Over the last year, scandals have engulfed two Republican State Legislators (Don Shooter and David Stringer) resulting in their being forced from office.
Over the last several months, other Republican lawmakers, at the state and federal levels, have encountered controversy that merit placement in the Political Hall of Shame.
First, there is Congressional District Four House Representative Paul Gosar who, while facing scrutiny for the White Supremacist-Neo Nazi Twitter accounts he likes to probe, may also be facing an ethics inquiry regarding holiday bonuses to his Congressional Staff.
Not to be outdone, there is Congressional District Five House Representative Andy Biggs who, like State Republican Party Chair Kelly Ward, is okay with giving speeches with known hate groups like Patriot Movement Arizona among members of the audience.
Finally, on June 4, 2019, another Republican crown jewel, Legislative District 20 State Representative Anthony Kearn, a person who last legislative session tried to steer a measure that would remove him from a bad cop public listing, tweeted (the communications tool for all aspiring Nativist Social Darwinist Reactionaries) that helping the poor was equivalent to feeding animals and it could result in fostering dependency and spreading potential health risks.
What sort of public servant would equate people with animals? What sort of person elected by the people be against aiding those in need?
This comment from Kearn is eerily similar to Nazi attempts to equate Jews with rats.
Kearns comments and the actions of the others mentioned above are more examples of how far the once Party of Lincoln has fallen.
Where does the Republican Party find these people to run for office? They are an embarrassment to all that public service is supposed to embrace. Is that barrel so empty at the bottom for the Republicans that all they can get to run are these subscribers to Social Darwinism, the One Percent, fringe conspiracies, and white supremacy?
Republicans in Arizona that still have a sense of decency would do well to stop this madness, take back their party, and endeavor to find better screening methods to recruit candidates that stand for conservative (not fringe) values, decency, inclusion, fairness, and competence.
At the very least, they should advertise “Fringe Conspiracy Enthusiasts, White Supremacists, One Percenters, and Fascists need not apply.”
A vibrant Democracy cannot thrive if there are not at least two healthy political parties that can debate the issues of the day and work together to adopt measures to move their constituency forward.
The Republican Party, as evidenced by the behavior and acts of people like Shooter, Stringer, Gosar, Biggs, Kearn, and Ward is ill in some areas. Those areas need to heal so Democracy can become vibrant and healthy again.
Featured Image from Anthony Kearn’s Twitter Page
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From within, of course.
This is the Republican Party since long before Reagan announced “Morning in America” with a speech denouncing ‘welfare queens in Cadillacs’ and ‘young bucks eating t-bones’.
This is the Republican party of Lee Atwater, Jerry Falwell and Rush Limbaugh.
This is the Republican party created by the Civil Rights Act driving the Jim Crow Democrats out of the party and into the GOP, thanks to Nixon’s ‘Southern Strategy’.
They’re just using their outside voices a lot more, because they’ve finally elected a president whose given them permission to be as crude and bigoted in public as they are at home.