Bigots on the Ballot: Democratic Party Edition

Rolling Stone recently published an article titled “The Hateful Eight: Meet the Biggest Bigots on the Ballot in 2018,” attempting to make the point that bigotry and prejudice has captured the Republican Party by highlighting Republican candidates running in House and Senate seats that the author deems bigots.  While some of the accusations of bigotry have merit, author Tessa Stuart fails to make it clear that many of these candidates pose no threat to American democracy, considering the fact that they have absolutely no chance to win their elections. 

Stuart classifies the following Congressional candidates as bigots: Arizona Senate candidate and Former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, Republican nominee for California’s 11^th Congressional District John Fitzgerald, Republican nominee for New Jersey’s 2^nd Congressional District Seth Grossman, Republican nominee for Illinois’s 3^rd Congressional District Arthur Jones, Republican nominee for North Carolina’s non-existent 48^th Congressional District Russell Walker, Republican candidate for Wisconsin’s 1^st Congressional District Paul Nehlen, Republican nominee for the Virginia Senate race Corey Stewart, and Republican Congressman Steve King.  In addition to “the hateful eight,” the article briefly mentions other bigots who have lost, including pedophile Nathan Larson, the only candidate on the list who did not compete in a Republican primary. 

Arthur Jones, who formerly headed the American Nazi Party, by far meets the definition of a bigot more so than anybody else on the list.  Jones hopes to unseat Rep. Dan Lipinski, a pro-life Democrat who represents a district in the Chicago area.  While President Trump did not do terrible in the district, Jones’ presence on the ballot virtually assures Lipinski another term in the House of Representatives. Ted Cruz, hardly a liberal or moderate Republican, has called on Republicans in the district to either write in a candidate or support Lipinski, who almost lost his primary to left-wing challenger Marie Newman. 

The second valid definition of a bigot, holocaust denier John Fitzgerald, has an even smaller chance of becoming a member of Congress than Jones, simply because of the makeup of his district.  Running as a holocaust denier in a Silicon Valley district that Hillary carried with more than 60 percent of the vote will get him absolutely nowhere.

Rolling Stone incorrectly identified Russell Walker as a candidate for North Carolina’s 48^th Congressional District in the United States House of Representatives.  That constituency does not exist.  Walker is actually a candidate for the 48^th District of North Carolina’s House of Representatives.  That mistake aside, Walker also appears to meet the definition of a bigot, declaring God a “racist and white supremacist,” and saying that all Jewish people “descend from Satan,” a very similar statement to comments from the Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated Former Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi describing Jews as “descendants of apes and pigs.”  Walker has absolutely no chance of winning the open seat, currently held by a Democrat.  According to The Daily Kos, Hillary Clinton won the district with 60 percent of the vote.    

Paul Nehlen had previously tried to run for Paul Ryan’s House seat in 2016, running as an outsider in sync with the Trump agenda; in contrast to Ryan, who clings to the Jack Kemp-era “compassionate conservatism.”  Nehlen proudly announced he was reading “The Culture of Critique,” an anti-Semitic book. In the wake of those comments, conservative media outlets, including Breitbart have largely abandoned Nehlen.  Soon after Ryan decided not to run for re-election, Nehlen remained the only Republican in the race until Bryan Steil and a few other Republican candidates emerged. 

Corey Stewart had previously tried to run for Virginia Governor in 2017, losing by a very small margin to Ed Gillespie in the Republican primary.  Gillespie went onto lose the general election by an even larger margin than Trump had lost the state the year before.  Democratic Governor Ralph Northam should have given a special thanks to the Hart-Celler Act, as well as Terry McAuliffe’s decision to restore voting rights to hundreds of thousands of felons, in his victory speech.  Trump voters overwhelmingly broke for Gillespie in the 2017 gubernatorial election; but that did not allow him to cross the finish line.  Ann Coulter pointed out that “I hope @realDonaldTrump notices that the votes of felons and immigrants have made VA a solid Democratic state.” The same factors that kept Gillespie out of the State House will probably play an even more active role in keeping Stewart out of the Senate.    

The sins listed against New Jersey Congressional Candidate Seth Grossman include sharing posts by “anti-Islam agitator Pamela Geller” and sharing a post warning that Muslims want to “move to your country” and “demand that you accept (their) religion.”  Stuart’s entry on Grossman proves that the left will vilify anyone who does not agree with the politically correct consensus on Islam of a “religion of peace” as a bigot. During a segment on CNN’s “Don Lemon Tonight,” the graphic on the screen described Grossman as “anti-diversity.” Even though President Trump won the Congressional district in the 2016 Presidential Election, the Republicans have effectively ceded this seat to the Democrats; Grossman has a very small chance of winning.   

