News bits: The bad new speaker; American radicalization update; Etc.

New House speaker Mike Johnson is a radical right authoritarian, a traitor who voted to stop the 2020 election and a deeply corrupt climate crackpot: 

New House Speaker Champions Fossil Fuels 

and Dismisses Climate Concerns

Representative Mike Johnson comes from Louisiana oil country and has said he does not believe burning fossil fuels is changing the climate

Representative Mike Johnson of Louisiana, the newly elected House speaker, has questioned climate science, opposed clean energy and received more campaign contributions from oil and gas companies than from any other industry last year.  

Since 2018, Mr. Johnson has received about $240,000 in campaign contributions from the oil and gas industry, according to Open Secrets, a campaign finance watchdog.

The vote for Johnson was reported to be unanimous. That's evidence that there are no moderates left in the radical right authoritarian GOP. All that's left is radical right authoritarians and extremely radical right authoritarians.

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This year’s Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) annual American Values Survey indicate that the MAGA movement has radicalized millions of Americans. The WaPo comments in an opinion piece:

The survey’s great value comes as a warning about the radicalization and alienation of a segment of the major parties’ followers. “Today, nearly a quarter of Americans (23%) agree that ‘because things have gotten so far off track, true American patriots may have to resort to violence in order to save our country,’ up from 15% in 2021,” the survey found. “PRRI has asked this question in eight separate surveys since March 2021. This is the first time support for political violence has peaked above 20%.” A full third of Republicans believe this, compared with 13 percent of Democrats. Meanwhile, QAnon believers have jumped from 14 percent of Americans to 23 percent, with Republicans twice as likely as Democrats to buy into the extreme conspiracy theory.

Clearly, authoritarianism has made greater inroads among Republicans than other groups. “About half of Republicans (48%) agree with the need for a leader who is willing to break some rules, compared with four in ten independents (38%) and three in ten Democrats (29%).”  

Most frightening is how many Republicans buy into white Christian nationalism, a racist ideology that rejects the basic premise of our democracy: “All men are created equal.” One-third of Americans but 52 percent of Republicans agree that “God intended America to be a new promised land where European Christians could create a society that could be an example to the rest of the world.” The number is even higher among White evangelical Protestants (54 percent). Americans who subscribe to white Christian nationalism are more than twice as likely as other Americans to say true patriots might have to resort to violence to save the country.  

When a sizable portion of one of the major political parties, aided by a right-wing propaganda machine and infused with religious fervor, rejects the basis for multiracial, multicultural democracy, we face a severe crisis. Even if Trump does not return to the White House, this radicalized segment will not disappear. How we reintegrate millions of Americans into reality-based, pro-democracy politics in a diverse country remains the great challenge of our time.

On the encouraging side, an overwhelming majority of Americans support teaching the good and the bad of American history, trust public school teachers to select appropriate curriculum, and strongly oppose banning books that discuss slavery or banning Advanced Placement African American History. A solid majority of Americans opposes banning social and emotional learning programs in public schools. The poll data indicates that Republican “anti-wokeism” messaging is deeply unpopular. 

Even more encouraging, public sympathy for radical right authoritarianism, denials of racism and abortion bans, especially among the GOP’s main base of White evangelical Christians, are opposed by a solid majority of Americans.

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The Hill writes about how one House member sees the election of the authoritarian radical Mike Johnson:

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) held up newly-elected Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) as a shining example of the strength of the “MAGA movement,” after every GOP member of Congress voted for him to be Speaker on Wednesday, ending three weeks of chaos in the House.

That jives with how the WaPo opinion describes the effect of the MAGA movement on the now fully radicalized, authoritarian GOP in the House.