It's clear by now that Ron Johnson means to lie his ass off in order to win re-election, just as it's equally clear, based on the polls, that plenty of people are buying the lies. So, just to remind everyone what an utterly unacceptable embarrassment this oligarch has been at playing Senator, here's a recap of some of his highlights - er, I mean, lowlights.
Let's begin by recollecting how Johnson pledged that his second term would be his last. He broke that promise to run for a third term. His entire campaign was built on a lie from the onset.
But there's so much more. Remember when he first kicked his campaign off against Russ Feingold in 2010? He had radio ads which said, "They think government creates jobs. I know that private industry creates every job."
Really, Ron? Why don't you ask a soldier? Or ask a teacher? Ask a fireman, or a policeman, or that guy working on the road on your commute to work. Government does create jobs, and often does it well!
And maybe Johnson meant that ultimately all those government jobs come as a result of tax dollars, meaning that private industry creates those jobs too, but that wasn't his argument. His argument was, "government bad, private industry good." Which, as we all know (or should), that's just plain bullshit.
He backs Trump unabashedly. Yet the Jan 6 commission has proven beyond shadow of a doubt that Trump is a guilty little shit.
Trump sucks. Ron backs Trump. Therefore Ron sucks. Simple math.
And let's not forget, papers to select alternate electoral college representatives went right through his office!
His excuse? "Oh, I knew nothing about that." But that excuse is even worse, because it means he has no clue what's going on inside his own office! If he can't run his own office, what makes him think he can be a competent Senator?
Oh, and it's hard for Johnson to be the "anti-crime" candidate when those fake-elector papers prove that HE HIMSELF IS A CRIMINAL!
Remember when he actually dared to go all pro-virus, arguing against "vaccine passports," as if that weren't private industry making its own judgment about how to run its own, damned business without government interference? Remember when Republicans made that their central argument? But arguing against private industry independence wasn't enough for Johnson. Arguing in favor of making people as sick as possible wasn't enough either. He also said that he saw “no reason to be pushing vaccines on people.” He said that vaccine distribution should be limited to those most vulnerable to coronavirus, and added, “if you have a vaccine, quite honestly, what do you care if your neighbor has one or not?"
The vaccine cares, Ron.
Remember this one he said after January 6, 2021?
On WISN Johnson said, "This didn't look like an armed insurrection to me."
Riiiiiiiiight.
“Even though those thousands of people that were marching to the Capitol were trying to pressure people like me to vote the way they wanted me to vote, I knew those were people that love this country, that truly respect law enforcement, would never do anything to break the law, and so I wasn’t concerned.” He said on a right-wing talk radio program, of course. “Had the tables been turned, and President Trump won the election and those were tens of thousands of Black Lives Matter and antifa protesters, I might have been a little concerned.”
You would have been concerned if antifa were protesting? You realize that antifa means "anti-fascist," right? Meaning that you just admitted that you are a fascist?
During the second debate with Mandela Barnes, Johnson hammered on his #1 issue, which is crime. "The first thing you do is support law enforcement, and unfortunately, the lieutenant governor has not done that. He has a record of wanting to defund the police – I know he doesn’t necessarily use that word, but he has a long history of being supported by people leading the effort to defund, he uses code words. Like Cori Bush said, talks about ‘reallocate over bloated police budgets.’ He said it pains him to see fully funded police budgets. That’s his views."
Let's talk about "defunding the police," for a moment, shall we? Republicans went way, way out of their way to defund Milwaukee as a whole, and have been doing so for decades. They've pulled so much cash out of Milwaukee, all the while keeping the city from being able to raise its own revenues, that it's struggled to fund schools, fire departments, and yes - police precincts. So here's Johnson, attacking Democrats for saying "defund the police," while his party actually defunds the police! When the Democrats won back the governorship in 2018, the Republicans shamelessly stripped the governorship of all but the most curory of powers - all to make absolutely sure that Milwaukee would not be able to fund itself, or (and this was the bigger thing for them) that Democrats wouldn't have any say whatsoever in removing the stupid-assed gerrymandering which allows Republicans to keep their thumbs on the scales.
So to recap, Democrats said "defund the police," without actually believing in that literally or literally doing it. While Republicans said "back the blue," while actually defunding the blue.
Holy. Fucking. Shit.
Nobody is paying attention, or they never would have gotten away with that one.
And let's not beat around the bush about "defund the police." It's probably the stupidest slogan ever invented. But we know what it really means (or should by now). It means we should defund police the same way our schools were defunded. It means police should be defunded in the same way public housing was defunded. It means an armed officer isn't needed for every damned traffic stop or domestic violence call.
It means policing should be re-thought, and reformed.
Back to the second debate Johnson had with Barnes. He was asked to say something nice about his opponent. Johnson, ever the "diplomat," said, "I appreciate the fact that Lt. Gov. Barnes had loving parents, school teacher, father that worked third shift. So he had a good upbringing, I guess what puzzles me with that is with that upbringing, why has he turned against America?"
The entire room booed him. Even some in his own party booed. Yeah, he's that asshole.
And all that's just scratching the surface.
The Bulwark rightly calls Johnson "RonAnon."
I'll be as non-partisan as I can possibly be in this blog post. If you happen to be an ultra right-wing conservative (and if you are, why would you be reading this?), then you are way better off with a Democrat than you are with Ron Johnson getting another term.
Hell, you're better off with ANY Democrat than you are with Johnson winning another term.
You are better off with all four members of The Squad getting the senate seat rather than Johnson getting another term.
You are better off with Karl Marx himself getting the senate seat!
In fact, you are better off getting rid of that senat seat altogether rather than giving that senate seat to Ron Johnson again.
Because it's finally time for Republicans to STOP INVESTING IN CANDIDATES WHO ARE COMPLETE MONSTERS!
If your candidate is a Roy Moore, or a Herschel Walker, or a Mehmet Oz, YOU TAKE THE LOSS AND PICK A BETTER CANDIDATE NEXT TIME!
Don't dig in on the shit candidate. Just. Fucking. Don't.
I'm not saying that Ron Johnson is as bad as those other candidates, I'm... Oh, wait, YES, I AM!
He's actually worse.
Mandela Barnes has his problems. I get it. His lying about his educational background weighs heavily with me. Some questions linger about his financial background. But he's better than Johnson could ever be.
Hell, Al Capone would be better at this point.
Eric
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