Phoenix RISING
Banned
Arthur Jones is an avowed member of the American Nazi Party, a Holocaust denier and a sympathizer of the Ku Klux Klan.
He also is the Republican candidate challenging Democratic Rep. Dan Lipinski for Illinois’ Chicago-area 3rd Congressional District.
Jones is one of several Nazis, Holocaust deniers or white supremacists who have elbowed their way onto the GOP ballot for November’s midterm elections, in part by either concealing their views or running unopposed in the primary. But their campaigns have alarmed Republican leaders, with state and national GOP figures now speaking out against them and making clear they are not welcome in the party.
Along with Jones, there is another outspoken Holocaust denier and anti-Semite on the Republican ballot in California.
John Fitzgerald is running against incumbent Democratic Rep. Mark DeSaulnier in California’s 11th Congressional District after finishing second with 24.8 percent of the vote in the state’s “jungle” primary. This qualified him for the general election. Before the June 8 primary, he seemed like an ordinary candidate with a stock campaign platform that highlighted, among other things, a more isolationist foreign policy, Second Amendment rights and campaign finance reform.
But a deeper dive into Fitzgerald reveals a number of troubling beliefs.
Fitzgerald, who has previously run in congressional races in 2010 and 2012 as a Democrat, falsely asserts that 9 percent of U.S. government officials are dual citizens of Israel and that Jews played a “prominent role” in the African slave trade. Last month, he posted on his site a reward of “$2,000 to anybody who can prove that the official Holocaust narrative is true” and said that Dwight D. Eisenhower ran concentration camps that killed Germans during WWII.
Paul Nehlen is running for a chance to fill the seat of House Speaker Paul Ryan in Wisconsin’s 1st Congressional District.
A self-described “pro-White” candidate who sought Ryan’s seat in 2016, Nehlen has made headlines for suggesting the country have a discussion about not letting Muslims live in the country, and for defending white supremacist messages on social media. He also published the phone numbers and addresses of people who criticized his campaign, said that all his critics were Jewish and blasted some elected officials for allegedly being dual citizens of the U.S. and Israel.
Nehlen was eventually banned from Twitter after he posted a photoshopped image of the United Kingdom’s Prince Harry and his now wife, actress Meghan Markle, where Markle was replaced with an image of the Cheddar Man, a dark-skinned man who is believed to be first modern Briton.
Nehlen, Jones, Fitzgerald and other fringe candidates in the GOP have emerged as PR problems for a Republican Party seeking to reject knee-jerk allegations of racism and xenophobia from the left, often aimed at Trump supporters of all stripes. In Wisconsin, the party is floating state Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, state Sen. David Craig and Republican business executive Bryan Steil as possible alternatives to Nehlen.
"Islamophobe" was too long to fit in the headline, as well as the title of the thread, but looks like Nehlen has that covered, too.
Fox News gave itself a bingo with this story.
What is it about the GOP that attracts these individuals? Jones is running in an uncontested district, but does so under the GOP banner; he could run under anything.
Looks like Fitzgerald provides a clue: he gathered enough votes under the banner of bigotry to earn a seat at the primary table. Despite other republican officials denouncing these candidates, they are proving that standing up for the worst parts of humanity wins votes in AmeriKKKa.
Twenty thousand people voting for a Nazi Holocaust Denier? That is not insignificant. What about Fitzgerald, another anti-Semitic conspiracy laden Holocaust denier?
23% of the vote going to pure insanity. Speaks volumes about the level of racist tribalism that Republicans are currently swamped within.
And finally, Paul Nehlen:
Should we be happy that only 15% of Republican voters want to bring a white supremacists into congress? Those are not numbers to be proud of. But good on Fox for highlighting this: it's about time they do some serious house cleaning if they want their party to be associated with something other than racism and pussy grabbing.
Excellent illustration of what is going on.
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