As the GOP drifts further right...

[The Barbarian]

Steve West, an anti-semitic conspiracy theorist who said Hitler did nothing wrong, defeated three other GOP candidates in the party's primary election for Missouri's 15th district. He now faces Democratic incumbent Jon Carpenter in November.


He won with 49.5 percent of the vote; the second-place finisher had 24.4 percent.


“Looking back in history, unfortunately, Hitler was right about what was taking place in Germany. And who was behind it,” West said on KCXL radio in January 2017, The Kansas City Star reported Thursday.


He has spoken of “Jewish cabals” that are “harvesting baby parts” from Planned Parenthood, abuse children and control the Republican Party. West also has a YouTube channel on which he has made homophobic, anti-Semitic, Islamophobic and racist statements, according to The Star.
https://boingboing.net/2018/08/13/white-collar-nazi-wins-republi.html

 

[Hammster]

How is this the “GOP drifting further right”?

 

[Hammster]

“The Missouri Republican Party late Thursday afternoon issued a statement about West’s “disgusting comments”:

“Steve West’s shocking and vile comments do not reflect the position of the Missouri Republican Party or indeed of any decent individual. West’s abhorrent rhetoric has absolutely no place in the Missouri Republican Party or anywhere. We wholeheartedly condemn his comments.”


Read more here: https://www.kansascity.com/news/politics-government/article216387050.html#storylink=cpy

 

[Basil the Great]

Both parties keep drifting further and further apart. It is no wonder that only two or three moderates are left in the U.S. Senate.

 

[Albion]

“The Missouri Republican Party late Thursday afternoon issued a statement about West’s “disgusting comments”:

“Steve West’s shocking and vile comments do not reflect the position of the Missouri Republican Party or indeed of any decent individual. West’s abhorrent rhetoric has absolutely no place in the Missouri Republican Party or anywhere. We wholeheartedly condemn his comments.”


Read more here: https://www.kansascity.com/news/politics-government/article216387050.html#storylink=cpy

Would that the Minnesota Democrat Party had the integrity to react in the same way in the case of Keith Ellison, the wife-beating fan of Louis Farrakhan.

 

[Yonny Costopoulis]

“The Missouri Republican Party late Thursday afternoon issued a statement about West’s “disgusting comments”:

“Steve West’s shocking and vile comments do not reflect the position of the Missouri Republican Party or indeed of any decent individual. West’s abhorrent rhetoric has absolutely no place in the Missouri Republican Party or anywhere. We wholeheartedly condemn his comments.”


Read more here: https://www.kansascity.com/news/politics-government/article216387050.html#storylink=cpy

Thank you for information.

But while Republican party stand against the comments the majority of Republican voters in district stand with these comments. So it is a few members at top being against comments but majority of members being for comments so is not The Barbarian correct?

 

[FenderTL5]

Thank you for information.

But while Republican party stand against the comments the majority of Republican voters in district stand with these comments. So it is a few members at top being against comments but majority of members being for comments so is not The Barbarian correct?

Perhaps Hammster is correct, it's not a "drift to the right" but a central tenant of the majority of the GOP in Missouri.

 

[Hammster]

Thank you for information.

But while Republican party stand against the comments the majority of Republican voters in district stand with these comments. So it is a few members at top being against comments but majority of members being for comments so is not The Barbarian correct?

Majority? Where did you come up with that?

 

[Yonny Costopoulis]

Majority? Where did you come up with that?

From winning election. Is this incorrect?

EDIT: I see. He only had 49.5% of those who voted. So fair to say 1/2? And of those who vote for other candidate there must be some who still support this view but liked other candidate even more. So I think it is fair to say "majority".

Or by another path when faced with picking ideology for this district they picked this Hitler defender. So still The Barbarian is correct I believe. Or has this been standard for Republican party to pick Hitler defenders to represent them?

 

[Hammster]

From winning election. Is this incorrect?

