Russell Pearce’s Neo-Nazi pal J.T. Ready running for Pinal County Sheriff

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Arizona is such a "Bizzaro World" of political extremism that nothing surprises me anymore.

It turns out that recalled Sen. Russell Pearce's Neo-Nazi pal J.T. Ready is running for Pinal County Sheriff — as a Democrat. Stephen Lemons has the full story at the Phoenix New Times. Neo-Nazi J.T. Ready Runs for Pinal County Sheriff as a Democrat (w/Update):

Ready was once a registered Republican and a GOP precinct committeeman when he lived in Mesa, why has he now switched over to the Ds?

"It's the party of Jim Crow, [late U.S. Senator and one-time KKK member] Robert Byrd, and [late Alabama Governor and one-time segregationist] George Wallace," he cracked. "You gotta bring it home, know what I mean?"

Ready is simply parroting the talking points of Republican operatives John Munger and Bruce Ash from the Tucson city Council race last year. 'Have you no sense of decency, sir?' GOP operatives shamelessly compare themselves to those who marched and died for the Voting Rights Act.

The Democratic Party kicked out the Dixiecrats back in 1964, and as LBJ understood when he signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, "We have lost the South for a generation." Actually two generations, and counting. Dixiecrats are all Tea-Publicans today. There is no room in the Democratic Party "big tent" for J.T. Ready and his ilk.

With online voter registration anyone can register with any political party they want in the privacy of their own home. But political parties are private associations protected by the First Amendment Right of freedom of association. This is why political parties are entitled to conduct "closed" primary elections excluding nonmembers.

It is also why political parties have the legal right to restrict the use of the party name, can exclude "sham" candidates from party functions and events, and can deny access to party resources and volunteers.

I'm sure this tool thought it would be great fun to run as a Democrat, perhaps at the suggestion of his pal Russell Pearce for his recall. But everyone knows that this "Nazi problem" belongs to Russell Pearce.