Jarvis Johnson Has Conflicting Views On Protest-Protest May Soon Be Our Last Defense

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​Above you see two recent ads from State Rep. Jarvis Johnson. Rep. Johnson is running for the Texas Senate against Senator Molly Cook.  Election Day is May 28. 

One ad shows civil rights marchers and protestors and says you should vote for Rep. Johnson to honor the memory of those brave acts.

Very good. We must recall and honor the Civil Rights Movement.   

The other ad is about how Senator Cook is a trouble-causing activist & that her presence in the Texas Senate would be a case of "chaos." 

The shirt Senator Cook is wearing in the picture is about opposition to the expansion of I-45. I am not aware of any chaos brought about by opposition to I-45.     

Rep. Johnson appears to have conflicting views on the virtues of protest and activism.  

(Update to this post: Over the weekend, there was a protest at Houston City Hall against the wrongful and anti-democratic HISD takeover. In the inserted picture above, you see Senator Molly Cook in a blue shirt and three people over you see Rep. Johnson in shirt and tie.  He is right there protesting with Senator Cook. It seems Rep. Johnson is not as adverse to protest as he suggests in his campaign ad. )

​Civil rights protestors were seen by many Americans as troublemakers. That is not an original thought on my part. Martin Luther King was murdered while taking part in a strike and protest movement fighting for sanitation workers in Memphis. 

Republicans promise violence if they lose and authoritarianism if they win. Texas Republicans have passed a law allowing them to take over Harris County elections.   

If election results are not respected or Republicans toss out votes to flip a Harris County outcome, protest will be essential. When that day comes, elected officials will have to decide what side of the police line to stand on. If Jarvis Johnson wins on May 28, he will have to confront how to respond to authoritarianism. Hopefully, the views he expresses towards Senator Cook's activism are not an indication of the response he would offer. The safer bet is to simply not elect him to the Senate in the first place.  

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