EDIT: I see. He only had 49.5% of those who voted. So fair to say 1/2? And of those who vote for other candidate there must be some who still support this view but liked other candidate even more. So I think it is fair to say "majority".

Or by another path when faced with picking ideology for this district they picked this Hitler defender. So still The Barbarian is correct I believe. Or has this been standard for Republican party to pick Hitler defenders to represent them?

It’s one election for one state office. And the majority of Republicans voted against him. So I can’t see how this is in any way indicative.

 

[Albion]

And it is relevant to point to a trend with this stuff. Roy Moore was roundly condemned by Republicans and he was then defeated in a Republican state. Yesterday, Keith Ellison (against whom his party took no action) was overwhelmingly victorious in the Minnesota Democrat primary, even though the news of his wife-beating and what Democrats always call misogyny when it involves a Republican was all over the news.

 

[Ringo84]

It's a complete mystery why a racist anti-semite would want to run as a Republican. There's obviously nothing to see here, folks.
Ringo

 

[Hammster]

It's a complete mystery why a racist anti-semite would want to run as a Republican. There's obviously nothing to see here, folks.
Ringo

It’s a mystery to me as well. There’s nothing on the Right that would encourage that type of behavior.

 

[The Barbarian]

“The Missouri Republican Party late Thursday afternoon issued a statement about West’s “disgusting comments”:

“Steve West’s shocking and vile comments do not reflect the position of the Missouri Republican Party or indeed of any decent individual. West’s abhorrent rhetoric has absolutely no place in the Missouri Republican Party or anywhere. We wholeheartedly condemn his comments.”

Yes, the party establishment elite keep denouncing the human wreckage their voters vote for. But it doesn't matter; the party drifts farther and farther to the right. Now they've picked this guy over two less conservative republicans running against him.

And he says Hitler didn't do anything wrong, and he denounces Jews regularly.

The guys like Jeb Bush, Paul Ryan, and Mitch McConnell no longer represent the party. It's Trump's party and it looks like a Halloween party.

 

[Hammster]

Yes, the party establishment elite keep denouncing the human wreckage their voters vote for. But it doesn't matter; the party drifts farther and farther to the right. Now they've picked this guy over two less conservative republicans running against him.

And he says Hitler didn't do anything wrong, and he denounces Jews regularly.

The guys like Jeb Bush, Paul Ryan, and Mitch McConnell no longer represent the party. It's Trump's party and it looks like a Halloween party.

I’ll repeat.

It’s one election for one state office. And the majority of Republicans voted against him. So I can’t see how this is in any way indicative.

 

[Ringo84]

It’s a mystery to me as well. There’s nothing on the Right that would encourage that type of behavior.

https://media0.giphy.com/media/qAfSEmVQMynoA/giphy.gif
Now THAT'S denial.
Ringo

 

[The Barbarian]

Both parties keep drifting further and further apart. It is no wonder that only two or three moderates are left in the U.S. Senate.

Gerrymandering. By creating lots of safe districts for themselves, the republicans also make lots of safe districts for democrats. So moderates don't have much chance any more.

And so we get crazier and crazier people in Congress.

And not just republicans.

 

[Hammster]

https://media0.giphy.com/media/qAfSEmVQMynoA/giphy.gif
Now THAT'S denial.
Ringo

It’s easy to make baseless accusations. It’s much harder to defend them, especially without evidence.

 

[Yonny Costopoulis]

It’s a mystery to me as well. There’s nothing on the Right that would encourage that type of behavior.

Leader of Republican party Trump has long history of racist behavior. So I think that seeing leader doing this and being so successful would encourage this in lesser candidate as well. Do you not think it would have this effect?

We could also include fact that Republican party have long used racist Southern Strategy to attract racists to support the party.

 

[The Barbarian]

I’ll repeat.

Only 49.5% of republican voters voted for him. He beat his closest republican rival by 25 points.
Is it any wonder the republican establishment is panicking? Yes, they still dream of a more genteel kind of conservatism.

But their voters aren't buying it.