The 10th District of Georgia is a wild place. Housing both the University of Georgia and Athens, GA, a progressive hotspot, and, well, everything else in that district that makes it not-so-progressive, it has been represented by incredibly crazy Rep. Paul Broun (R) for several terms. Broun lost his race for Senate and will be retiring to hopefully some place outside of public life.
In the race to replace him are two Republicans — Jody Hice and Mike Collins. The runoff in the primary is July 22nd, just a few days away, and given that these primaries are dominated by a small set of extreme voters, their incentives are to dial up the crazy about as high as it can get.
Take this interview with Hice, a far-right evangelical who has called for Islam to be stripped of First Amendment rights, with Liberty Conservatives. Check out this exchange on both gun rights and the immigration issue (shortly before this excerpt they are specifically talking about the migrant children that have been in the news):
HOST: It’s an invasion, there’s really no other way to look at it. But we’re just being invaded through our Southern border. Yakknow, right into the land that people own and you know its people’s right to that property. Which really you know should make the people wake up, particularly those that are down in those border areas, but for everyone else throughout the country of the importance of our ability to protect ourselves and our property. You know, I know you’re an outspoken supporter of the Second Amendment. You’re endorsed by the National Association for Gun Rights PAC, you’re endorsed by GOA, which is one of my favorite organizations for gun rights, so this immigration issue that we have going on right now, I think it’s just, even more says to us we need to be able to defend ourselves, and defend ourselves however we choose to do so.
HICE: Absolutely, that is the reason we have the Second Amendment. Ultimately, it’s not about hunting and fishing and that type of thing. It is about our ability as individuals to defend ourselves, be it in our own private property, but most importantly ultimately it comes down to defending ourselves against tyranny should our government ever become a threat to our liberties. And when you’re talking about a government that refuses to secure our borders, you’re talking about a government that is not taking seriously its responsibility to defend us. So absolutely I couldn’t agree with you anymore, we have the responsibility both as individuals and as states, to step up in those areas that our federal government will not.
Listen to it (Start listening at 15:28):
As of 2011, Georgia had the tenth-largest Hispanic population in the United States. With demographics growing the way they are, the Republicans promoting this kind of hate are digging their own electoral graves with this kind of rhetoric.
Yatsuno
Might be time for another March to the Sea. Except this time Savannah doesn’t get off.
c u n d gulag
“Hold yer fire, boiz!
Don’t shoot until you see the whites of their diapers!”
srv
Sacrifices must be made for the greater good.
Is there a law stopping them from building their own fences?
Keith G
I think this is where the Party of principle, the Party of conscience, needs to draw lines and start an active push back.
For way to long, the favored response seems to have taken the from of either a silent rolling of eyes or trying some knowing and gentile public mockery. I guess the thought has been that the hate will burn itself out. I got news for ya…it ain’t happening.
I think these people and their retched notions need to be aggressively gone after in a very loud and very public naming and shamming. This ignorant-bred hatred, this morally corrupt selfishness, needs to be high lighted and made obvious to all. As in: “This is what your vote for the GOP will buy you.”
Bring our fellow citizens face to face with the moral consequences of their political choices.
Many will be fine with it, but I bet more will find themselves troubled and open to something better and more hopeful.
c u n d gulag
I wonder, in how many of these angry white “Christian” people’s backgrounds, there were refugees seeking asylum in the US?
I know my whole family – from Russia and Ukraine – were refugees trying to escape war-torn Europe. Specifically, the battles between the German and Soviet armies.
They all ended up in Nazi work camps eventually.
And after the war, those refugees were put in displace person’s camps, until the Allies governments could figure out what to do with them.
Fortunately, most of my family came to the US because their camp was in the American Zone – some ended up in Australia, because they were in the British Zone.
And some, the unlucky ones who found themselves in Russian held territory the day the war was over, ended up in Siberia, because their camp was in the Russian Zone.
They were all refugees, and were treated civilly when they arrived here, and “Down Under,” and given aid, assistance, and help to find jobs.
The ones in Siberia? Not so much… MORE work camps – aka: GULags. Hence, my moniker – c u n d gulag (see you in the GULag).
So, why is this any different?
Oh yeah, my family members were white European refugees, and not brown refugees from Central and South America.
It all comes down to race/color/religion/country of origin.
If you’re white, you’re alright!
If you’re black or brown, go back down!!!
Alexandra
Elsewhere I’ve seen conservatives vociferously argue for laying down land mines along the entire border.
Please proceed, governor.
Ruckus
The crazy conservatives(but I repeat myself) may be on the losing side demographically but they are certain to do a fuck lot of damage before they go.
Keith G
@Keith G: Auto correct decided that ‘gentle choices’ would come out a bit differently.
L’chaim!
Mike in NC
@Alexandra: Not just land mines; for at least a decade the wingnuts have been calling for belts of barbed wire, machine gun emplacements, etc. on the border.
Basically recreating the Berlin Wall along the Rio Grande and beyond.
