Here's a challenging question: Has too much been said about Ron Johnson, or not nearly enough? He beats them all. He really does.
To that effect: Will he be missed? If so, why?
Trying to grab headlines (and getting them), the Wisconsin Senator is now doubling down on a conspiracy theory that's so ridiculous it's right up there with Flat Earth and pigs flying.
Senator Absurdity in A Suit now says that the January 6 insurrectionists weren't right-wingers at all. They were members of antifa, an organization that is actually unclear and unspecified, a throw-all-of-them-into-the-same-basket group who were dressed like supporters of the former president.
And, of course, carrying flags and signs and wearing MAGA caps and carrying weapons and killing guards. All of that. All of that to protest the formality of an election that their side won (credit to Tom Zigan on Facebook).
They had us all fooled, those crafty devils. All, that is, except Ron Johnson. He's got it all figured out.
He had the election figured out, too. As long as he shouted "irregularities," he was on the safe side of The Big Lie. He had to hold hearings where he got Ken Starr, he of the holy moral hypocritical high ground, to declare that something was amiss but just within the states whose election returns that the previous president wanted to challenge.
Have you noticed that nobody challenged close election results that the Republicans won? As if there could be nothing wrong with those numbers, as in North Carolina, Florida or Texas.
Someday soon, someone's going to have to reprint all the ridiculous things Ron Johnson's ever said while Senator from Wisconsin. I won't start here. That would take resources I don't have. Like a year, maybe. Suffice it to say that there is not enough room anywhere to note his entire awfulness.
But he's been in the Senate two full terms now, which also tells you something about where Wisconsin's gone in that time, in fact before that time. The Tea Party movement ushered him in--Wisconsin becoming an important annex of that unenviable group--and he's trying to continue riding that wave even though it's running out of surf pretty fast.
Can someone tell me one good thing he's done? He might say that he's gotten government out of the way for the good people of Wisconsin. For what reason? To what end?
On the other hand, Tony Evers is governor because someone happened to find 40,000 Democratic ballots after midnight on election night in 2018; Johnson did beat the very competent and respected Russ Feingold not once but twice; and Biden only won the state by about 20,000. So there's that.
In terms of statewide elections, Wisconsin's stubbornly hanging on to moderate-to-liberal status. It has needed, and got, (a genuinely) conservative, libertarian crossover to rule that the presidential election results were legal and well-counted. But it got into that position only when a more liberal justice was elected that spring and replaced a reactionary curmudgeon, giving the good guys a 4-3 edge.
Without that crossover, Wisconsin would have been thrown into chaos. The three remaining reactionary (not conservative, reactionary; big difference) judges were quite committed to declaring the election sufficiently rigged, even though nobody had any definitive proof of it, even though nothing of the sort had ever happened in Wisconsin, even though the chair of the election vote count openly invited any citizen of the state to come on in and watch it.
It was that close. It shouldn't have been, but Wisconsin is also afflicted with a mental malady that's truly scary. After all, it produced Ron Johnson and may keep him still. If he runs again, I will be working to try to unseat him. You can count on that. Time's up for his incompetence, goofiness, and addiction to cultism. Now he's just making up more lies to gloss over the Big One.
He's no longer just a clown show. He's genuinely annoying and ridiculous. He has proven himself thoroughly undeserving of what Wisconsin hoped for him.
To prove his stodgy absurdity, Johnson made Senate clerks read the entire recovery bill which passed anyhow. He delayed the debate on the bill by about ten hours. It's the newly-minted Republican mantra that this recovery bill isn't needed, that the economy is coming back on its own; all we have to do is wait a little bit.
Yeah, (yawn) that's the same old wine in a brand new bottle (regards to Loggins and Messina). Although over 700,000 jobs returned last month, over 700,000 also applied for unemployment for the first time, too. That's added on to those still unemployed by this persistent pandemic--persistent partly because some people who stubbornly vote Republican despite all indications that it hasn't done them any good also won't put on any masks, despite all indications that it would.
So the final bailout amount won't be quite as much as first proposed, which is what the Senate is for, after all. But the reduced amount should put something of a muzzle on Republican insistence that the economy will recover on its own. With unemployment benefits scheduled to run dry in just eight days, that isn't much time for the American economic engine to kick back into noticeable gear.
Johnson has hinted that he might want to quit after this term. He can't do so a minute too soon. He is an embarrassment to this state and, in fact, to the Senate itself. He is not thoughtful or reflective, as Senators grow to be. He is reactionary and reckless with his commentary. He is slavishly loyal to a defeated and disgraced president (who, granted, refuses to be disgraced).
He will save himself the trouble of raising millions to be defeated. That's the scary part: Wisconsin Republicans have people with prestigious names waiting to throw their hats into the ring. This display of incompetence has been plenty for us to absorb; we may get another one disguised as legitimacy.
That won't make it easy at all on the several competent Democrats who seem to be lining up for a shot at this vital position. One of them would join Tammy Baldwin, who has been there to hold up what's left of Wisconsin's reputation for wise, measured liberalism.
But for now, I'll be satisfied if he retreats quietly, parties with other Wisconsin millionaires, and leaves the rest of us alone. There's enough credibility to rebuild.
Be well. Be careful. Wear a mask. Six days after Shot Two. With some luck, I'll see you down the road.
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