U.S. Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) is urging conservatives voters to run for local office to “take back our culture.” Some are expressing confusion as to what culture he is referring to, and from who it should be retrieved. Others are making pointed references to Sen. Johnson’s infamous 2018 trip to Moscow on the Fourth of July, after which he was accused of coming back spouting Russian propaganda, which he is still accused of now. And others are suggesting he means white supremacy.
Over the weekend Johnson “urged his fellow Republicans to ‘take back’ local government positions in order to ‘take back our culture,'” The Hill reports. “Take back our school boards, our county boards, our city councils. We will take back our culture. We don’t have to fear this anymore.”
Johnson’s 2018 remarks calling for America to go easy ion Russia in the wake of its devastating attack on U.S. democracy in 2016 and the years leading up to that election were more fodder for state-run Russian media outlets like TASS and Sputnik.
Johnson is up for re-election next year. In March CNN reported that his “seat is the third most likely to flip, but the two-term senator is the most vulnerable Republican incumbent.”
The Republican from Wisconsin was mocked and castigated on social media: