On this date in 2015, "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" ran a profile of Dan Lungren, the former U.S. House Representative from California’s 3rd District. Lungren had co-sponsored anti-abortion legislation to specify it should only apply to “forcible rape”, meaning he there would be no exceptions for incest or statutory sexual assaults. He also was an adamant denier of climate change, in California, no less. He also had a key staffer convicted of a fraudulent voting drive scheme (after campaigning for Voter ID laws). By the end of his career, he managed to be booed at a town hall for still wanting a return to the Bush tax cuts for the rich. After Lungren lost in the 2012 elections, he apparently decided to call it a career.
In 2016, 2017, 2018, as well as in 2019, "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" published its profiles Bill Chumley, a member of the South Carolina House of Representatives who has served in that body to since coming to power in 2010, the Tea Party year. He has managed to stay in office through the benefit of not being challenged, at all, in 2012 or 2014 in a primary or general election. Bill Chumley is one of the contingent of South Carolina Republicans who in the wake of the shooting at the AME Emanuel Church in June of 2015 by a shooter motivated by Confederate iconography and white nationalist views that fought tooth and nail to try and keep the Confederate Flag flying at the state capitol. Hell, Chumley’s legislative profile on the website of the South Carolina legislature lists him as a proud member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, so maybe that shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise. What sets Bill Chumley apart from the rest of his colleagues is how on June 23rd, 2015, among all the prayers for the victims and talk to remove the flag, he desperately tried to steer the conversation away from his beloved Stars & Bars, and tried to spin the issue into a debate on gun control by blaming the victims for not being armed in church or fighting back, chuckling about their deaths in a CNN interview about how they were “waiting their turn to be shot”. As disgusting as a moment as that is, it’s not an isolated incident of outrageous behavior from State Senator Chumley. Like say, back in December of 2012 when he sponsored legislation in the South Carolina legislature that would jail state and federal officials who tried to implement the Affordable Care Act in South Carolina, specifically referring to this measure as an attempt at nullification, and as one of the Sons of the Confederate Veterans, it’s a pretty safe bet that the history of South Carolina trying to nullify federal laws, like say at Ft. Sumter, was not lost on the Chumster. A few months after that in March of 2013, he suggested South Carolina return to having low-level inmates return to being indentured labor for the state in chain gangs. Yes, CHAIN GANGS. And even as recently as February of 2015, Chumley brought stunningly stupid legislation to the floor, when he was overcome by Islamophobia and submitted one of those bills that would put an unnecessary ban on Sharia Law in South Carolina. He’s still working on nullification bills, including one he filed in December of 2015 (just in time for Christmas!) to try and nullify the Supreme Court’s Obergefell vs. Hodges decision, and outlaw same sex marriage in South Carolina. We’d say he’s willing to fight a Civil War to prevent gays from being married, but it actually looks more like Bill Chumley just wants to fight a Civil War, period, over whatever issue is convenient to get it done.
And, about that whole Civil War thing… in late 2017, Chumley actually co-sponsored a bill in the South Carolina legislature to honor “black Confederate veterans”, presumably in an effort to prove that Confederate monuments aren’t racist. There’s just one problem with that… historical records can find not a single black soldier who served in the Confederacy (go figure, the Confederate racists hoping to defend an empire built on slavery didn’t trust any of their slaves with guns in combat to fight for the right to stay enslaved). Upon hearing that fact, Chumley denied reality. still didn’t withdraw his bill, and said:
That bill, of course, is going nowhere. Sadly, a bill he voted for that might be was when he voted for a bill to prevent abortions if a fetal heartbeat is detected, or in other words, as early as six weeks, before many women even realize they are pregnant. We only wish the same were true of Bill Chumley’s political career, but we’ll have to see if he runs for a sixth term in office here in 2020 The deadline for him to file for re-election is March 30th.