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Congressman Steve King preparing to cook up a little something — perhaps
another tasty blend of racism, ethnocentrism, and self-pity. (Photograph courtesy
of the website of racist Republican Congressman Steve King.) |
Quite frankly I’m surprised that it’s the bigoted Congressmen from Iowa, and not Donald Trump, who has all but declared himself the doppelgänger of Jesus Christ. But hey, Republicans have gotten so weird lately, there’s no telling where the next crazed sputtering of a madman will come from.
So I guess I'm only a tad surprised that earlier this week, Congressman King declared that the the opprobrium he has aroused with his racist and culture-centric remarks has all but elevated him to the level of Christ on the cross.
A racist? Who me?
While King's self-declared martyrdom occurred in late April, the story goes back to January when King was being interviewed by the New York Times and found the opportunity to spew vile racist memes irresistible. The Times reported:
Mr. King, in the interview, said he was not a racist. He pointed to his Twitter timeline showing him greeting Iowans of all races and religions in his Washington office. (The same office once displayed a Confederate flag on his desk.)
At the same time, he said, he supports immigrants who enter the country legally and fully assimilate because what matters more than race is “the culture of America” based on values brought to the United States by whites from Europe.
“White nationalist, white supremacist, Western civilization — how did that language become offensive?” Mr. King said. “Why did I sit in classes teaching me about the merits of our history and our civilization?”
“White supremacist? White nationalist?” You gotta be kidding, Steve, right? As if Afro-Americans, who contributed everything from centuries of unpaid labor, to several entirely original musical idioms, (jazz not least among them), to the scientific knowledge generated by scores of scientists and explorers from Astronaut Mae Jemison, to the astronomer Benjamin Banneker, to the African-American doctor who performed the first open-heart surgery, to the African-American who received the first United States patent, were really whites who merely appeared black after a tragic collision with a paint truck. (For a longer, but still incomplete list of African-American scientific and technological achievements, begin here.)
Western civilization? As if it would have been possible if Eastern civilizations had not first invented the alphabet, and algebra, and engineering, and the concept of law — to mention just a few of the principles that make so called "western" civilization possible.
He's poison even to Republicans
Shooting off his bigoted mouth cost King dearly. His own embarrassed party kicked him off the House Judiciary and Agriculture Committees. And even Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said that King ought to find, “another line of work.”
So you’d think Steve would at least shut up. No such luck. Here’s part of a report in the right-wing Washington Times:
Rep. Steve King said Tuesday that the widespread criticism he recently faced had given him a better understanding of what Jesus Christ “went through for us.”
“For all that I’ve been through — and it seems even strange for me to say it — but I am at a certain peace, and it is because of a lot of prayers for me,” the Iowa Republican said at a town hall at Western Iowa Tech Community College in Cherokee, CNN reported
“And when I have to step down to the floor of the House of Representatives and look up at those 400-and-some accusers — you know we just passed through Easter and Christ’s passion, and I have better insight into what He went through for us partly because of that experience,” he said.
Right-o, Steve. We completely agree. Which is why we think you ought to show us the scratches below your receding hairline made by the crown of thorns. Show us the scars on your back where you were scourged. Show us the scar where a Democratic soldier rammed a spear through your side. Show us the wounds in your hands and feet where you were nailed to the cross and left to die of exposure, hunger, thirst, and shock.
Show us your stigmata, Steve.
Or shut up.
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