Juneteenth is upon us, and some Republicans would like to shut down the festivities, as illustrated in the above Getty photo from Washington, D.C. in 2020. Well, The Daily Show came for these members of Congress, after “Juneteenth National Independence Day Act” overwhelmingly passed on Wednesday. That’s a formal recognition of June 19, 1865, when a Union general informed enslaved people in Galveston, Texas that federal law had declared them to be free (a few years after President Lincoln had done the same in rebel states). The day shall now be considered a federal holiday, although people have noticed that 14 House Republicans voted against the bill. You can see their names at USA Today (no Lauren Boebert or Marjorie Taylor Greene, surprisingly enough), and presumably, they’re of the same perspective as Tucker Carlson, who is ragingly mad because he apparently thinks Independence Day will be no more.
The Daily Show wants to know why these Republicans stand so fiercely against Juneteenth being a public holiday. What gives? Even if they’re politically motivated to shut down the celebration of ending slavery, why don’t they at least use it as an excuse for some rest and relaxation? Talk about being tightly wound. As the show’s Twitter account puts it, “Imagine being so racist you don’t want the day off.”
Imagine being so racist you don’t want the day off https://t.co/ZoeueZWjXP
— The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) June 17, 2021
There’s not much more that one can say to sum up the situation, although the BBC quotes one congressman who tried to do so. Matt Rosendale (R-MT) said that the bill was mere “identity politics,” and he explained that he voted no because “I believe in treating everyone equally, regardless of race, and that we should be focused on what unites us rather than our differences.” Uh, is he even listening to what he’s saying?