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Rep. Johnson peps up crowd at annual GOP event
NILES
As the Mahoning Valley McKinley Club celebrated its 100th anniversary, it expected a speech for the crowd of Republican Party dignitaries gathered at its banquet.
What it got Thursday evening instead as U.S. Rep. Bill Johnson of Marietta, R-6th, took the podium in the auditorium at the McKinley Memorial in Niles was a stirring pep talk on reclaiming and protecting the country.
He started by saying it’s easier to get legislation passed in Congress now that the Democrats are out of the way — or as he put it, the House has passed “a host of legislation that’s now going to go to a functional Senate.”
That got some laughs, but the crowd became quiet, even somber, as he brought up the spectre of Islamic State.
Not since the Civil War, then Pearl Harbor, has the country been at such risk, he said, going on to say that terrorist killing fields could soon include places such as Pittsburgh.
“Even right here in the Mahoning Valley, we could see the destruction of our values, our way of life,” he said.
“We are the guardians at the gate of freedom,” he said. “But at a time when America must be at its strongest, we’ve become weaker,” he continued. “We’ve begun to fragment. We hide behind Facebook posts and Twitter rants.”
“Reality television simply helps us escape reality... and we hope the destruction of American culture goes away.”
“We must reject those that seek to divide us,” Johnson said.
“As Americans, we always win. It’s our history,” he insisted. “We’re ready for a national conversation on how to reclaim America, to give our kids the future we so desperately want for them.”
“I still believe the American dream exists. The dream is beginning to dim, and for many, it is history. Politicians seek power themselves instead of empowering Americans. The president is too slow to attack enemies and too quick to attack those who disagree with him.”
He said the country needs “a different kind of leadership.”
“[President Barack] Obama is a decent man, but at a time when America needed leadership the most, he failed us.”
Johnson said the country needs a “never-give-up” leader.
“Never-give-up leaders inspire us with a vision in who we can be. George Washington was one,” he said. John F. Kennedy was one for his handling of the Cuban missile crisis, and Ronald Reagan was one for calling the Soviet Union the evil empire, he said.
“Right is right,” he said. “They don’t hide behind political correctness,” he said, and they put the country first.
“Our strength is in the indomitable spirit of the American people,” he said, adding that soldiers “made the ultimate sacrifice so we can pursue our own ambitions on our own terms.”
“Tonight ... be a better citizen, patriot, son, wife, sister, daughter, neighbor, and most important, an American, and then we’ll leave our nation in a much better place,” he said. “And we need to pray for God’s guidance on how to save this nation. Never-give-up is the kind of commitment America needs to succeed.”