Two GOP senators filed an amendment on Wednesday that would cancel Columbus Day. The amendment was filed to a Senate proposal recognizing Juneteenth as a federal holiday.
Sens. James Lanford (R-OK) and Ron Johnson (R-WI), chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, proposed the amendment, arguing that the addition of Juneteenth as a federal holiday would give federal workers an extra day off and put the country in further debt.
As a solution, the two senators propose eliminating one federal holiday in return, and they settled on Columbus Day as their logical choice.
My sole motivation for offering this amendment to the Juneteenth bill is to prevent giving federal workers another paid holiday and incurring the additional cost.
— Senator Ron Johnson (@SenRonJohnson) July 2, 2020
"Throughout our history, we have strived to become a more perfect union and Juneteenth was a huge step in attaining that goal," said Sen. Lankford in a statement. "We should celebrate these strides on the federal level while remaining cognizant of the impact the existing 10 federal holidays have on federal services and local businesses. We can reduce these impacts by replacing Columbus Day as a federal holiday with Juneteenth, America’s second independence day."
Columbus is a historic legend and a revered hero in the Italian American community. In recent weeks, Columbus statues have been ordered down in places like Newark, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and even Columbus, Ohio. Mobs also tore down or defaced Columbus statues in St. Paul, Boston, Richmond and elsewhere.
Republican senators joining the cancel culture mob shows the extent to which conservatives are not only losing the culture wars but are now fighting on the other side.