As Democrats and establishment media outlets intentionally fan the fires of racial grievance to further polarize the nation in an election year, congressional Republicans have responded in their usual fashion: mushy pandering and abject cowardice.
Sens. Ron Johnson (R-WI) and James Lankford (R-OK) proposed an amendment on July 1 meant to placate social justice protesters by declaring Juneteenth, a day celebrating the end of slavery in the U.S., a national holiday. Not wanting to add another holiday to the federal calendar, however, the two Republicans are seeking to summarily toss aside Christopher Columbus, the man credited with discovering America.
Wad It Up and Throw It Away
“I'm just saying let's replace it with something," a tone-deaf Johnson warbled, exhibiting his deep-seated feelings for America's past. "I chose Columbus Day just because it's probably the most lightly celebrated and less disruptive to anybody's schedule" to scuttle.
And just like that, Johnson embodied how oblivious some elected Republicans are to the fact that their base is totally fed up with the historical demonization of America currently running rampant among Democrats and in the ranks of big-box media today. The political incompetence alone is breathtaking. Blue radicals and a reckless, unprofessional press are handing Republicans a golden opportunity to wrap themselves in the red, white, and blue in an election year – and they are blowing it completely.
Johnson and Lankford give further credence to the widespread belief among GOP voters that the elephants they put into Congress quickly ditch any espoused values they claim to be willing to fight for immediately upon checking into the political cesspool by the Potomac. The very idea of America is coming under unprecedented leftist attack, and these senators are eager to discard this nation's cultural inheritance like a used Kleenex in a hopeless effort to please rabble-rousing agitators who by deliberate strategy will never be satisfied.
"This is a battle to save the Heritage, History, and Greatness of our Country," President Trump tweeted on June 30. It is astonishing to witness the casual manner Johnson and Lankford exude as they manifestly flee this fight. They really don't care.
Empty Red Vessels
The senators' jellyfish act came just two days after their colleague, Sen. Mike Braun (R-IN), was verbally pummeled on national television by Fox News host Tucker Carlson. In August 2018, Trump appeared at a campaign rally for Braun as the Hoosier sought his Senate seat. Braun promised to be a "true ally" of the president and "not somebody that says something when you're in Indiana and does something differently when you're in D.C."
Then he got elected. Braun appeared on Carlson's show June 29 to defend his proposed legislation to weaken police immunity from personal liability in lawsuits. "Your viewers are my supporters and I've got one of the most conservative voting records," Braun told an incredulous Carlson before explaining why he is on record as saying of the Marxist Black Lives Matter cause, "I support that movement."
In touting his BLM-flavored anti-police legislation to Carlson, Braun showed he has fully embraced his place in the Republican senatorial chicken roost after a mere 18 months in the upper chamber.
"[I]f we don't get better at it for all of us on main street, Democrats are going to spin it, [Senate Minority Leader] Chuck Schumer [D-NY] has already decided he can make hay of this in the election and we will end up on the short side of it again," Braun stated. The senator was amazingly using the fear of Democrat criticism to justify crafting a thoroughly progressive bill.
"Who controls the Senate?" Carlson asked Braun. "Does Chuck Schumer control it? I thought Republicans controlled the Senate? So you’re taking your cues from Chuck Schumer? You're saying Chuck Schumer might criticize me and therefore I have to pass a law that makes it easier to sue police?"
A stammering Braun had no effective response, murmuring stilted wording about how "it’s a better idea to be in the discussion than to be outside of it." That, of course, is the calling card of establishment Republicans. They have let leftist Democrats control the political narrative for decades as they continuously fall back into a reactive mode that attempts to appease the feigned moral anger on the other side of the aisle rather than display any ideological courage of their own.
America and its institutions are under siege, and congressional Republicans aren't putting up even the pretense of a fight. One can only wonder when GOP voters will finally and decisively abandon these Swamp creatures who manage to skate by time and again merely because they happen to have an R next to their names.
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Read more from Joe Schaeffer.
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