Why Mike Johnson winning the speakership is a loss for the country

House Republicans finally picked a speaker of the House when GOP members coalesced around Louisiana Rep. Mike Johnson on Wednesday afternoon.

With this decision, MAGA wins again.

Johnson is no moderate. While free of any major known scandal and gentler in demeanor than Ohio’s Rep. Jim Jordan — the far-right choice of the House rebels who ousted Rep. Kevin McCarthy from the speakership who failed to win the office last week — that’s about it. Johnson might be a nice person, he carries himself in a reasonable way, but make no mistake about it: He is perfectly aligned with the new generation of Republicans who are replacing the generations of the upstart tea party and smash mouth partisan Newt Gingrich as they push their party even further to the right.