“Democracy is messy sometimes, but it is our system,” now-anointed House Speaker Mike Johnson said at a press briefing after winning the nomination in the Republican conference. “We’re going to restore your trust in what we do here.”  Well, yeah, democracy is messy, but what happened with House Republicans wasn’t democracy.

Democracy would’ve meant Hakeem Jeffries was Speaker after the first 14 ballots (the first time).  Even within the Republican caucus, democracy would’ve meant Kevin McCarthy be named the Speaker because he had the majority support of the Party.  When he lost it–remember, Kev only lost support of eight of 221 members, not a majority–Scalice had the majority.  Then Jordan.  Then Emmer.  Finally, it was the anonymously named Johnson.

Johnson didn’t win the majority like his predecessors.  He had to get everyone’s agreement that he carry the gavel.  That’s not democracy; that’s “Meh, alright,” political compromise.  The best candidate for the job (within the House GOP, which is a low bar) was never at issue:  it wasn’t Mike Johnson. 

It isn’t shocking that the mediocrity of the House GOP rose to the top; it’s not difficult when mediocrity *is* the top.  And it isn’t shocking that he gained the job by ditching the vote:  pushing for Republicans to ignore the vote of Americans on January 6th is how he earned his rocker patch in the caucus.  Now the gang of right-wing nihilist thugs think they’ll push their agenda through with Johnson leading the charge.  They’re about to learn the Speaker has actual work to do–not just performance art speeches and Twitter posts–so Johnson’s priorities will be getting legislation done to keep the lights on.

The world doesn’t change because an election denier is Speaker:  legislation still has to go through a vote, then the Senate, then the President, before it becomes law.  Johnson can’t change that, so nothing in his agenda will get done.  Republicans should know that’s the job of the Speaker.  Just like they should know what democracy means.