Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) reminded voters ahead of the nation’s 248 years old “Independence” birthday that we don’t know how long our experiment in self-governance is going to last.
This week, the greatest country in the history of the world turns 248 years old.
We have to remember that this is an experiment in self-governance, and it’s up to the people here and those duly elected representatives in Congress to preserve our Republic. pic.twitter.com/4gDmHl7rL6
— Speaker Mike Johnson (@SpeakerJohnson) July 3, 2024
“We live in the greatest country in the history of the world, strongest, most powerful, most free, most benevolent, not even close, and it’s still an experiment is what we have to remember. It’s an experiment in self-governance,” the Republican Speaker said days after the conservative Republican majority on the Supreme Court handed Donald Trump King-like powers that are arguably antithetical to continuing our great experiment.
“We don’t know how long it’s going to last,” Johnson suggested with no hint that he’s an active part of undermining the self-governance, “but it falls upon the people here and those duly elected representatives in the Congress to preserve and keep that Republic. We’re serious about that, and the weight of it would be heavy. The burden would be great if we did not have great faith that we’re going to be able to do this. And we will.”
This is not the most free country in the world, actually and the erosion is largely thanks to Speaker Johnson and his party. Freedom House ranks the United States at 83 out of 100 on the freedom scale, noting:
“The United States is a federal republic whose people benefit from a vibrant political system, a strong rule-of-law tradition, robust freedoms of expression and religious belief, and a wide array of other civil liberties. However, in recent years its democratic institutions have suffered erosion, as reflected in rising political polarization and extremism, partisan pressure on the electoral process, bias and dysfunction in the criminal justice system, harmful policies on immigration and asylum seekers, and growing disparities in wealth, economic opportunity, and political influence.”
Many of the issues cited as undermining our freedom have been exacerbated and even at times created by Republican policies and attitudes, which Speaker Johnson has assisted, ignored, and/or celebrated. They cited three reasons for the lower grade (edited for brevity):
1. Investigations into the violent aftermath of the 2020 presidential election continued throughout the year.
2. Midterm elections in November resulted in divided control of Congress, with the Republican Party winning a narrow majority in the House of Representatives and the Democratic Party retaining a working majority in the Senate. While hundreds of Republican candidates for offices across the country explicitly and groundlessly denied the legitimacy of Biden’s 2020 victory over Trump, most of those whose election would have given them influence over administration of the 2024 presidential balloting lost their races.
3. In June, the Supreme Court overturned a 1972 decision that had established a constitutional right to abortion, thereby returning the issue to the states. New or existing laws that took effect in many states reduced access to abortion, and at least 12 states imposed near-total bans on the procedure.
The Republican Speaker is a far-Right “Christian” who cheered on the overturning of Roe. The New York Times reported, “In Congress, Mr. Johnson has voted for a national abortion ban and co-sponsored a 20-week abortion ban, earning him an A-plus rating from the anti-abortion group Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America. After the Supreme Court voted to overturn Roe v. Wade in June last year, he celebrated.”
“Just in time for Independence Day, by a six to three vote, the Extreme Court of the United States repealed the Magna Carta and revoked the fundamental principles of the Declaration of Independence,” The Daily Kos wrote in a piece shared by constitutional law expert Laurence Tribe.
Happy Birthday, USA. Enjoy it, because it might be the last one if Republicans have their way.
Sarah has been credentialed to cover President Barack Obama, then VP Joe Biden, 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and exclusively interviewed Speaker Nancy Pelosi multiple times and exclusively covered her first home appearance after the first impeachment of then President Donald Trump.
Sarah is two-time Telly award winning video producer and a member of the Society of Professional Journalists.
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