Mike Johnson Understands Nothing About the United States of America

I attended my local No Kings rally near where I live in the Maryland suburbs of Washington. As I wrote on Facebook when I got home: “Just got home from my local No Kings march. Between the Hamasniks screaming ‘Death to Israel!’ and the antifa hooligans toting Bushmasters and all the other assorted terrorists, I barely got out of there with my life.”

I explained in the next paragraph that I was, of course, kidding. My wife and I were surrounded by people of all races and ages (though admittedly it skewed older) waving American flags and carrying placards professing their love of democracy and country. The mood was upbeat; strangers greeted one another convivially, as we all knew we were there for a common purpose. Thousands of motorists honked their horns in solidarity as they whisked along Rockville Pike, and the occasional Trumpist gave a thumbs down or another certain finger, which was fine too, because hey, it’s (for now) a free country.

I spent the afternoon watching MSNBC and CNN live reports on other rallies around the country, intermingled with some college football and one Modern Family episode with my daughter (that Cam, what a riot!). At one point in the late afternoon my daughter mischievously switched it to Fox News, as she is wont to do. And there was the chyron, making reference, still, to the “Hate America Rallies.”

I know this is naïve of me, but I really couldn’t believe it. It was one thing to distort the intent and nature of these rallies in the run-up to them by saying they were for violent terrorists who despise the United States of America. I mean, it was disgusting, and it was 100 percent propaganda, but that’s Fox, projecting onto a blank canvas.

But by late afternoon Saturday, the events had happened; the smaller ones like mine finished in the early afternoon, and the larger ones and the ones out West were just wrapping up. There was no violence at all. Seven million people attended. There were American flags everywhere. The rallies were the very definition of patriotism: People who love their country and want to do what they can to save it from tyranny.

In other words: By late Saturday afternoon, there was actual news to report about these rallies—and actual pictures to see. And what the news and those pictures indelibly revealed was that millions of Americans were peacefully exercising their First Amendment rights and waving millions of flags. There was no “hating” of America. In fact, what happened was precisely the opposite of that. And still, Fox went full Pravda.

House Speaker Mike Johnson and many other Republicans spent the days leading up to the rallies saying they were essentially going to be Soros-backed terrorist gatherings. (Some reports suggest there were upwards of seven million people marching, so if George Soros is obligated to pay them all, the right should be celebrating his bankruptcy.) Last Friday, Johnson said, “You’re going to bring together the Marxists, the socialists, the antifa advocates, the anarchists, and the pro-Hamas wing of the far-left Democratic Party.”

Sunday on CNN, he stayed true to form. The rallies were evidence of  “a rise of Marxism in the Democratic Party.” Unable to discuss any actual violence, he whined about a few violent signs.  

He should be ashamed of himself. He should also have gone to one of the rallies in his congressional district—there appear to have been three of them, and two more right nearby—and seen for himself the flags and the “I love my country” signs and talked to some of the good and decent people from all walks of life who attended. In Leesville, he might have met people like organizer Bradley Hesson, who told KALB-TV: “We’re out here to show we are not silent during these times. We’re going to stand up for our neighbors who feel forced into hiding.” If he’d hopped over to Lake Charles, just outside his district, he might have seen organizer Carolyn Woolsey escort a pro-Trump counter-protestor past the crowd to ensure that nothing happened to him.

Johnson and others of his Trumpist ilk truly understand nothing about the United States of America. They think this is a Christian nation. They want a country based on “Biblical principles.” I’m not sure which Biblical principles he means. The Biblical principles I was taught as a young Episcopalian were to love thy neighbor as thyself, be compassionate toward the poor and needy, treat the stranger among you with love, and don’t ever lie. The principles Johnson follows as a legislator are hate thy neighbor, to hell with the poor and needy, throw strangers in detention camps, and worship a man who lies every time he opens his mouth. (And recruit your son to monitor your pornography habits.)

And no, the United States is not a Christian nation and was never intended to be. The two leading authors of American principle and law were Thomas Jefferson, who wrote the Declaration of Independence, and James Madison, who was the father of the Constitution. Let’s see what they had to say on the matter.

Jefferson adamantly opposed any governmental attempt to impose a particular religion. He was part of a group that prevented the inclusion of a mention of Jesus Christ into Virginia’s Statute for Religious Freedom. To him, religious freedom was “meant to comprehend, within the mantle of its protection, the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and Mahometan, the Hindoo and infidel of every denomination.” Yes: He said infidel.

And Madison? He went even further, such that he’s sometimes referred to as the author of the American concept of separation of church and state. Again, in Virginia, Patrick Henry in 1785 proposed a tax to support the teaching of the Christian religion. Madison opposed it vigorously. He wrote and published his “Memorial and Remonstrance Against Religious Assessments” (tax assessments, that is), a scathing 15-point polemic against the bill.

Johnson had his forebears, like Henry and many others who wanted a Christian nation. But they lost the argument. Nevertheless, they were zealots back then: Madison published his remonstrance anonymously out of concern for his safety. They remain so today, and, then as now, it’s the right, Christian and otherwise, that perpetrates the most violence in this country.

And it’s their beloved leader, Donald Trump, who Saturday night—after observing the protests and concluding no doubt to his great frustration that he couldn’t find anything bad to say about them—posted to X an AI video of himself as a fighter pilot literally dumping tons of excrement on rally attendees. This is the president of the United States fantasizing about dumping shit on the citizens he is supposed to serve. It’s beyond sick.

This is the man Mike Johnson thinks is a great “Christian” leader. The man who has ordered his party to keep the government shut down in order to be able to throw millions of people off healthcare coverage. The man Johnson is protecting by refusing—this Thursday, it’ll be a month since her election—to swear in a duly elected member of Congress who’ll vote to release the Epstein files. He is a coward. A moral hypocrite in every sense. He makes Kevin McCarthy look like Cato the Younger.

And he is a terrible American. What is a good American? It’s simple: One who believes in the Constitution, representative government, the rule of law, and certain inalienable rights for all. That’s it. No Jesus. No God. No Christianity. The title “American” is open to all; infidels included.

And that’s why it was the real Americans who were out in force Saturday. To oppose this administration is to understand what real Americanism is. Mike Johnson doesn’t have a clue.