Trump. The deranged racist admonished Europe about lowering their culture through immigration. Photo: Gage Skidmore–Flickr.
[Speaking Truth To Empower]
With the November midterm election looming, a very disturbing trend is emerging: openly racist neo-Nazis, KKK members, and other assorted White supremacist political candidates are running for office—under the banner of the Republican Party.
Donald Trump has brought all the creatures of hate out of the woodwork. Their actions state “I’m a racist and very proud of it.”
For around 50 years now, the Republican Party has been “palling around” with racists, especially since the emergence of the so-called “Southern Strategy,” and the earlier racially divisive 1964 presidential campaign of Barry Goldwater.
Over time, racism in the Republican Party has usually been couched in covert language; so called “dog whistle.” Make racist statements so long as they are somewhat ambiguous. But the election of Donald Trump has now ushered us into a time where overt racism is on the rise—and racists are emboldened unlike anything many of us have seen in our lifetime.
Republican racism is now standing front and center as we head toward November.
With only a few months to go before the election, the Republican party has several out-of-the-closet bigots seeking elective office—including some running for Congress. Several have primary wins under their belts.
In Wisconsin, White supremacist Paul Nehlen, who describes himself as a “pro-White Christian American candidate,” is running to replace Congressman Paul Ryan, the current House Speaker. In the wake of the political chaos caused by Donald Trump’s presidency, Ryan is stepping down supposedly because he wants to spend more time with his family.
Mr. Nehlen, who regularly defends White supremacy, is known for creating an ““it’s okay to be White,” social media campaign. He has made the slanderous claim that “Islam is the only major religion that encourages lying,” and has said America should discuss whether Muslims should be allowed here. In the upcoming August 14, Wisconsin primary we shall see how well Nehlen fares.
Close by, in Illinois, card-carrying Nazi, Arthur Jones, won the March Republican primary for Illinois Third Congressional District, a largely Democratic area which includes the southwest side of Chicago. Jones has called the Jewish Holocaust “nothing more than an international extortion racket by the Jews,” and the “the biggest, blackest lie in history.” Having won the primary, Jones will face Democratic incumbent Dan Lipinski in the general election.
Then there is Corey Stewart, who, on June 12, beat Nick Freitas in Virginia’s Republican Senate primary. Stewart—a friend of the aforementioned Nehlen—is a “Birther,” with clear sympathies for the Charlottesville racists and neo-Nazis who murdered Heather Heyer, during the so-called “Unite the Right” rally held on August 17, 2017.
Stewart condemned Republicans who criticized the racist Charlottesville murderers by saying “All the weak Republicans, they couldn’t apologize fast enough. They played right into the hands of the left wing. Those [Nazi] people have nothing to do with the Republican Party. There was no reason to apologize. Stewart will be running against Senator Tim Kaine—Hillary Clinton’s presidential running mate in the 2016 Elections.
Republican John Fitzgerald is another Holocaust-denier running for national office in California’s 11th Congressional District. Reportedly, Fitzgerald regularly appears on neo-Nazi podcasts asserting the Jewish Holocaust is a “lie.” Fitzgerald has complained about “Jewish control and supremacy” and said “911 attacks were used as the catalyst by Jewish elements within our Government and Israel’s…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.”
Fitzgerald came in second in the June 5, primary receiving 23 percent of the vote. He will face incumbent Rep. Mark DeSaulnier (D-CA) in the November election.
Another California Neo-Nazi Patrick Little reportedly received 54,507 votes in this year’s California primary and lost a chance to challenge Senator Diane Feinstein. Little has called for a United States “free from Jews.”
In North Carolina, former Deputy Ricky Padgett ran unopposed as the Republican candidate for District 22 of the North Carolina State Senate. Padgett has compared Democrats to Nazis and roaches. He also criticized California Congresswoman Maxine Waters comparing her to “Aunt Esther,” a character from the Sanford and Son sitcom. Congresswoman Waters was recently attacked by California prosecutor Michael Selyem who said, “being a loud-mouthed (expletive) in the ghetto you would think someone would have shot this bitch by now.”
A really delusional racist, Deputy Padgett has made the offensively ludicrous claim that “hate groups have made it politically correct to allow and even promote the killing of law enforcement officers.” For some, like Officer Padgett, holding police accountable when they kill innocent people constitutes a “war on police.” On Saturday, violent protests broke out in Chicago after police killed yet another unarmed Black man.
Padgett was denounced as an anti-Semite after posting a picture of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who is Jewish, in Nazi regalia. Padgett will run against incumbent Democrat Mike Woodard and Libertarian Ray Ubinger in the November general election.
This rising racist Republican tide is not just relegated to places far from New York.
Republican Seth Grossman just won a victory in the New Jersey primary representing the state’s 2nd Congressional District. Grossman is known to propagate racism targeting Blacks and Muslims. Here are a few of his views.
According to Media Matters, Grossman has said Black people “are a threat to all who cross their paths, Black and non-Black alike.” In December 2016, he said “Most of the racism Barack Obama faced as President, was the racism he deliberately created and exaggerated to increase his political support and power.” In 2017, he said “In Black communities, a layer of hatred/resentment of Whites is added.” Back in 2015, he attacked Kwanzaa as “a phony holiday invented in 1960’s by Black racists to weaken and divide Americans during a Christmas season of joy and good will.”
According to the Nation Magazine, other alt-right racists, on the election map are: Joey Gibson, in Washington state; Edwin Duterte, in California; Ryan Bundy, in Nevada; John Abarr, in Montana; Michael Peroutka, in Maryland; Shiva Ayyadurai, in Massachusetts; and Sean Donahue, in Pennsylvania.
These are just a few of the bigots running on the Republican ballot this November.
The specter of these racists running under the Republican banner is the logical conclusion of decades of racial “dog whistle” politics Republicans have nurtured. The rise of Republican racism is not just an outgrowth of Donald Trump’s xenophobic views. However, Trump’s ascendancy to the White House is seen as a clear signal to these bigots that they have a bold White champion fighting for them to make America White again.
Trump’s attacks on immigration is an appeal to the paranoid White fear and anxiety of the changing face of America. Racists are no doubt celebrating Trump’s recent claim that immigrants are destroying the cultural “fabric of Europe…unless you act very quickly.” This kind of language about “unless you act very quickly” will likely lead to increased violence against immigrants—and non-White “others,” in America and Europe.
Ironically, the White Western world’s hording of the land, mineral—and human—wealth of so-called “Third World” nations made Europe, and America economically rich and more important than they previously were. But now that immigrants from those countries are immigrating to these Western nations, to get a piece of the pie they created, they are attacked as “alien” sub-humans bringing criminality and degeneracy, to supposedly law-abiding Christian countries.
Here, in America, we’ve witnessed an upsurge in racist violence, not just against immigrants, since Trump was elected. Attacks, and harassment, on Blacks and other minorities can now be expected anytime and anywhere.
Recently, in Chicago, a deranged White man harassed a Puerto Rican woman who was wearing a Puerto Rican t-shirt. The fact that Puerto Rican are Americans—boasting a significant percentage of highly decorated military veterans—seems irrelevant to racists of this sort.
The danger of this moment can’t be understated. White fears of a darkening America and the competition for economic resources has led us to this moment.
