By M.D. Kittle

MADISON — When he’s not being chauffeured around by the Wisconsin State Patrol, Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes is comparing conservatives to Russian President/thug Vladimir Putin.

In a podcast last month, Barnes — part-time lieutenant governor, full-time Democrat campaigner for the U.S. Senate seat held by incumbent Republican Ron Johnson — accused “regressive individuals” who don’t support leftist “equity” and climate change alarmist movements of being like the despot whose armies invaded Ukraine.

Barnes told “Black Like Me” with Dr. Alex Gee that the people on the “losing side” of civil rights battles “don’t automatically assimilate. They carry those grievances.” All the way to the Jan. 6, 2021 riots at the U.S. Capitol, according to Barnes

“They are more savvy. And also on the other end of that too, we saw January 6, a little more militant as well in their approach. So with that being said, we can’t just rest and assume that things are just fine,”  Barnes pontificated.

“I mean, you can even compare it to what is going on in Russia. Vladimir Putin, his dissatisfaction, his frustration of the fall of the Soviet Empire is the main point in his aggression in trying to take over Ukraine, a former Soviet Region. So with that being said, it is the same frame of mind that so many people have when it comes to other social issues. Even, people can even look at same-sex marragie and say ‘oh well, yeah, it is solved. Okay, next thing.’ But we see all these attacks on LBGTQ youth across the country.”

In other words, Barnes and his allies on the left mean to keep pushing a radical agenda that an overwhelming majority of Americans don’t agree with. And for not agreeing, they will be likened to genocidal tyrants like Putin.

The host of the show, Alexander Gee, is CEO of Madison’s Nehemiah Center for Urban Leadership Development, leads the Center for Black Excellence & Culture, and is a pastor and life coach. His center just got a $5 million grant from Barnes’ boss, Gov. Tony Evers, who has been richly rewarding his political allies with his campaign slush fund of billions in federal COVID aid.

Gee’s podcast, according to Gee, features current events like the Black Lives Matter movement, racial unrest, and “what makes a trustworthy white ally.”

He’s a big believer in the leftist ideas that the United States of America was built on white supremacy and remains a white supremacist nation.

“People have been trained to think certain people are less intelligent, less capable, that we begin to carry out those laws that no longer exist, therefore we still associated things to skin color,” Gee told WKOW in June 2020 amid the “mostly peaceful” Black Lives Matter protests that swept through Madison, Milwaukee, Kenosha and many U.S. cities.

“Black Like Me” guests have included Dane County Judge Everett Mitchell, former NFL player Terrell Fletcher, and U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin.

During the interview, Gee asked Barnes, “How do you keep your head screwed on tight when you are watching things happening in plain sight that we really did think were put to rest? I’m talking about specific things when it comes to the civil rights of black people and people of color. How do you keep your head just focused when you see that we are moving backwards in terms of civil rights?”

History books, Barnes said, before launching into his screed comparing what Gee might consider untrustworthy white allies to Russian war mongers.

“And that stuff is still so deeply ingrained in the psyche of a lot of these regressive individuals and they are not going to rest, they are not going to let up. They have only regrouped, changed strategies, gone on to law school, furthered their education, they become a little more…a little more….articulate. To use your word,” he told Gee.

More divisive rhetoric from a lieutenant governor and wannabe U.S. senator who has spent his brief and unimpressive political career sowing the seeds of division.

Listen to the podcast here.