Citizen_X
@srv:
Or, for that matter, from shooting trespassers? The answer is NO.
Once again, these people keep showing that they have absolutely no clue what the border is actually like. I’ve spent years working near the border in Trans-Pecos Texas, and you don’t go on other people’s property because they may very well shoot you.
That said, it’s the ranchers that have pointed out migrant sign to me, and have said, “Oh, don’t worry about them. They’re just hungry and thirsty and looking for work.”
It’s the smugglers and poachers and–for real–cattle rustlers you have to watch for. Those guys are all armed, and motivated to get rid of witnesses.
SamR
Nothing says liberty like arguing some people don’t have the right to freedom of religion, and others don’t have the right to live.
SamR
Nothing says liberty like arguing some people don’t have the right to freedom of religion, and others don’t have the right to live.
scav
Wrong kind of snowflakes, wrong kind of bootstrapping your way to greater economic prosperity, wrong kind of absense of jackbooted govt officials (other than the sainted sheriff) enforcing big-govt red-tape and regulations. What a howling wasteland of immediate and utter contradiction these men of Patriotic Evangelical Conservatism so ofter turn out to be.
I especially loved the detail that the incomers might be better vaccinated that the religiously-freeeeeduummmmbed little snowflake vectors here.
Liberty60
Knowing that they are on the wrong side of a demographic tidal wave is exactly why they are going so batshit crazy.
Consciously or not, Hice knows that his days as a member of the dominant ethnic/ religious group are numbered. They are frantic to stop it, even to delay it just a few more years.
burnspbesq
Really? In a district that is 71 percent white, four percent hispanic, and rated R+14 by Cook?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgia%27s_10th_congressional_district
Wag
@Mike in NC:
Having seen the Berlin Wall up close in person while visiting Berlin kn 1985, I can honestly say that America would quickly devolved into East Germany if we were to militarize our border to such an extent. And what about the cost? Imagine the deficits Taft would a rue under such a GOP government. It would make reagen’s “Peace dividend” seem like a paltry sum indeed.
scav
@burnspbesq: Because information never travels outside of the specifically legally delineated electoral boundaries and influences perceptions and actions elsewhere. Oh, but how could we be so silly.
tybee
@Yatsuno:
and a hearty “fuck you, too” :)
neither gingrey nor hice are in savannah. we have our own lunatic: jack kingston.
John Revolta
@burnspbesq: There you go again, with your “facts” and your “statistics”.
I just go by what my gut tells, me, yaknow?
burnspbesq
@scav:
That really is silly, even by your standards. Unless you want to explain how those folks outside the district who are hearing this lunacy are going to affect the outcome of the race in the district.
Gin & Tonic
I was thinking this would be OT, but then I saw the tag “sociopaths.” Over 48 hours ago I posted here in re MH17 that it will be instructive to see if the rebels allow independent investigators access to the crash site. I think that question has been answered pretty thoroughly at this point.
scav
@burnspbesq: You, on the the hand, are limiting consequences of the action to the outcome of a single electoral result in a defined space and time, ignoring all possible repercussions elsewhere and at different times. Party Reputations are built up of the aggregate of individual actions, remembered, not uniquely by those that witnessed the actions first hand and suffered immediate consequences.
bemused
I think Hice should spit it out in explicit detail how she and her crowd should “defend” themselves however they “choose to do so” but won’t. She and others like her go right up to very edge of advocating murder and mayhem with their blatant stoking of anti-immigrant hatred and they don’t seem to care a hoot if some kids could be killed because of it. No doubt they would respond with who-could-have-known shock if anyone acted on their implied message to “step up in those areas our federal government will not.” It’s sick and twisted.
trollhattan
Confess that’s the first time I’ve seen the holy 2nd invoked for fishing. Is that how it’s done in Georgia?
dmbeaster
@Keith G:
Agree. Tell these jerks they are undermining traditional American values, which literally they are.
rikyrah
Hospital food gets a locavore makeover
[….] Major institutions like Jefferson have long relied on whatever giant food service companies provide, often processed foods that are delivered efficiently and are easy to heat and serve. But with a steady supply of locally grown food from the Common Market food hub, Jefferson now serves vegetables like bok choy and asparagus, creamy yogurts from Amish country and omelets with locally sourced cage-free eggs and spinach.[….]
St. Luke’s University Hospital Network is taking that a step further by
growing veggies on site at its new facility in Bethlehem Township, Penn. This year, the five-acre plot is expected to grow 44,000 pounds of organic food like tomatoes, squash, and peppers. St. Luke’s plans to eventually double the size of the farm.[….]
Health benefits aside, institutions like hospitals are perfectly poised
to give the food movement the kick it needs by making local food
available on a bigger scale.[….]
http://grist.org/list/hospital-food-gets-a-locavore-makeover/
Baud
Thanks, Raven!
gene108
@scav:
You assume there are people, who are not avidly supporting a response like Hice put or the question host asked?
