The last two years of the Trump presidency have brought endless charges of racism and bigotry against the Republican Party. Most of the attacks are overly broad and unfair. A few are more than merited.
Here are three deplorable congressional candidates who actually fill the profile of a bigot.
[Read: The 10 key races to watch]
Corey Stewart, R-Va.
If democracy really is the worst-best form of government, then while men like former President Abraham Lincoln are our best, Stewart embodies the worst. To the shame of the Republican party, he is the racist clown running against Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va.
A political caricature come to life, Stewart leans into the trope of the racist Southern politician, mixing in alt-right influence to add a modern flavor.
Stewart toasted the rebellion at a Confederate ball, telling the Southern sympathizers in historical garb that the Stars and Bars are “what makes us Virginia, and if you take that away, we lose our identity.” Fun fact, though: Stewart grew up a Northerner in Duluth, Minn.
He also palled around with Paul Nehlen, the race-baiting Paul Ryan-challenger from Wisconsin. Among more casual racial slurs, Nehlen has commented on the skin tone of other politicians, professed his “pro-white” ideology, and advocated that illegal immigrants approaching the border be “treated as an enemy combatant. Man, woman, or child.”
While everyone else was rightly offended by those remarks, Stewart was apparently motivated. He once said to Nehlen that he couldn’t “tell you how much I was inspired by you.” Later he got wise and publicly disavowed Nehlen under pressure. So good for Stewart.
Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa
The Republican Party has a complicated relationship with King. After serving for a decade and a half in Congress, he holds some keys to the Iowa presidential primary (see the fleeting victory there of Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, in 2016). He also holds some terrible opinions.
King is the sort of Republican who took pains throughout the Obama years to remind voters that the president’s middle name was “Hussein.”
King is also the sort who doesn’t mind probing the ethnicity of others for political advantage. He infamously called Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, a “retroactive Hispanic” and accused his House colleague of taking “Spanish lessons to qualify.”
But perhaps King can best be understood by the company he keeps and the candidates he supports.
He has endorsed Faith Goldy for mayor of Toronto, the same Goldy who authored a book calling for an end to “the Jewish menace.” He has tweeted support for Mark Collet, a British white nationalist, as well as Geert Wilders, a far-right Dutch politician. He has addressed Austria’s Freedom Party, an organization with historical ties to the Nazi Party (this after a week-long trip funded by a Holocaust memorial group).
All of this was enough for The Weekly Standard, our sister publication, to dismiss King as “America’s most deplorable congressman.” When the sample size is limited to Republicans, it is hard to disagree.
Arthur Jones, R-Ill.
If Arthur Jones wasn’t actually racist, he would have to work overtime just to meet the low expectations of the Left. By all accounts though, the fedora-wearing, hate-spewing Illinois politician is a Nazi. Somehow he is also the Republican candidate challenging incumbent Rep. Dan Lipinski, D-Ill.
The Jones campaign website is like something belched out of the dark web. It includes posts about “the Holocaust racket,” warnings about “the Ko$her Food Scam,” and little cartoon elephants sporting Confederate flags. It is exactly the sort of web design one can come to expect from a proud American Nazi populist.
Flashing more of a light on this idiot nutcase risks spreading his idiocy further. Luckily voters in the Land of Lincoln historically hate Illinois Nazis. The odds are overwhelming he will lose and Lipinski will end this embarrassment. Even Republican members of the Illinois congressional delegation are rooting for the Democrat.
Election Night
Only King has a decent chance of delivering a victory speech when polls finally close. The other two will lose, though it is possible that King will join their ranks. Regardless, they shouldn’t be ignored in defeat.
These are the actually deplorable. They are the fringe, and they should be shamed as they march out of the public square. At the same time, the Left ought to take notice because crying wolf only gives cover to King and company. After attacking every Republican as racist, the charges become blunted and actual bigots are able to dismiss real charges of racial animus as ginned-up hysteria.
Cheer the defeat of real racists for a change.
