There’s a saying: “Not all Republicans are racists, but if someone is racist, he’s probably a Republican.”
While it would be unfair to stereotype all Republicans as racists, the GOP has not exactly been the party of inclusion since at least 1964 when President Lyndon Johnson “lost the South for a generation” upon signing the Civil Rights Act.
Since then, we have seen the rise of former Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater, who opposed Johnson’s measure; Senator Strom Thurmond, who changed party affiliation to help the GOP appeal to Southern white voters; and former president Richard Nixon, whose “Southern strategy” stretched all the way to president Ronald Reagan.
Now we have a president who demonizes minorities; calls undocumented immigrants from “shithole countries” “animals;” bans people from Iran, Syria, Yemen, Libya, and Somalia entry into the United States; claimed Haitians “all have AIDS;” mocked a Muslim Gold Star family; accused a federal judge of being unable to impartially preside over the Trump University case because he is of Mexican descent; made a Native America slur at a ceremony for Navajo Code Talkers (below a portrait of Andrew Jackson); claimed there were “very fine people on both sides” of the Charlottesville, Va. white supremacist rally last August; called Mexicans “rapists” and “drug dealers” in his campaign announcement speech; and rose to power spearheading the insidious lie that former president Barack Obama was not born in the United States.
This is the same man whom the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division sued in 1973 for housing discriminating against African Americans and Puerto Ricans.
This is the same man who appointed Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III–who in 1986 was determined to be too racist to serve on a federal bench–to be is his attorney general.
This is the man who appointed Stephen Miller to be senior White House policy adviser.
So it’s no wonder racists and conspiracy theorists that would have previously been quietly ignored are now entering the political arena with their white supremacy on full unapologetic display.
This November will find many of them on ballots in five states. If you live in one of them, you might want to pay attention.
We start in North Carolina, where white supremacist Russell Walker is running for the state House of Representatives.
His “N-word’-laden website states:
“Jews are NOT semitic they are satanic as they all descend from Satan.”
In Illinois, there is 3rd Congressional district candidate Arthur Jones. He secured the nomination running unopposed, leaving party officials to scramble for a write-in candidate.
His campaign website boasts a section titled “Holocaust?” that states:
“There is no proof such a so-called ‘Holocaust’ ever took place anywhere in Europe, against the Jews…[the] idea that six million Jews, were killed by the National Socialist government of Germany, in World War II, is the biggest, blackest lie in history.”
Another section, “Hate Speech?”, presents quotes suggesting racial and religious supremacy from past American presidents, Charles Lindbergh, and the Bible.
Also on that site is a slideshow of Jones speaking at white nationalist events.
If he wins, Illinois will be sending to Congress a supposed former American Nazi Party and National Socialist White People’s Party member, a Holocaust denier who argued the late Nobel Prize recipient and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel celebrated the rape of German women, whose memoir Night Jones maligned as “political pornography,” to which this picture of him from his website attests:
In Virginia, pro-Confederate candidate Corey Stewart’s primary victory reportedly caused the state GOP chair to resign.
But even Stewart had to disavow Wisconsin’s Paul Nehlen, running to replace Speaker Paul Ryan.
Nehlen is too racist for Twitter and even Gab, the alt-right’s preferred social media platform.
Yes, even California has racists.
Anti-Semite John Fitzgerald is a contender for the 11th Congressional District seat there. He has appeared on neo-Nazi podcasts and, like Jones, claims the Holocaust is a “lie,” calling it a “complete fabrication” in an interview with The New York Times.
His campaign website posts:
“911 attacks were used as the catalyst by Jewish elements within our Government and Israel’s, to implement the PNAC Doctrine (1999) which called for a ‘catastrophic and catalyzing event– like a new Pearl Harbor’ to both galvanize support from the American people and to make regime changes.”
He also writes:
“I hope all of you ask yourselves why JEWS are primarily behind the push of multiculturalism, diversity and inclusiveness throughout the United States, Europe and other once predominantly white nations of the world and WHY many of our politicians allowing them to do so has led to rape and crime epidemics in its aftermath.”
Last week, Fitzgerald posted a new article on his website titled: “Why Are Powerful Jews Pushing Mass-Immigration And Forced-Multiculturalism Throughout The U.S. And Europe?”
Although these men have their respective Republican party officials in a tizzy, the fact they are even on ballots in 2018 is indicative of the times in which we live.
Yes, we have had anti-semites and racists in office before, but why are so many coming out so overtly in droves today in this supposed “post-racial” age? We have had our first African American president, our first female nominee for president. Democratic Socialists are running and winning in record numbers, thanks to Sen. Bernie Sanders’ presidential run.
Remember this when someone tells you elections don’t matter.
If you’re a voter in Virginia, North Carolina, Illinois, California, and Wisconsin, these racists are on your ballots.
You know what to do.
Image credit: NBC News
