It was one year ago today that “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” profiled the sitting member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Ohio’s 6th District, Bill Johnson, who was first elected in… wait for it… the 2010 Tea Party Wave. He’s managed to win four more elections, which has a lot to do with the fact that Ohio’s 6th has a +16 lean in Congress. He’s usually not known for awkward quotes, and he has the benefit of providing absolutely no name recognition. Honestly, is there anything more generic of a name for a Congressman than BILL JOHNSON? That stands out as much as it would if he was one of the townspeople named Johnson in Blazing Saddles.
We give some points on the dumb scale to Johnson for denying climate change science. But it’s not just that he waves away the facts, it’s that he claims he’s an expert because he says he is a “scientist” himself. For the record, Bill Johnson’s “science background” is a degree in computer science… that was awarded to him back in 1979, quite the golden age for high level technology. And it was that resume that Johnson used to stifle an actual scientist from the EPA in a Congressional hearing.
What concerns us more, though, is the level of Islamophobia that seems to have taken root in Rep. Johnson over the past few years. You might wonder why the guy would support Donald Trump’s bigoted idea of a Muslim travel ban, but then you realize, Trump is hardly the only bigot who he’s palling around with these days. Johnson has been identified as one of two GOP members of Congress allying himself with Daniel Pipes, an anti-Muslim activist who has for decades been maligning practitioners of Islam, and after the Oklahoma City Bombing, insisted it was carried out by Muslims, and not anti-government militia goons Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols. Bill Johnson and Ron DeSantis both co-founded the “Congressional Israel Victory Caucus”, which advises extreme action to help Israel wipe out Palestine, including withholding water from Palestinian settlers. Delightful. Don’t see how that could be a reason that peace won’t be brought to the MidEast, y’know, trying to get people on one side to die of thirst.
During Johnson’s first eight years in office, he wasted years of taxpayer time trying to repeal the Affordable Care Act, twice voted to defund Planned Parenthood, voted against Disaster Relief Funding for victims of Hurricane Sandy, voted against the renewal of the Violence Against Women Act, voted to shut down the government in 2013, and in 2018, when his party controlled both chambers of Congress and the White House, and voted for the GOP’s $1.7 trillion tax cut to benefit the wealthiest Americans and corporations permanently that coincidentally also removes the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate and kicks 13 million people off their health insurance.
Bill Johnson coasted to re-election with 69% of the vote in 2018, and has resumed being a partisan bag of d***s:
- January 23rd, 2019: Rep. Johnson voted against HR 648, because he was gleefully enjoying the longest government shutdown in history.
- February 28th, 2019: Bill Johnson votes against HR 1112, a bill which would have required universal background checks on all firearm purchases, and close the gun show loophole.
- March 14th, 2019: Rep. Johnson votes against HJR 46, which sane members of Congress voted for to reject Donald Trump’s “national emergency” regarding the U.S. border and his attempts to reallocate funds for a border wall without Congressional approval.
- April 4th, 2019: Bill Johnson is one of 158 Republicans who choose to vote against the re-autorization of the Violence Against Women Act, likely because they feel the 2nd Amendment remaining absolute is more important than preventing people with a history of domestic abuse from owning a firearm (which statistics show, makes them more likely to use those firearms against women in their lives).
Bill Johnson is currently chaining himself to the legacy of Donald Trump, responding to the Mueller report back on April 18th, 2019, by saying it revealed, “no collusion, no obstruction, no anything”, in spite of all the times that Robert Mueller’s report mentioned things Trump did that qualify as obstruction of justice, all of the hundreds of links between the Trump campaign and Russian oligarchs, and the nameless criminal activities that he forwarded to other prosecutors.
We can only hope that in 2020, the people of Ohio’s 6th remember that Johnson and his party put a criminal and traitor above the security of the American people, and undo the mistake they’ve made for a decade.
Click Here for Full CSGOPOTD Archive
One Year Ago, May 21st, 2018: Bill Johnson (OH)… Original Profile
Two Years Ago, May 21st, 2017: Rick Womick (TN)
Three Year Ago, May 21st, 2016: Jim Buchy (OH)… 2016 Update
Four Years Ago, May 21st, 2015: Jim Buchy (OH)… Original Profile
