On this date in 2014, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” profiled former Massachusetts gubernatorial candidate Scott Lively, who hits particularly insane levels of anti-gay rhetoric, possibly beyond any of the many terrible examples of it we have discussed in CSGOPOTD profiles. You see, Lively wrote a whole book about how the Nazi party was populated by “butch” gays who wanted to wipe out the “femmes” and all of the other undesirables in the Holocaust. Lively also runs Abiding Truth Ministries, which the Southern Poverty Law Center identifies as an anti-gay hate group, and was sued in a lawsuit for his involvement in pressuring Uganda to pass their rigid anti-gay laws that criminalize homosexuality to be punishable by death. Lively also referred to President Obama the Anti-Christ, claimed he’s secretly married to a gay Pakistani man, claims that God once smote a Scores strip joint that burned down, and insists that a cadre of gay rights activists are plotting to assassinate him. For whatever reason, Lively decided to run for Governor of Massachusetts again in 2018, and proving how insane Republican voters are becoming, 36% of them voted for Scott Lively in the GOP Primary against incumbent Republican Governor Charlie Baker. Still, it remains highly unlikely that Lively will ever be elected to any office.
It was on this date in 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018, that we published our first two "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" profiles of the U.S. House Representative from Idaho's 1st Congressional District, Raul Labrador, who pretends to support Latino voters and immigration reform, but does nothing of consequence on the issue to actually make those reforms happen. Less than nothing, really, when you consider he also has defended some of the more racist and xenophobic remarks of Iowa Congressman Steve King. Labrador also whipped up sentiment against Hillary Clinton, particularly by spreading conspiracies about the Benghazi investigation. As numerous reports from investigators surfaced to indicate the GOP were trying to direct the investigators to harangue Sec. Clinton specifically, Labrador denied any and all partisan bias the Republicans in the House Oversight Committee had. Labrador also isn’t above throwing out red meat to Republican voters, like the time he spoke at CPAC and made a irther joke, saying he was "born in Puerto Rico, is an American citizen AND HAS THE BIRTH CERTIFICATE TO PROVE IT". Labrador has consistently moved to defund Planned Parenthood, and long before the Center for Medical Progress released their bogus "sting" video to whip up outrage, Labrador was claiming that Planned Parenthood's "main business" was abortion (when it's less than 3% of their actual budget). Rep. Labrador has appeared publicly with ACT! for America, an anti-Muslim group, at rallies where Islamophobia has been whipped up to the point of warning of Sharia Law takeovers, has made it a point to remind people on social media that Sept. 11th is also a time to "Remember Benghazi, too", and after voting for the 2013 Government Shutdown, then voting to not reopen the government, telling the astounding lie that the Republicans “never asked for a full repeal of Obamacare”. Labrador has argued against the minimum wage during the greatest era of income inequality our country has seen in almost a century, arguing that if people feel like they aren't being paid enough, they should "apply for a manager's job instead". Adding to his own legacy, Raul Labrador had quite possibly one of THE WORST sound bites at what few GOP town halls that have been hosted in 2017. On March 7th, Rep. Labrador was trying to quiet an already testy group of constituents who were grilling him over his vote for Trumpcare, when he gave the positively ludicrous response that “Nobody dies because they don’t have access to healthcare!” The boos. THE BOOS that drowned him out. Good lord, that was the dumbest possible thing he could have said. And yet… Raul Labrador thought that he should move on from serving Idaho in Congress for a fifth term, and instead, announced a run for Governor of Idaho to replace the departing Butch Otter in the governor’s mansion... three days after he embarrassed himself completely. It did not pay off, as Labrador was defeated in the Republican Primary in that race by Brad Little, the Lieutenant Governor of Idaho by 9,000 votes. He is, for now, out of elected office, and we hope he remains so. We will set aside his profile at this time, and go ahead and take a look at a different wacky Republican today instead. (Current crazy/stupid scoreboard, is now 791-40, since this was established in July 2014.)
John James
Welcome to what is the 791st original profile here at “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day”, where we’ll be profiling John James, who will be a 2020 challenger for the U.S. Senate seat in Michigan held by Senator Gary Peters. This is only a year removed from James’ unsuccessful 2018 U.S. Senate campaign against Debbie Stabenow, where he lost after getting a respectable 46% of the vote. And while it might be refreshing to see an African American Republican candidate who is also a veteran… some of the details on how James campaigned in 2018 make him noteworthy for this blog.
In July of 2018, James campaigned along side conservative radio personality, fanatical NRA supporter, alleged pedophile, and admitted draft dodger Ted Nugent, who referred to James as his “blood brother”. Not exactly the company you’d want a veteran to keep. Meanwhile, Donald Trump endorsed him because “he saw him on TV and said ‘HE’S A STAR!’” (Probably a Fox News appearance.)
Fast forward to October of 2018, the Trump-endorsed James ran an ad that featured a shot of a school bulletin board, and for whatever reason… there was a swastika on it. He was forced to apologize, but folks began to have some serious questions about what was going on with the James campaign… which led to a Detroit Metroit Times investigation that showed that his campaign had taken cash from anti-immigrant white supremacists and hate group leaders.
Which, kind of starts to establish a pattern that he’s either oblivious to the fact that he’s being propped up by bigots, or that he just doesn’t care.
As 2020 approaches, and scandal begins to surround the Trump presidency… big surprise, John James has begun trying to scrub his social media accounts from any association he’s previously had with Donald Trump. While in some, it’s cropping out Trump logos, in others, he’s deleted videos where he promised to “support the Trump administration 2000%”. This double-turn is especially sad, given that as of February of 2019, Trump was considering nominating John James to be the U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. (even though he has zero foreign policy or diplomacy experience).
Still, John James is now being supported by a completely DIFFERENT kind of hate group, the anti-gay Family Research Council, and we’re starting to wonder if the argument that can be made these days is that any Republican can be linked to a hate group or fringe militia group without much effort.
But John James’ associations make him an empty suit just looking to exploit any opportunity to advance his own career, and he is indifferent to whomever is looking to use him as a puppet.