Mike Johnson Sparks 'Handmaid's Tale' Comparisons After Becoming Speaker
http://www.newsweek.com/mike-johnson-handmaids-tale-comparisons-speaker-1838056
By Sophie Lloyd
Newsweek
October 26, 2023
After a three-week deadlock, Louisiana congressman Mike Johnson has been elected Speaker of the House. However, the 51-year-old's anti-abortion views and previous comments on Roe v. Wade have are igniting comparisons to The Handmaid's Tale online.
In the 1985 book by feminist author Margaret Atwood, the United States government has been overthrown and replaced by a totalitarian Christian regime called the Republic of Gilead. The novel follows Offred, one of society's few remaining fertile women, who is forced to produce children for the ruling class of men and their wives—dubbed a "handmaid."
The Handmaid's Tale was adapted into a TV show in 2017, starring Elisabeth Moss, Joseph Fiennes and Alexis Bledel.
After Johnson was named speaker on October 25, people took to social media to express their concerns.
"Mike Johnson is now the Speaker of the Handmaids Tale GOP Congress," said Colleen Shelley. "He is a traitor to this country and a menace for women's rights."
"Handmaids Tale being a prophecy is really the worst thing we're ignoring," wrote ac.
"Margaret Atwood once said when writing The Handmaids Tale, she never dreamed the story her mind concocted would become anything close to reality," said Chris.
"If Mike Johnson stays Speaker for long enough, The Handmaid's Tale is going to become a documentary, isn't it?" asked Sergio Grant, while Effy Mourning commented: "He seems like one step away from wanting Handmaids Tale kind of a life."
Newsweek has reached out to Johnson via email for comment.
Nancy LeTourneau (@Smartypants60) ~ Pay attention to this. It is the Orbanization of the GOP with the aim of a culture reminiscent of Giliad in Handmaid's Tale.
11:10 AM · Oct 25, 2023
In a floor vote on October 25, 220 Republicans voted in favor of Johnson, while 209 Democrats voted for House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.
When landmark abortion legislation Roe v. Wade was overturned in June 2022, fundamentalist Christian Johnson called the move a "historic and joyful day."
In recent weeks, footage of Johnson claiming Roe v. Wade negatively affected the economy during a house hearing began making the rounds online.
"You think about the implications on the economy," he said. "We're all struggling here to cover the bases of social security and Medicare and Medicaid and all the rest.
"If we had all those able-bodied workers in the economy, we wouldn't be going upside down and toppling over like this ... I will not yield, I will not. Roe was a terrible corruption of America's constitutional jurisprudence."
His opposition to LGBTQ+ rights and climate change denial have also caused controversy in the past, as have his previous efforts to invalidate the 2020 general election results.
The Donald Trump ally, who at the time was the GOP caucus vice chair, rallied 100 fellow Republicans in support of the Texas lawsuit to overturn Biden's win in the swing states of Georgia, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan.
Ridiculous Democrat histrionics are really off the charts! Good grief.
The essential American soul is hard, isolate, stoic, and a killer. It has never yet melted. ~ D.H. Lawrence
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