The New Speaker of the House Doesn't Much Represent America.

 It's politics, with a younger meaner crowd edging their way into the current power structure...

A member of the Christian right faction of the Republican Party, Mike Johnson is known for his strong support for a nationwide abortion ban and an end to legal same-sex marriages. He has called for the Supreme Court decision Obergefell v. Hodges to be overturned and for medical marijuana to be restricted, referring to the latter as a "gateway drug". In December 2020, Johnson signed an amicus brief in support of Texas v. Pennsylvania, a lawsuit filed at the Supreme Court contesting the results of the 2020 presidential election. In January 2021, Johnson voted to overturn the election results in Pennsylvania. Johnson has cultivated close ties to Protestant fundamentalist groups Louisiana Family Forum, Alliance Defending Freedom, and Focus on the Family. Prior to his career as a politician, he worked with them to "represent churches, pastors and congregants whose vision of religious freedom conflicted with government regulations".

These evangelical, Southern social trad-cons sure do like their wars though... Hate never wins.  Wait and see...

Johnson is the least experienced Speaker in terms of House service in 140 years.^[13] On October 25, 2023, he was elected the 56th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives.^[14]

Early life and education[edit]

Johnson was born in Shreveport,^[15] the oldest of four children of Jeanne Johnson and James Patrick Johnson. His father was a firefighter who founded the nonprofit organization the Percy R. Johnson Burn Foundation, named after his partner Percy R. Johnson, the city's first African-American fire instructor and captain, who died in the line of duty.^[16] Johnson's father was also critically burned and disabled in the line of duty during the same fire.^[17] Johnson has two brothers, Chris and Josh, and a sister, Laura.^[18] Johnson's maternal grandfather, Nunzio Messina, was from Italy, and he has some French and Irish ancestry on his father's side of the family.^[19]

Johnson graduated from Captain Shreve High School in Shreveport. He received an undergraduate degree in business administration from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. He holds a Juris Doctor from Louisiana State University Law Center.^[20]

Before his election to Congress, Johnson was a partner in the Kitchens Law Firm and a senior attorney and national media spokesman for the Alliance Defense Fund, now known as Alliance Defending Freedom.^[21] Johnson was also formerly chief counsel of the nonprofit law firm Freedom Guard.^[22]

In September 2016, Johnson characterized his legal career as "defending religious freedom, the sanctity of human life, and biblical values, including the defense of traditional marriage, and other ideals like these when they’ve been under assault."^[23]

Johnson served as a trustee of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission within the Southern Baptist Convention from 2004 to 2012.

Johnson came to some prominence in the late 1990s when he and his wife appeared on national television to represent Louisiana's newly passed marriage covenant laws, which made divorce more difficult legally.^[24]