Enough Ron Johnson

 Enough Ron Johnson

 

Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson continues to embarrass himself and ignore the needs of his constituents. As he keeps tracking further and further to the right, he will no doubt just spin in a circle until he implodes.

 

Johnson was always the former president’s biggest fan and fell all over himself defending and praising the former occupant of the White House. Whatever the administration wanted, Johnson delivered. 

 

Towards the end of the former administration’s hold on power, even after the debate over who won the last election was over, Johnson continued to peddle conspiracy theories of stolen elections, fraudulent voting rules, lost ballots and rigged outcomes. He paid no heed to state election officials, courts, the FBI and the credible investigations that all concluded that the last presidential election was free and fair and without fraudulent interference.

 

Even though he was present and witnessed first-hand the violent insurrection at our Capitol on January 6^th, he continues to maintain that it was not all that bad. It was certainly not an armed insurrection in his judgement, all of the violent acts towards the Capitol Police with poles, bats, fire extinguishers and bear spray caught on video and broadcast live across the nation notwithstanding. He refuses to believe the FBI Director who testified that the insurrectionists were white supremacist supporters of the former president and not members of Antifa or Black Lives Matter. He fails to see the irony in proclaiming that leftist agent provocateurs would storm the Capitol to prevent the certification of an election won by a Democrat.

 

Now that the election debate is finally over and President Biden is clearly recognized as our new President, Johnson cannot bear the thought of actually working with the new administration to address the COVID-19 pandemic that still grips the nation, killing its citizens and crippling the economy. 

 

President Biden put up a COVID relief bill that takes aim at those areas needing the most immediate attention. It will send money to state and local governments to make up for lost revenue. it will spend money to increase vaccine production and speed its distribution. It will provide economic assistance to small and medium sized businesses to help them survive the remainder of the pandemic. It will make direct payments to most Americans to make up for their lost incomes.

 

National polling tells us that a majority of Americans support President Biden’s package. A substantial number of Republicans also are on board, bringing support into the 60% range nationwide.

 

The House of Representatives passed the President’s bill quickly and sent it on to the U.S. Senate where it is poised for passage sending relief to millions of Americans. 

 

Our Ron Johnson went to the air waves this week, proclaiming his intention to resist passage of this bill offering the hypocritical justification that it is just too costly. Johnson conveniently forgets that he rejected just such a claim from Democrats as a GOP controlled Congress passed the largest tax give away to corporations and the wealthy, including Johnson, in our nation’s history. 

 

Making good on his word, Johnson invoked a parliamentary trick to keep the bill from being debated by demanding that the entire 600-700 page bill be read aloud by the Clerk of the Senate before debate could begin. He earned a delay of a whole 10 hours in the process of making a fool of himself on national television once more. 

 

Senate majority leader Charles Schumer actually applauded Johnson’s move which enables any American who wants to know the details of the bill to listen on CSpan as the Clerk reads it into the record. 

 

Wisconsin no longer needs Ron Johnson’s representation in the United States Senate. When he ran, he promised he would only serve two terms. His second term ends in 2022. He has not yet announced if he will run again.

 

If he does go back on his word and does run again, he will have one big backer for sure. The current resident of a country club in Mara Largo, Florida. Given the results of the last statewide election in Wisconsin, that support will not carry the day over whomever emerges from what looks to be an interesting Democratic primary contest. 

 

Ron Johnson’s days in the United States Senate are numbered. We can only hope that he does not embarrass us further with stunts, gimmicks and conspiracies.