MESSAGE
| DATE | 2021-03-16 |
| FROM | Ruben Safir
|
| SUBJECT | Subject: [Hangout - NYLXS] =?utf-8?q?Opinion_=7C_I_Won=E2=80=99t_Be_Silen?=
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https://www.wsj.com/articles/i-wont-be-silenced-by-the-left-11615848103?mod=hp_opin_pos_3
wsj.com
Opinion | I Won’t Be Silenced by the Left
Ron Johnson
6-7 minutes
March 15, 2021 6:41 pm ET
Rioters attack a police vehicle in Kenosha, Wis, on Aug. 25, 2020.
Photo: Scott Olson/Getty Images
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I’m amazed but not surprised. Those who seek political advantage by
dividing the nation hurl the worst possible accusations to silence
anyone who challenges their left-wing agenda.
In a recent radio interview on the Joe Pags Show, I explained why I
wasn’t concerned by the Trump supporters who came to Washington on Jan.
6 to protest peacefully. Thousands of protesters—no one knows the actual
number—marched to the Capitol. Only about 800 people illegally entered
the Capitol. Still fewer engaged in violent acts. I condemned those
lawbreakers at the time and continue to do so. But I feel compelled to
push back as Democrats and their media allies try to equate the two
groups by implying that all present were “armed insurrectionists”
determined to overthrow the government.
I told Joe Pags the truth: I honestly never felt threatened on Jan. 6.
But, I added, I might have been worried if Donald Trump had won and the
violent leftists who burned Kenosha, Wis., and Minneapolis last summer
had come to Washington. Here’s exactly what I said: “Now, had the tables
been turned—Joe, this could get me in trouble—had the tables been
turned, and President Trump won the election, and those were tens of
thousands of Black Lives Matter and antifa protesters, I might have been
a little concerned.”
I said “this could get me in trouble” because I have been repeatedly
attacked for challenging the left’s false narratives. I had no idea they
would so thoroughly twist my words and reflexively play the race card.
Leftists who want to memory hole last summer’s political violence
immediately started lecturing me that the 2020 protests were mostly
peaceful. Apparently they’ve forgotten that, according to the Armed
Conflict Location & Event Data Project, 570 leftist protests became
riots last year. Twenty-five people lost their lives and 700 law
enforcement officers were injured. Braying about “peaceful protests”
offers no comfort to those victims or the other innocent Americans whose
homes, businesses and property were destroyed. The same people fail to
see the damage they do by pushing a narrative designed to portray the 74
million Americans who voted for Mr. Trump as potential domestic
terrorists or armed insurrectionists.
We should all be disgusted at the cynical way antifa and other leftists
hide behind the banner of equality—a goal we all share—even as they
carry signs calling for an end to America or talk of burning cities
down. It was also sadly predictable that liberals would hurl the
accusation of racism. This isn’t about race. It’s about riots. The
rioters who burned Kenosha weren’t of any one ethnicity; they were
united by their radical leftism.
Their politics, together with their taste for violence—so different from
the Trump supporters I know personally or the Trump rallies we all saw
carried out peacefully—should concern us. There’s a reason why the
boarded-up windows in the downtowns of major cities came down soon after
Joe Biden won the election: Nobody was worried what Trump supporters
would do if their guy lost; they were worried about what Biden
supporters would do if their guy didn’t win.
Unfortunately, much of the media have lost any sense of fairness and
objectivity. They shed all pretense of being unbiased the moment
President Trump won the 2016 election. As a result, approximately half
of America simply doesn’t trust the mainstream media or rely on what it
reports. An unbiased free press is essential in a democracy, but the
censorship of conservative perspectives in today’s cancel culture is
antithetical to freedom.
Most reporters today put advocacy above journalism. Instead of
conducting interviews with conservatives, they conduct arguments. They
push their political viewpoints and are willing to lie, twist, distort,
omit, censor and cancel anything or anyone with an opposing view. They
are oblivious to the harm they are doing. All who value liberty and free
speech must push back.
Mr. Johnson, a Republican, is a U.S. senator from Wisconsin.
WSJ Opinion: Joe Biden’s Rule of Law Problem
WSJ Opinion: Joe Biden’s Rule of Law Problem
Wonder Land: Public and political condemnation of the Capitol riot is
virtually universal, and rightly so. But why does condemnation of the
violence committed during the summer's Black Lives Matter protests
remain selective, at best. Images: Getty Images Composite: Mark Kelly
--
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