While Republican lawmakers such as Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson have been labeled by the corporate media as “extremist,” or others such as former President Donald Trump have been banned from social media, the same does not apply to those on the other side of the political aisle.
Leaders of the Democratic Party openly voice radical opinions on Big Tech platforms without garnering the same backlash. Democratic Senate candidate Mandela Barnes — the current lieutenant governor of Wisconsin and Johnson’s opponent for the fall midterm election — is a perfect example.
One Twitter account that goes by “FoiaFan” created a thread of Barnes’ “radical” tweets on Sunday, and there are some doozies. In May 2021, for instance, Barnes exposed his anti-Israel posture when he wrote, “Normalize saying Free Palestine,” a phrase that has been associated with the goal to erase the Jewish state from existence.
Speaking of anti-Israeli, Barnes showed “love to” to squad member and Democrat Rep. Ilhan Omar “in the face of this deliberately misleading, racist and xenophobic aggression.” In so doing, he propped up a radical lawmaker who has repeatedly expressed antisemitic viewpoints, conspiracy theories, and socialist sympathies.
His tweet came in response to Omar’s accusation that the nation’s “core beliefs” were threatened by how the Trump administration “would rather cage children than pass comprehensive immigration reform,” a baseless accusation and lie that Barnes perpetuated.
Barnes’ lies about the former administration weren’t limited to immigration policy. In February 2017, he jumped into the Russia hoax when he tweeted without evidence, “Donald Trump is a Russian spy. Believe me,” a classic fake narrative of the corrupt corporate media.
Barnes has also made a habit of policing speech, especially when it comes to discussing illegal immigration. Here’s Barnes in 2015, dumbfounded that somebody would ever say “illegal alien”:
When former Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker used the term “illegal alien” in 2018 and PolitiFact sicced its bogus “truth-o-meter” on him, Barnes clapped back: “The debate here shouldn’t be whether the claim is true or not. It should be whether using the term ‘illegal alien’ is racist fearmongering or not. Which is definitely true.”
What’s more disturbing than the accurate term “illegal alien” is Barnes’ apparent belief that immigrants who cross the border illegally must all share the same skin color — and that all the people who use the term also belong to one racial group. But people of all races and ethnicities use the phrase “illegal alien,” and likewise, people of all skin colors have entered the country illegally.
In March of 2017, Barnes once again painted border-security concerns as racist, equating support for a border wall with “xenophobia” rather than engaging with Americans’ actual concerns.
Additionally, new reports further expose Barnes’ extremist views when it comes to immigration: The Democratic Senate candidate supports abolishing ICE. This movement, known for accusing ICE of “terrorizing our communities,” seeks to erase the law enforcement agency in the name of human rights. Barnes was photographed with an “Abolish ICE” T-shirt, showcasing his anti-border security and extremist immigration sentiments.
Last but certainly not least in the lineup of extreme Barnes tweets, the Wisconsin candidate wrote on the 11th anniversary of 9/11, “I have a problem with people that feel the need to mention ‘Islamic’ before terrorists when speaking on 9-11 …looking at you Rudy Giuliani,” downplaying the ideological radicalism that motivated the attack, which left nearly 3,000 people dead and thousands more injured.
Barnes’ tweets make his viewpoints quite clear. It is now up to Wisconsinites this fall to decide whether he and his “radical” ideas will make their way to Capitol Hill.
