The GOP just gets lower and lower.
Yesterday, GOP voters in Maryland elected Michael Peroutka to be their standard bearer in November’s race for Attorney General. Long time readers of this blog might recall many articles here about Peroutka’s involvement with the racist League of the South. The League was one of the white nationalist organizations involved in the Charlottesville riots in defense of the Confederate statues there. They have a long history of racist demonstrations and agitation. One of the stated objectives which Peroutka has been quite vocal about is Southern secession. I have a load of info about him and his Institute on the Constitution here and here.
While there are quite a few posts that come to mind on the occasion of his primary win, this one came to mind first. Once when speaking at the League of the South annual convention, Peroutka closed his part of the program by asking the audience to stand for the “national anthem.” However, instead of singing the U.S. national anthem, he led the audience in a rousing rendition of “Dixie.”
Here is the video:
Peroutka has said he isn’t in the League anymore. He has repudiated racism and said he didn’t see racism while he was in the League. Well, if you believe that, maybe you’ll believe Dixie is the national anthem.
The barbarians are knocking down the gates.
“Peroutka has said he isn’t in the League anymore. He has repudiated racism”
Which I’m sure he did right before filing the election paper work.
“he didn’t see racism while he was in the League.”
of course he didn’t because:
Isn’t racist, it’s anti- semitic.
He was just a naïve young fella of 62 when he was a member of the League of the South…
I have come to the conclusion that racism, sexism, anti-semitism and homophobia all spring from the same ugly root. Where you find one, you will always find the others.
Yes, and that root is ignorance. Ignorance about others who aren’t exactly like you so it is easier to believe the stereotypes and misinformation about them.
“Other”
These could be called “group bias” as a overarching class. The class could be race, religion, political preference, sex, occupation, region, and the list just goes on. These biases are very common. They are a way of writing people off. They are intellectually lazy. However you cut up the pie there are people of a spectrum within that group from very good, to horribly evil. Some groups appear better than others, like nurses as opposed to psychopaths. But as long as the group is not by its definition all those that do evil according to our God, there will be good and bad. Even among the good sheep there will still be hidden evil goats.
I think we should spend more time talking about biases and prejudices and how those things are actually different from systemic racism. All people have biases and prejudices because what is “intellectually lazy” (not that I am disagreeing) is a brain function that keeps us from over-analyzing everything, so some of us are prejudiced against the cars people drive, the clothes they wear, the churches they attend, etc. If we can normalize that and ask people to check their biases and examine whether or not they are causing them to form damaging conclusions without that meaning they are necessarily evil for being susceptible to unsophisticated thinking, maybe we can get them to overcome harmful beliefs with some self awareness.
Clearly, Gov. Hogan’s wing of the Republican Party has lost out to the crazies in Maryland. It’s too bad for our future; but for the upcoming Midterms, Maryland Democrats aren’t likely to lose to the nut cases.
Remember when everyone dismissed trump. Don’t take this dangerous person lightly.
The Maryland electorate is not analogous to the US overall (rich, educated) and it won’t suffer the b.s. effects of the electoral college boosting the minority. I’m not arguing that anyone should be complacent, but the facts on the ground are simply different.
Majorie Taylor Greene also didn’t get a boost from the electoral college either, still she got elected to the House. While MD may be a bit more reasonable than MTG’s district, no one ever thought someone like her would ever be in congress.
And see: Wes Moore mopped the floor with Dan Cox. MTG did not get elected in Maryland. She, sadly, didn’t need the EC where she was.
The good news is that the Democrat will be the overwhelming favorite in November, not that we should be complacent about the direction of the Republican Party, especially when it comes to local and state officials, where they can do a lot of damage to US democracy.