So much for Mike Johnson
After House Republicans reluctantly settled on Mike Johnson as Speaker, we saw the media spend several days doing its usual thing of tripping over itself to declare how dangerously powerful Johnson is. The mainstream media always writes this about every new right winger who comes along, whether it’s true or not, because it scares mainstream audience members into tuning in.
But the minute Johnson became Speaker, I pointed out the obvious: the various House Republican factions only agreed on Johnson because he’s such a powerless weakling. They’re each hoping to force him to do things their way. And since he’s a nobody with little influence or experience, he’s simply going to get ripped apart by his own caucus.
Now we’re starting to see the mainstream media kind of admit this. For instance Politico is now documenting the various ways in which House Republicans are already starting to walk all over Mike Johnson. And since it won’t be possible for him to keep all of these factions happy, at least one faction will become dissatisfied with him as Speaker soon enough.
Will they oust Johnson at that point, knowing that there really is no one else on their side to take his place? Or will they just keep pulling him in all different directions at once until he wishes they’d oust him? We’ll see.
But the point is that Mike Johnson is in an obvious position of weakness and vulnerability. If our goal is to win, then we must identify and take advantage of the ways in which the other side is vulnerable. That means calling out Johnson for being weak and powerless and in over his head, in order to weaken him further.
If we sit around and talk about how “dangerously powerful” a powerless nobody like Mike Johnson is, all we’re doing is building him up in the eyes of right wingers. We’re telling them to get behind this guy and support him. If we instead accurately call Johnson out for being weak and vulnerable and a punchline, we’re letting right wingers know that there’s no reason for them to try to prop this guy up because he’s doomed already. Messaging matters.
