Washington, D.C., one of the most liberal cities in America, is racist.
That’s the only conclusion to be reached using Washington Post liberal Eugene Robinson’s logic.
Robinson was on MSNBC Tuesday morning to once again call Republican Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin a racist after saying last week that he would have been more fearful of the riots started by Black Lives Matter activists in the event that former President Donald Trump had won reelection.
Robinson’s cable news appearance was simply a microwaved version of what he had already written in his paper. “The racism of Johnson’s latest words is breathtaking,” wrote an apparently breathless Robinson. “As far as he is concerned, a White mob at the Capitol that overruns police lines, smashes windows and ransacks offices isn’t breaking the law. In Johnson’s view, the millions of Americans who participated in Black Lives Matter protests do not ‘love this country.’ And according to him, Black people who demonstrate against police violence and structural racism do not ‘truly respect law enforcement.'”
It’s a disingenuous summary of what Johnson actually said in a recent radio interview. He said, “I’m also criticized because I made the comment that on Jan. 6, I never felt threatened, because I didn’t.” OK, so Johnson wasn’t afraid of Trump supporters. Got it.
But what irked Robinson and other liberals such as CNN’s Brianna Keilar, who on Monday called Johnson’s comments (what else?) “racist,” was what the senator said after.
“Now, 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.”
As is generally accepted by the media, any criticism of Black Lives Matter rioting is inherently bigoted, and antifa doesn’t exist. But here’s where one of those cute CNN “fact checks” would have been useful.
Everyone in the district was more than “a little concerned” about the exact scenario Johnson spoke of precisely because Black Lives Matter protesters are expected to destroy things. We’ve seen it happen.
Nearly every restaurant and store in downtown Washington was boarded up in anticipation of a Trump victory on Election Day, which would invariably give left-wing activists a reason to take to the streets to start fires and smash windows.
What ever might give business owners and landlords the impression that it might occur?
Because they all saw it happen in the summer, when three days of wild rioting in the district, following the death of George Floyd, resulted in weeks of city curfews and a National Guard presence at every intersection downtown.
Robinson would like to forget about that and call people racist.
Before we do that, let’s consider what the “mostly peaceful” BLM riots caused. Some estimates have damages to property totaling up to $2 billion and at least 25 riot-related deaths.
By contrast, the Capitol Hill riot that took place on one single day in January was the cause of $30 million in property damage (less than 2% of the BLM damage estimate), and five people died.
It’s supposedly “racist” to compare the two happenings, but that’s only because people like Robinson would rather not see the comparison. And for making it, Johnson is supposedly a racist.
