes the legalization of marijuana, even medical marijuana, having called it a “gateway drug.”
A climate-science skeptic, he’s raked in more campaign cash in his congressional career from the oil and gas industry than any other industry, and he’s repeatedly downplayed climate change, according to E&E.
Finally, running for Congress in 2016, he signed the congressional term limits pledge of the organization called U.S. Term Limits: “I pledge that as a member of Congress I will cosponsor and vote for the U.S. Term Limits amendment of three (3) House terms …” He’s in his fourth term.
Voters of the 27th District, this is the man for whom Mike Garcia voted. He thinks this person is going to lead our Congress and our country into a conservative paradise. Think about Mike Johnson and Mike Garcia’s support for him when you vote next year.
Karen Fencil
Valencia