As for Sheriff Joe Arpaio, the left understandably hates him for actually wanting to enforce immigration laws.  However, it does not look like his Senate bid will bear much fruition.  Polling has routinely showed him lagging behind his two challengers in the Republican primary, Rep. Martha McSally and Former State Senator Kelli Ward, who tried to unseat Senator John McCain last year.  Even if he does manage to make it to the general election, polling shows him trailing his likely Democratic opponent Kyrsten Sinema by double digits. 

The accusations of bigotry against Congressman Steve King have perhaps the least merit of any of the other individuals mentioned in the article; he definitely does not deserve to be lumped in with “Republican Holocaust Deniers” just because he supports international leaders who want secure borders and limited immigration.  Unlike the rest of the candidates mentioned in the Rolling Stone article, King starts out as the clear favorite in his race this fall.  

Dictionary.com defines a bigot as “a person who is utterly intolerant of any differing creed, belief, or opinion.”  By this standard alone, New York’s Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo meets the definition of a bigot.  In a 2014 interview, he suggested that “extreme conservatives” who believe in the sanctity of life, traditional marriage, and the Second Amendment “have no place in the state of New York, because that’s not who New Yorkers are.”  In response to Cuomo’s comments, Sean Hannity said that he planned to leave New York State as soon as possible and even received a letter written by then-Lieutenant Governor of Texas David Dewhurst and signed by one-fourth of Republicans in the Texas House of Representatives inviting him to their state with open arms.  Hannity has yet to depart “the United Socialist State of New York” nearly five years after Cuomo made those comments.   

 

California Senator Dianne Feinstein also meets the definition of a bigot, as demonstrated by her exchange with Amy Coney Barrett, one of Presidential Trump’s judicial nominees.   While questioning Barrett, the topic of her Catholic faith managed to come up: “When we read your speeches, the conclusion one draws is that the dogma lives loudly within you.  And that’s of concern when you come to big issues that large numbers of people have fought for – for years in this country.”  Feinstein’s statement makes it seem like she does not consider Barrett qualified because of her religion.  Dick Durbin, not on the ballot this year, asked her if she identified as an “orthodox Catholic.”  Considering the fact that the left labeled Roy Moore a bigot for suggesting that Rep. Keith Ellison should not serve in Congress because of his Muslim faith, shouldn’t the same standard apply to Senator Feinstein? In spite of her anti-Catholic bigotry, Feinstein may the most desirable candidate for Republicans considering the fact that her only opponent in her Senate race this fall is even farther to her left.    

Considering the fact that Stuart used “guilt by association” when attempting to paint members of the “Hateful Eight” as bigots, the same standard might as well apply to the Democrats.  Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN), Vice Chair of the Democratic National Committee, has decided to forego re-election in order to run for Minnesota Attorney General. Ellison, in addition to several other members of the Congressional Black Caucus, have either embraced or refused to condemn Nation of Islam Leader Louis Farakkhan, who has gone on tirades against Jews during many of his “sermons.”  The Congressional Black Caucus knows deep down how the American people feel about Farakkhan, otherwise they would not have told a photographer who captured a photo of then-Senator Barack Obama with Farakkhan not to release the picture for fear that it will derail Obama’s presidential ambitions.  Occasionally, members of the mainstream media would call out Ellison and other members of the CBC for refusing to condemn Farakkhan.  Not surprisingly, they did not appreciate that very much.       

Scott Wallace hopes to represent Pennsylvania’s 1^st Congressional District.  Pennsylvania’s former 8^th District, carried narrowly by President Trump in the 2016 Presidential Election, became the current 1^st district, narrowly carried by Hillary Clinton, thanks to court-ordered redistricting.  While the media loves to point it out when Republicans nominate an awful candidate, the Democrats have nominated a couple of candidates this year who may cost them otherwise easy pickups in the House of Wallace, the grandson of FDR’s Socialist Vice President Henry Wallace, has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to groups promoting “the boycott, divestment, and sanctions campaign against Israel.”  That doesn’t play very well in a district with a high Jewish population.      

 

I could continue writing about other Democratic candidates with insane policy positions but unlike the left, I realize that policy disagreements do not justify labeling someone a bigot.  Unlike the candidates listed in the Rolling Stone article, the Democratic candidates listed above have a much higher chance of winning their races, with the possible exception of Wallace.

So yes, Republicans have some crazy candidates with highly unpalatable views.  But so do the Democrats.  The highly partisan article in Rolling Stone does not point that out.