Although the Democratic Party establishment had rigged the nominating process to give Bernie just 2 delegates more than Hillary (49-47) in 2016's Wisconsin presidential primary, Bernie beat her massively-- 567,936 (56.6%) to 432,767 (43.1%). Bernie won 71 of Wisconsin's 72 counties. On that same day Bernie was racking up 567,936 votes, Trump managed just 386,370 votes and won 6 delegates to Ted Cruz's 36. (Yes, Bernie had more votes than Cruz as well.) And then along came November and Trump beat Hillary in Wisconsin-- 1,409,467 (47.9%) to 1,382,210 (46.9%). On that same day, Hillary helped drag down Russ Feingold and ensure the reelection of one of the Senate's worst members since Joe McCarthy-- multimillionaire Ron Johnson. He beat Feingold 1,479,262 (50.2%) to 1,380,496 (46.8%). Hillary won a puny 13 Wisconsin counties. Feingold won every one of those counties plus 5 others that all flipped to Trump (and stayed with him this year)-- Vernon, Crawford, Richland, Columbia and Lafayette. Johnson, worth $39 million spent over $8.8 million of his personal fortune on the two Senate campaigns.
Had Debbie Wasserman Schultz and the DNC not successfully conspired to steal the presidential nomination from Bernie, Wisconsin would certainly have given him, instead of Trump, their 10 electoral votes-- and Russ Feingold would be serving in the Senate again today, instead of Ron Johnson.
If Ron Johnson runs for a third term in 2022, his platform should include "I'm the guy who single-handedly kept you from getting a $1,200 pandemic relief checks-- twice." He also called Bernie a liar and claimed he's only trying to protect our grandchildren from a big deficit in the future. That isn't playing well back home:
"Ron Johnson has declared war on Wisconsin; we desperately need survival checks," said Outagamie County Executive Tom Nelson, who has said he will run for Johnson's seat in 2022. "Time for a new senator."
...The Wisconsin Working Families Party said Johnson isn't looking out for people in the state.
"Wisconsin working families are barely treading water, and Ron Johnson is hell-bent on pushing us under," said Aaron Shapiro, the group's campaigns director.
Conservatives-- more than 90% of the GOP and a substantial number of Democrats-- are uncomfortable with the whole idea of survival checks. Virginia multimillionaire conservative Mark Warner (D) thinks what compromising means is giving in to Republicans, something he's always as happy as a pig in shit to do.
Yesterday David Sirota and Andrew Perez reported how Johnson led the fight to give himself a tax cut of up to $205,000 and is now citing budget concerns to block emergency checks even as his own constituents face eviction and starvation. It was Johnson who "led the fight in 2017 to create special tax breaks for so-called pass-through businesses, or real estate shell companies. Johnson was one of several Republican senators who backed the last-minute provisions inserted in the bill-- and who listed income from those pass-through entities on their federal financial disclosure forms." This made him one of Trump's favorite senators and the love affair has continued to blossom.
Did you read the letter Bernie sent to his supporters after he rebutted Johnson on the Senate floor? He started by asking his Senate colleagues to unanimously agree to pass my legislation guaranteeing an emergency payment of $1,200 to every working class American and $500 to each of their children. "Republican Senator Ron Johnson objected, citing the deficit. It is comical that in this time of crisis, Ron Johnson and my Republican colleagues suddenly discover that we have a deficit. But I wonder. Where was Ron Johnson and Senate Republican concerns about the deficit when they passed a $1 trillion tax cut for some of the wealthiest people and corporations in this country? Where was their concern about the deficit when, at a time climate change threatens this entire planet, Congress gives hundreds of billions of dollars in corporate welfare to oil, gas and coal companies that exacerbate the climate crisis? Where was the concern about the deficit when, just this week, Congress passed legislation that would provide $740 billion to the military-- the largest military budget in history and more than the next ten nations combined. Where was their concern for the deficit then?" Bernie rocks! Imagine if we had elected him president instead of Trump or Biden!
My Republican colleagues believe that we can provide massive tax breaks to billionaires, give hundreds of billions in corporate welfare, and pass the largest military budget in history-- and that's okay. But, in the midst of the worst economic meltdown since the Great Depression, Congress cannot respond effectively to the needs of working families because of the deficit. What hypocrisy!
Here is the truth:
Congress must not leave Washington, D.C. and head back to our families unless we address the pain and anxiety of millions of other families across the country.
And that starts with putting money directly into their pockets with a direct payment of at least $1,200 per working class American, and $500 for each of their children.
This is not a radical idea.
This is an idea that is supported by President Donald Trump and President-elect Joe Biden. It is an idea that, according to a recent poll, is supported by 75 percent of Americans, including 72 percent of Republicans.
This amount in direct payments is exactly what Congress passed unanimously just nine months ago.
It is an amount that was included in legislation proposed in a $1.1 trillion offer by Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell just a few months ago.
For nine months we have asked tens of millions of working people to survive on one $1,200 check provided in the CARES Act, meanwhile over that same nine-month period there are 651 billionaires in the United States who became $1 trillion richer.
That’s $1 trillion for the wealthiest Americans and one $1,200 check for tens of millions struggling to survive.
That is unconscionable and it has got to change.
If our democracy means anything, if our United States government means anything, then we cannot turn our backs on the suffering of people in Wisconsin, Vermont, Oklahoma, or any other place in this country where people are hurting in an unprecedented way.
Meanwhile... I hope Georgia is on your mind-- because both David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler are adamantly opposed to everything Bernie is saying. I sure hope the voters there replace them with Rev. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff. Have you listened to East L.A.'s Las Cafeteras? You should:
Now you want more Las Cafeteras, right? That's a good thing. This is an older song but... wow, wow, wow! So infectious-- but not in a Trump-pandemic way. Try those dance steps: