Here is my full column that ran in the Washington County Daily News last week. I think I’ll write next week’s about the Republican primary for governor. I have so many thoughts… you?
When candidate Ron Johnson left his relative obscurity as a successful businessman to become one of thousands of impassioned patriots who were compelled to run for office in response to President Barack Obama’s leftist governance, many people underestimated the impact he would have on Wisconsin. Now, 12 years later, Johnson is asking the voters to send him back to Washington again to continue to work on behalf of Wisconsin. The fact that so many liberals hate Johnson so much is reason enough for conservatives to come out in force to support him, but he has also earned another term on the merits.
Despite being new to elected office and a rookie in the U.S. Senate, Senator Johnson quickly rose to prominence during his first term. As an outspoken critic of government and the swamp in Washington, he was a steadfast opponent of President Obama’s destructive policies. Johnson fought against Obamacare, open borders, and runaway government spending. He drew the ire of leftists, but also upset the entrenched Republican establishment in Washington because he was not one to go along to get along.
Perhaps Johnson stood out a little more because he was so different than the kind of Republican senators that the country had become accustomed to over the past several decades. Wisconsin’s senators had been so beige that they were often indistinguishable from the plush chairs. Then here comes Johnson and he is immediately in the thick of everything.
Before the end of his first term, Johnson had become the chairman of the powerful Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. Under his leadership, that committee passed over 300 bills with 132 of them becoming law. He used his position to delve into the bureaucratic establishment to shine the light on how our government really works — and how it doesn’t.
Johnson is now the ranking member of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations and on the Budget, Foreign Relations, and Commerce, Science and Transportation committees. It is telling that Johnson is not only serving on the committees that work on hard issues, but that his fellow senators trust him on those committees.
Throughout his senate career, Johnson could always be relied upon to speak his mind. He was one of the first elected Republicans to publicly condemn Hunter Biden for the information found on Hunter’s laptop and question how such illegal and unethical activities might compromise the “Big Guy,” President Joe Biden. Johnson was derided at the time for advancing unproven conspiracies, but now, two years later, even The New York Times accepts that the incriminating information in the laptop is authentic.
Johnson has been outspoken about the sloppy and insecure elections in Wisconsin and elsewhere, was an early critic of the federal government’s COVID responses, and rang the warning bell about government spending triggering inflation. It seems that whenever the leftists are railing against Johnson for straying from the accepted mainstream dogma of the moment, he is proven to be correct.
As Johnson runs for his third term, he is still looking forward. Two terms in the Senate have not diminished his energy or his willingness to challenge the status quo. Johnson is continuing his fight against the immense government deficit spending that has now caused the worst inflation since IBM introduced its first personal computer with DOS 1.0. He is hearing the concerns of parents and advocating for more choice in education. Johnson is seeking to correct the worst abuses of government during the pandemic.
The Biden administration is a rolling disaster for the country and the only way to slow it is to elect Republican majorities in the House and Senate. Although it is a presidential off year where the opposition party normally does well, the quirk of the maps favors the Democrats in the Senate this year. While the House looks likely, not certain, to swing to the Republicans, the Senate is still a tossup. It will take an overwhelming voice from the people for the Republicans to take control of the Senate and Senator Johnson is one of the 51 people that Americans must elect to make that happen.
Finally, it is worth noting that after two terms and a record of action, Senator Johnson matters. He is not the stolid backbencher who harrumphs on cue when called upon by his caucus leadership. Indeed, Johnson is a case study for the maxim that not all leaders have a title. He is his own man with his own voice, and he uses it voraciously on behalf of Wisconsin and the issues in which he believes. We must send him back to Washington not because he wants it, but because Wisconsin needs it.
Still, no one has addressed the elephant in the room. Johnson said he would run for only 2 terms.
You don’t think the MSM and Democrats won’t use that against him?
Most people hate politicians because they lie and why isn’t this any different?
Geez, Mar.
Who are all of these better-than-Johnson Republicans being suppressed in Wisconsin? Johnson’s delay in announcing his intent to seek re-election gave all of these mythical white knights ample opportunity to enter the game. Nothing but crickets. Perhaps because they didn’t think they could do a better job. Maybe they just want no part of such an incredibly toxic work environment.
I acknowledge that there might be someone, somewhere, better than Ron Johnson, but they have to want the job. Until then you fight with what’s available.
When liberals lie, we consevatices like to hold them responsible .
And if a conservative lies we should give them a pass?
There is a difference between a lie and breaking a promise. He broke a promise. But even as I criticize him for doing that, we have to take the sum total of the man and his record. And in an election, we don’t have the luxury of picking someone we like off the street or creating an ideal candidate. We have to choose from those who have decided to run. In this case, I would pick Johnson over every single Democrat who is trying to win the Democrat nomination. Johnson over Barnes? Oh yeah. Johnson over Lasrey? In a heartbeat. Johnson over Godlewski? Every day of the week and twice on Sunday. So yes… Johnson broke a promise to the voters. Point taken. Are you going to elect a Democrat and make it easier for Biden to put an army of Kagens into the federal judiciary because of it?
No,I would not vote for a Democrat but if had not lied about a 3rd term, who knows who would have run.
Here in Arizona, Mark Kelly,a liberal Democrat is running for reelection and on the GOP side, we have a wide variety of choices, from each a mole conservatives, conservatives, moderates etc.
Johnson never gave Wisconsin a choice and now he wants to become a lifer in the senate.
Well Mar, a few things:
First, I’d say you have way bigger problems with your candidates in AZ than we do with ours. I’d rather vote for a real conservative that broke a promise than have to worry about beating an incumbent liberal Democrat (who likely broke many).
Second, there has never been a single politician that did not break at least one promise (unless he made none), and yet I will bet any amount of money that you have voted for incumbents more times than first time politicians in your lifetime. Why are you throwing those stones?
Lastly, when a politician actually keeps more promises than he breaks, I think that is rare in US politics today. If he is willing to keep fighting 90%+ of the other politicians for conservative values with all the mud that is continually thrown at him for it from both sides, I forgive the breaking of that particular promise.
It sounds like you would not and clearly that is weird to more than me here. I am not against you, but I question your ability to vote at all if you do not vote for promise breakers in Government.
I’m all for holding politicians to higher standards, but care needs to be taken that your purity tests still make allowances for rapidly changing political environments. Taking yourself out of the game is the surest way to ensure your vote has no impact whatsoever. It’s a dance, for sure.
So, Tuerqas, you don’t the the Democrats are not going to use this against Johnson? You don’t think that he will lose votes over this. You don’t think the media will use this against him? The media already hate Johnson and Johnson, with only advertising to help him, is in danger of losing and this put the Democrat over the top.
Of course the lying liars will use it against him.
So what?
He’s not going to lose votes over it; actually, he’s likely to GAIN votes from the 10s of 1000s of people in Wisconsin who are utterly disgusted with Biden.
This race is not really about RoJo vs. _________. It’s about Biden.
We win. They lose.
Mar? Relevance? You have been saying you do, and we should hold this broken promise against him. Nothing about whether it hurts his re-election chances, it was about whether WE should vote for him.
The Democrats have a shit-ton of worse things to lie about that SOUND way worse that this comparatively small actual truth about Johnson.
To be honest, Mar, I don’t think it will get much press. This truth just doesn’t hold up to the lies they tell their base for shock value. Can you imagine Leroy crawling all the way out of his hole just to crow about this relatively insignificant truth? Not enough juice, here, for the opposition. I guess Republicans might try and use it against him…