Republican Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin has made some of the most outrageous comments out there, including denying the reality of what happened at the US Capitol on January 6th and making a fool of himself at the Senate hearing investigating the attack. But I’m tempted to applaud him for finally speaking the simple truth of why he and so many Trump supporters have so little concern about what happened at the Capitol—the insurrectionists were members of HIS WHITE TEAM and thus incapable of doing any wrong. Here are the senator’s actual words:
“[I’ve been] criticized because I’ve made the comment that on January 6 I never felt threatened, because I didn’t. And mainly because I knew that even though those thousands of people there were marching the Capitol trying to pressure people like me to vote the way they wanted me to vote, I knew those were people who love this country, that they truly respect law enforcement, would never do anything to break a law, and so I wasn’t concerned. Now, had the tables been turned . . . and President Trump won the election, and those were tens of thousands of Black Lives Matter and Antifa protestors, I might have been a little concerned.”
-Ron Johnson
Truly respect law enforcement? Would never do anything to break a law? Is he serious?! How delusional is he?! The rampaging mob, filled with white supremacists, injured 140 police officers, one later died and two committed suicide. Yet for some reason this didn’t “concern” him. No matter their actions, he assumes that white people pose no danger because they “love this country,” while the mere presence of Black people would inherently concern him. (Have Black Lives Matter demonstrators ever attacked law enforcement the way Trump supporters did at the Capitol?) In Senator Johnson’s mind, whiteness is synonymous with all that is good about America, while blackness is the country’s enemy, intrinsically evil and frightening.
We Owe Senator Ron Johnson a Debt of Gratitude for Speaking the Truth.
As racist and moronic as this statement is, it does a wonderful job of exposing the attitudes of an old white guard that truly believes it’s under siege by the browning of America. The man is so blind to the threat posed by his WHITE SUPREMACIST TEAM MEMBERS that he’s all but oblivious to the reality of a very violent attack. Is he not “concerned” that these “people who love this country” might have killed former Vice President Pence and numerous Democratic lawmakers—anyone who didn’t support Trump’s “big lie”? No, in his mind—that is, the mind of an old, racist, white man—the actions of a mob of rampaging white people isn’t threatening, while the actions of a similar group of Black people undoubtedly would be—because in his mind, blackness is the essence of evil, the essence of what threatens America. Yes, we owe him a debt of gratitude for at last laying the truth bare of what is in the hearts of so many on the right.
Next week, I’m going to talk about the Republican effort now underway to suppress the Democratic vote nationwide. They have come to the realization that they can’t win national elections by appealing to the majority of voters, so they will suppress the opposition’s supporters. Very sad, as former President Trump would say in his sick, dishonest way. Very sad, indeed.