Democrats Using Buttigieg to Hammer New Speaker Johnson Over His Christian Beliefs
Democrats cannot survive politically without manufacturing victims.
With this in mind, President Joe Biden’s flailing administration has finally found a use for the incompetent Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.
Twice last week, the openly gay Buttigieg served as the messenger for Democratic attacks on Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson’s Christian beliefs.
Buttigieg appeared on CNN Friday to share a sob story about how Johnson’s views made him feel.
“I will admit it’s a little bit difficult driving the family minivan to drop our kids off at day care passing the dome of the Capitol knowing that the speaker of the House sitting under that dome doesn’t even think our family ought to exist,” Buttigieg whined.
On Oct. 27 — shortly after he became speaker — CNN unearthed several editorials Johnson once wrote in opposition to both gay marriage and homosexual behavior in general. Those editorials appeared in a Shreveport, Louisiana, newspaper in the mid-2000s.
“Homosexual relationships are inherently unnatural and, the studies clearly show, are ultimately harmful and costly for everyone,” Johnson wrote in one piece.
“Experts project that homosexual marriage is the dark harbinger of chaos and sexual anarchy that could doom even the strongest republic,” he wrote in another.
Thursday on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” host Stephen Colbert asked Buttigieg about working with someone who once wrote that “dark harbinger of chaos ” line.
“I’ll work with anybody who can help us get good transportation available to the American people, but I don’t know, maybe we’ll just have him over, ’cause our little house isn’t that far from the Capitol,” Buttigieg replied according to The Hill. Buttigieg has two toddlers with his “husband” Chasten.
“Everything about that is chaos,” Buttigieg added. “But nothing about that is dark.”
In fact, Buttigieg said he saw the divine goodness in his own domestic situation.
“That’s the love of God in that house,” Buttigieg said according to the left-wing Mediaite.
Buttigieg was not the first prominent Democrat to attack Johnson’s faith-based views.
On the Oct. 29 episode of MSNBC’s “Inside with Jen Psaki,” former White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki described Johnson as a far-right religious fanatic.
“His views on policy are essentially what you’d expect from a religious fundamentalist — they’re more divisive than divine,” Psaki said in a clip posted to the social media platform X.
“His views on policy are essentially what you’d expect from a religious fundamentalist — they’re more divisive than divine.”
@jrpsaki on newly elected House speaker Mike Johnson. pic.twitter.com/DQs7uKnTiX— Inside with Jen Psaki (@InsideWithPsaki) October 29, 2023
Johnson responded to Psaki’s comment in a sit-down interview last week with Fox News’ Kayleigh McEnany.
“If you truly believe in the Bible’s commands and seek to follow them, it’s impossible to be a hateful person because the greatest command in the Bible is that you love God with everything you have, and you love your neighbor as yourself,” Johnson told McEnany in a clip posted to X on Oct. 31.
Watch more from my interview yesterday with @KayleighMcEnany here: pic.twitter.com/yFNoeQOfHo
— Speaker Mike Johnson (@SpeakerJohnson) November 1, 2023
Johnson’s response encapsulated the Christian message. In fact, somewhat ironically, both Johnson and Buttigieg spoke of love.
On that point, at least, Buttigieg had it right. God does love him. And God also has commanded us to love Buttigieg and everyone under his roof.
But how does God instruct us to love others? We must love them as we love ourselves, which does not mean with unqualified approval. In fact, if I am to love myself, I must do so in spite of many things I have done.
Love, in other words, does not mean “tolerance” in the modern sense. Indeed, as the iconic Christian author C.S. Lewis wrote in “The Weight of Glory” (1941), tolerance “parodies love as flippancy parodies merriment.”
Tolerance in the sence of embracing behavior known to be sinful, has no place in the Christian conception of love, which always embraces the sinner but never the sin.
Thus, we may easily dispense with any notion of love that demands us to endorse as true something we know to be false.
For instance, we know that Democrats have targeted Johnson because of his Christian beliefs. We know they have done this because they have not made the same remarks about Muslims, followers of a faith that is just as “intolerant” of homosexuality as the “fundamentalist” Christianity Psaki despises — if not more so.
In fact, last week the White House trotted out Vice President Kamala Harris to announce a new initiative to fight “Islamophobia.” Democrats have reserved their attacks, therefore, specifically for Christians.
Meanwhile, the Biden administration also has used attacks on Johnson’s faith as an opportunity to rehabilitate Buttigieg.
After all, from “racist” roads to catastrophic train derailments, the Transportation Secretary has performed about as poorly in office as any administration official this side of Homeland Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
Of course, in this administration, failure has plenty of company. The key is to shirk responsibility. Depict others as bigoted. Deflect questions about your own incompetence by portraying yourself as a victim.
That — and that alone — Democrats do well.
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