Lost in the primary news from last week was one item. You may recall me writing about Arthur Jones, described as “an outspoken Holocaust denier, activist anti-Semite and white supremacist”, who is now the Republican nominee for a US Congressional seat in Illinois. He ran unopposed in a district that is strongly Democratic and the Republican party did not think it worthwhile to run someone against him in the primary, since the winner was likely to lose in the general election anyway.
I felt that this was a bad mistake on the part of the Republican party because while they have been blowing racist and anti-Semitic dog whistles for the longest time, having as their official candidate someone espousing these views on the campaign trail was something else again. I was shocked that they could not find someone who was willing to take one for the team and run against Jones even if they later got trounced in the general election, just so as to avoid this embarrassment.
But now we find that someone named Steve West won the primary for a Missouri house seat, handily beating three other candidates by almost 25 points. And he is a real piece of work.
On his Monday morning radio show, Steve West promotes fanatical conspiracies about “Jewish cabals” that are “harvesting baby parts” through Planned Parenthood, that torture and molest children and that run the Republican Party.
…“Looking back in history, unfortunately, Hitler was right about what was taking place in Germany. And who was behind it,” West said on a show on KCXL radio on Jan. 23, 2017.
West won the 15th District nomination in a four-candidate race. Besides his radio show, he also has a YouTube channel and a website. Donning a wig and fake beard and calling himself Jack Justice, he has unleashed an array of bigotry including homophobia, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and outright racism.
Naturally, the Republican party is shocked, just shocked, that someone like West is not only a member of their party but that party members like him so much that he won so easily.
The Missouri Republican Party late Thursday afternoon issued a statement about West’s “disgusting comments”:
“Steve West’s shocking and vile comments do not reflect the position of the Missouri Republican Party or indeed of any decent individual. West’s abhorrent rhetoric has absolutely no place in the Missouri Republican Party or anywhere. We wholeheartedly condemn his comments.”
Sorry, that won’t fly. Jones becoming the nominee could be blamed on a tactical error by the party in not fielding a better candidate. West won because party members enthusiastically voted for him. It is quite possible that given the kind of Republican party that Donald Trump has molded in his image, Jones would have defeated a primary opponent too.
West and Jones are the visible symbols of ideas that the party has been nurturing for a long time. It took Trump to give them the confidence to come out into the open.
Speaking of Nazioid Republicans: Trump™ buddy and all-around nasty guy Roger Stone today posted, then deleted, an edited image of seven US astronauts with Trump’s, his, and five other accomplices’ heads pasted in, and red-on-blue swastika images in place of the mission badges.
Caption: “I love this — proud to be in this crew — but the only lies being told are by the liberal scumbags #maga #republican #infowars”
Oops: link to above story (including pic).
To add context, on Friday Stephen King tweeted the folllowing:
At that point a bunch of followers starting creating pictures. Really good pictures. (Thunderbirds was popular.) The image Roger Stone posted with the swastikas was one of those. The pictures were making fun of Trump and his space force (and insulting Trump).
So, what one thinks about these depends on why one thinks the picture was re-tweeted. In Roger Stone’s case, I imagine folks thought it was because he agreed with the swastikas with the Space Force. (But we don’t know that.)
Twitter thread here:
https://twitter.com/StephenKing/status/1028097247530110982
Not all Republicans are Nazis, but all Nazis are Rpublicans.
ahcuah @ # 3: In Roger Stone’s case, I imagine folks thought it was because he agreed with the swastikas with the Space Force.
You may give Stone too much credit. I suspect he just saw an array of Trumpista heads on astronaut pictures and didn’t look at the (non-standard coloration) swastikas before re-posting: no doubt he pays as much attention to detail in graphics as he does in ethics.