of offending race-obsessed progressives!

Imagine if you will (Blaska writes in his Rod Serling voice) a governor who frees convicted murderers so they can enjoy a weekend holiday from prison — a furlough. That prisoner invades a home, stabs the husband, binds him up and rapes the wife. This governor is running for President of the United States and now must deal with the backlash. 

Hallelujah! Democrats discover that the furloughed murderer is a racial minority! They can play the race card! (Remember Willie Horton!)

Despite the covert support of all the major news media (pre-Fox News), it did not work for Michael Dukakis in 1988 and it won’t work for Democrats this year. Not that they aren’t dealing the race card from the bottom of the deck again.

Policing the Squad

Mandela Barnes, candidate for the U.S. Senate from Wisconsin, has one big advantage over Gov. Dukakis — he is (or identifies as) a black man. Therefore, incumbent Senator Ron Johnson’s criticisms of Barnes’ appalling record on law enforcement is, according to the progressive playback, perforce, RAY-cist (as the Gotch would say).

The Washington Post sought out Barnes supporters who obliged by deriding the attacks as “racist messages that feed on stereotypes.” The New York Times, employs a familiar tactic: that Republicans are trying to capitalize on a problem — thereby, somehow, delegitimizing the problem. The Republican offensive “has swiftly drawn criticism as a return to sometimes deceptive or racially divisive messaging,” the Times scolds, — as if the issue, being unfavorable to Democrats, should be off limits.

“It’s telling that Democrats don’t want to talk about solutions,” National Review writes.

There are a couple of counts against the anti-Barnes ads. One is that they associate him with “the Squad,” the group of left-wing congresswomen. But this is hardly dirty pool since Barnes has gladly associated himself with them. He went to an event with Representative Ilhan Omar in 2019 and said about her in a tweet afterward, “She’s exactly who we need in Congress right now fighting for what’s right.”

The idea is that it is racist to portray Barnes in an ad with an image of the Squad because all its members are non-white. But what’s most notable about the Squad is that it exemplifies out-of-the-mainstream progressive politics. Are attacks on the group supposed to be off-limits until it recruits a more diverse membership?

— Rich Lowry, “Crime is a legitimate issue.“

Ron Johnson will debate Mandela Barnes October 7 and October 13.

Democracy dies in cover-up

Let’s roll the tape on Mandela Barnes. There is the photograph of the lieutenant governor wearing a Defund ICE T-shirt. He sided against police and in favor of convicted felon and would-be kidnapper Jacob Blake in Kenosha before an impartial investigation could be conducted. (Former Madison police chief Noble Wray, a black man himself, exonerated the police). As a state legislator in 2016, Barnes introduced a bill to end cash bail — a cause taken up by progressive prosecutors like the recalled D.A. in San Francisco, Chesa Boudin.

Oh, yeah! Barnes rolled out a list of endorsements from law enforcement types from throughout Wisconsin — grand total of 9! Two of whose names he subsequently has had to scrub, leaving only seven — one of whom is Gloria Reyes, who, as president of the school board, expelled school resource police officers from Madison’s troubled high schools. Ron Johnson, meanwhile, is endorsed by 51 sheriffs, including a couple Democrats — but not Kalvin Barrett in Dane County.

Blaska’s Bottom Line: We update Samuel Johnson: Playing the race card (not patriotism) is the last refuge of a scoundrel.

If crime isn’t a legitimate issue, what is?