Last Thursday, U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R), of Louisiana, issued a statement in immediate response to the news that Donald Trump had been found guilty of 34 felony counts of falsification of business records.
Here it is:
“Today is a shameful day in American history. Democrats cheered as they convicted the leader of the opposing party on ridiculous charges, predicated on the testimony of a disbarred, convicted felon. This was a purely political exercise, not a legal one.
“The weaponization of our justice system has been a hallmark of the Biden Administration, and the decision today is further evidence that Democrats will stop at nothing to silence dissent and crush their political opponents.
“The American people rightfully see this is lawfare, and they know it is—and dangerous. President Trump will rightfully appeal this absurd verdict—and he WILL WIN.”
Here is my response:
Dear Speaker Johnson:
I wish I could speak with you privately, quietly, in measured tones and with measured pauses between words, letting nonverbal cues do more than half of the communication as God designed us to do by nature.
I wish that I could send you an email and feel confident that you would actually see it. But it looks like the contact form on your website prevents people from outside your district emailing you.
I don't want to say these things publicly.
But damn, dude. You're went so hard, so quickly, and so publicly that I feel like I have no choice. I gotta respond. So here goes.
I'm gonna speak first as simply a human. Then, as an American citizen. Then, because of your repeated professions of faith, I'll speak to you as a brother in Christ.
AS A HUMAN, I say...
Mr. Speaker, your statement, at a mere five sentences, with only 103 words, is a marvel of linguistic/conceptual physics. I don't think I have ever seen such a massive pile of bullshit crammed into such a tiny space.
It is a perfect example of a style of discourse that is more likely to cause neurological damage than to communicate genuine meaning. I have absolutely no doubt that you are smarter than this pile of gibberish would suggest.
If you're going to say, "Today is a shameful day in American history," you need to say what makes it so. And you fall far short of doing that. "Democrats cheered as they convicted the leader of the opposing party, etc." is nowhere close. You know why it's nowhere close? Because it's FALSE. "Democrats" didn't convict Trump; a jury of a dozen New York citizens did. Assigning blame to an entire political party, or to ANYONE other than the jurors themselves, is not only false, it is also STUPID. Hitting both false and stupid with 11 words is quite a trick. But why would you want to perform that trick, when the primary effect of it is to make you look like a liar, and a stupid one at that?
Then you say that the case was "predicated on the testimony of a disbarred, convicted felon." You know damn well that there were more than 20 witnesses (or if you don't, you should know such a basic fact before spewing off). Do you also know that anybody else who doesn't know that can find out in 20 seconds by asking Google? Why would you say something that ANYONE can IMMEDIATELY determine is false? STOP insulting the intelligence of everyone who reads or hears your words. Treat us like intelligent humans. If you want to make a case, make a case. But don't do this.
“The weaponization of our justice system has been a hallmark of the Biden Administration" - examples, please? Listen, if you're gonna go hard, and go big, then go big, dammit. Give examples. Make your freaking case. "Hallmark" means there's a pattern of behavior over time. At the very least, name a couple, so that I, as an intelligent human, can begin to make sense of what your words.
"Democrats will stop at nothing to silence dissent and crush their political opponents." Word salad. Mishmash. Garbage. Trash. A verbal string that says precisely nothing. Again with the "Democrats," replacing actual people with a label. That is so TIRED. But what's worse is that even if this particular statement were true, it would be nonsensical. People who would "stop at nothing to silence dissent" would not spend more than a year, at an untold cost of money and personnel, to silence one dissenter. People who would stop at nothing would just quietly take him out. They'd have him fall out a window or something.
“The American people rightfully see this is lawfare, and they know it is—and dangerous." The American people are not a monolith. Speaking as if we are is yet another insult to our intelligence. STOP IT.
AS AN AMERICAN CITIZEN, I say...
Your words are hurting America.
They’re hurting America because they encourage Americans to believe false ideas about how the justice system works.
You know damn well that those charges were issued by a grand jury, not by "Democrats" generally, or even by DA Alvin Bragg personally. You know that he and his office were just the deliverer of the message sent by 26 citizens that, upon consideration of evidence, they believed that Donald Trump should be brought to trial.
You also know damn well that in like fashion, Thursday's verdict was issued by a jury of a dozen citizens, upon consideration of evidence. You know that it wasn't "Democrats," and it wasn't Mr. Bragg. It was a dozen citizens who gave up a good portion of their lives to sit in a courtroom day after day to serve the public good.
That is how it works, you know that that is how it works, and you’re trying to make people believe otherwise.
You’re creating a false picture of how things work, and that is hurting America.
What’s even worse is that you’re encouraging Americans to view their fellow citizens with suspicion and with contempt.
You know how things work. You know that the verdict was arrived at through the deliberations of the jurors, not handed down by Joe Biden or anyone else.
What you don't know, what no one other than the jurors themselves can ever fully know, is what each of them went through to reach the conclusion that they did.
Neither you nor I know whether the prospect of convicting a former president of the United States filled them with dread. Neither you nor I know to what extent they may have argued the cases for and against him in their own minds. We don't know whether they lost sleep, or shed tears, or were driven to their knees in agonized prayer. WE DON'T KNOW.
No one knows what they went through, but for you to dismiss everything that they might have gone through and reduce their work to "Democrats convicted a political enemy," is a massive insult to their efforts on behalf of their fellow citizens. You are shitting on American citizens, and you need to STOP.
You may feel that your position as Speaker of the House entitles you to denigrate and totally dismiss a dozen of your fellow Americans. But let me tell you something, Mister. You may be third in line for the Presidency, but you are not above a single one of those New Yorkers, because in America, the highest position that any man or woman can hold is not the Presidency. No, in America, the highest position, the highest title, is "Citizen."
By design, every member of that jury is above you - and you, along with all of your colleagues, need to learn to look UP to EVERY citizen, even those with whom you disagree. Neither you, nor any of your colleagues, ever has any right to shit on any American citizen. So STOP IT.
You're hurting America. You're breaking America. You’re ripping apart the social compact with rhetoric that is false, stupid, nonsensical and demeaning all at once.
My God, man - show some respect for your fellow humans and your fellow Americans.
AS A BROTHER IN CHRIST, I say...
Thou shalt not bear false witness.
Your statement bears false witness, and I don't mean against the Biden administration. I mean that it bears false witness against the men and women who issued the indictment last year, and the men and women who issued the verdict last week. You are bearing false witness against them all by implying that they are either active and willing conspirators, or simply dupes, of a plan to go after Donald Trump, rather than intelligent, engaged citizens who sacrificed their time and energy in order to serve the public good.
In doing so, you malign these people, none of whom you know, none of whom have done you harm.
Do you see that? Do you see that you are doing harm to all of these strangers?
Based on your public claims, I am speaking to you as someone who has Jesus Himself living inside. In fact, based on my reading of the Gospel of John, I'd say that you have God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit inside you, that you are fully inhabited by the Divine Community. The wisdom of God, the justice of God, the compassion of God, are all inside Mike Johnson. And having all of those things inside of you simply leaves no room for other things that might otherwise be inside you. Things like contempt, or fear, or craven ambition.
Based on your public claims, I can only assume that you desire to fully express the life of God that is inside you in everything you do and say.
This statement does the exact opposite. It could not be less God-like.
You need to repent, brother. You need to publicly apologize to those jurors, and you need to let yourself experience the strength of God holding you up as you experience whatever comes your way as a result.
One thing about being a Christian is that you can find yourself at a crossroads at any given moment, because in fact, every decision matters, every action matters, every word matters.
I think you're at a crossroads now. You can continue to speak in ways that prevent people from seeing anything of God in you - to prevent people from seeing any of God's wisdom, any of God's justice, any of God's compassion. OR...you can make a slight change in direction that allows more and more of the Divine Life to be revealed through you for the remainder of your days.
If you choose the latter, here's how you can start, after apologizing to the jurors:
Put God first in your speech.
Don't say anything that God wouldn't say.
Don't say anything that's not true. Don't say anything that denigrates or demeans people. Don't say anything that is simply meaningless nonsense. Don't say anything to puff yourself up.
Don't say anything that God wouldn't say.
I'll close now with something that you may find hard to believe after all that I've said...
I wish you well.
In fact, I wish you the very best.
I wish you God.
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