Tea Party’s double agent: Sen. Ron Johnson has a new agenda

The movement's favorite son suddenly says he "never joined a group." Here's what's behind Ron Johnson's new crusade

HEATHER DIGBY PARTON

Back in 2010, George Will called Wisconsin businessman Ron Johnson the face of the Tea Party, one of those righteous citizens rising up from the dying embers of our benighted republic to save us from the collectivist horde:

Before what he calls “the jaw-dropping” events of the last 19 months — TARP, the stimulus, Government Motors, the mistreatment of Chrysler’s creditors, Obamacare, etc. — the idea of running for office never crossed Ron Johnson’s mind. He was, however, dry tinder — he calls Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged” his “foundational book” — and now is ablaze, in an understated, upper-Midwestern way. This 55-year-old manufacturer of plastic products from Oshkosh is what the tea party looks like.

Johnson was one of the first Tea Party candidates, a genuine political neophyte who heard the call to higher office over the mortal threat of Obamacare and launched his campaign through Tea Party rallies all over Wisconsin. At an early Madison Tea Party rally, Johnson waved the bloody shirt of the victimized conservatives to the ecstatic crowd:

We need to elect true conservatives, not politicians but citizen legislators, people who actually listen to us. People who will tell the truth and in the end will do what actually needs to be done. And we need the level of involvement and commitment that is being demonstrated out here today. Because in the end, folks, we will need to out organize the community organizers…Folks this is a fight for freedom. This is not somebody’s else’s fight this is our fight. And this is a fight that we absolutely must win. So may God help us and may God continue to bless the greatest nation in the history of mankind

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http://www.salon.com/2014/06/03/tea_partys_double_agent_sen_ron_johnson_has_a_new_agenda/