The Republicans win elections because, at some level, the people who vote support what they are promoting.
This does not mean the majority of Americans support it, but most Americans do not vote in off-year elections, so their opinions have no impact on elections.
SatanicPanic
I’m going to remember this shit next time someone gets angry at me for suggesting that the 2nd Amendment was meant to be a license to shoot brown people
gene108
@trollhattan:
You really do not understand how far the slippery slope gun grabbin’ will go down, once it is unleashed.
First they came for our guns, and I said nothing.
Then they came for our sharp kitchen knives, and I did nothing.
Then they came for my fish hooks, bait and tackle, but I could do nothing because they had taken my guns and knives and I was helpless to resist.
Now do you understand why we need the 2nd Amendment to protect our freedom?
J R in WV
Has anyone else had trouble posting comments? I get a 408 error, and when I press the browser’s back arrow (foxfire v 30.0 running on Linux 14.04) twice I can see that my comment posted, but because of the backing around I have no opportutnity to edit anything, which is baf for me, I’m inclined to get lots of typos from Satanixc Conservative cosmic raze interfeting with the innertybes!
I quite agree that these people ranting about shooting would-be asylum seekers to young to qualify for a driver’s license are crazed and know nothing about the southern border country.
Anyone ranting about shooting and killing people crossing the border need psychiatric help, most of these people are not hostile or violent. I can’t think of anything less Christian than this attitude. It’s sad that anyone could think that violence towards refugees is a Christian attitude.
These people obviously need lots of Bible study on the Sermon from the Mount, and the words of Christ as reported in the Gospels. They’re getting it all wrong. Turn the other cheek, for example!
amk
@burnspbesq:
Expand your boundaries. Forest for trees. Any of them ring a bell?
Remember all those senate seats that were supposed to be a gop gimme in 2010 & 2012?
Steve in the ATL
Phil Gingrey is your rep? Lucky bastard–I have Tom Price.
The Moar You Know
I live 20 miles from the border. Yes, there are issues with armed coyotes hauling desperate poor people through people’s ranches on the border. Petty theft and people taking a crap on your lawn and that sort of thing. Annoying, yes. Scary, rarely. But worthy of shooting anyone who dares to trespass on your property? Hardly.
And I have zero idea of how some woman who lives a thousand miles away from the border, somebody who’s probably never met a Mexican in her life, where the fuck does she get off telling those of us who DO live by the border how we should feel about or deal with the situation. Which, incidentally, is no different than it has been for almost 30 years (we did have quite a problem for several years after St. Reagan declared his “amnesty” with no plans or infrastructure to back it up – finding people sleeping in your backyard every day kind of sucks.)
wenchacha
Oh my Jesus.
SiubhanDuinne
@bemused:
@The Moar You Know:
Just FTR, Jody Hice is male.
GRANDPA john
@J R in WV: Problem is that most of those kind don ‘t have bibles with the new testament . If they did they might know about the teachings of Jesus. Guess none of them have ever read Matt 7:21-23
bemused
@efgoldman:
Oops.
SiubhanDuinne
@SiubhanDuinne:
efgoldman got there first.
Of course.
SiubhanDuinne
@Steve in the ATL:
Ha! You’ll want to compare notes with JPL if you haven’t already :-)
SiubhanDuinne
@efgoldman:
The way you type is fast. Faster than me.
(Because I invariably respond to comments or weigh in with my own brilliant observations whilst* failing to read through the thread to see if someone else said what I was going to say. They always do — sooner and pithier.)
*I enjoy using words like “whilst” and “amongst.” If that makes me sound like a pseudo-Britiish twit, well, I can live with it. (Not suggesting that you, efg, would think of making such an accusation, but some might.)
LevelB
I live in the 10th district and treated myself to attending a ‘debate’ a few days ago between the two idiots running in the republican primary. Here is what I heard them both say:
#1 threat to our national security – the debt(!)
Repeal ObamaCare
Close EPA (I recently retired from EPA)
Close DO Ed. (My wife is a teacher – we were kind of out of place)
Impeach Obama
Take back our country
Close IRS
Cut taxes for business
Etc., etc.
Basically, not one single issue they would vote differently on.
B.
Karen in GA
Not quickly enough.
MP
A retired history professor from the University of Georgia pointed out to me that Clarke County, where UGA is located, is the poorest county of its size in the U.S. on a per capita basis. I didn’t confirm it for myself, but he didn’t strike me as the type to day something like this without being certain of its correctness. That helped me understand how Paul Broun could be elected.
raven
@MP: Paul Broun being elected had ZERO to do with Clarke county. Look at our district map and see how we have been gerrymandered out of having any say in the matter.
raven
@LevelB: You missed guns.
Howard Beale IV
@GRANDPA john: These eejets aren’t Christians-they’re neo-Pharisees.
Howard Beale IV
@J R in WV: It would be amusing to see some of these clowns come to realize what it would mean for them to secede from the US. It wouldn’t be no Czechoslovakia breakup for sure. New currency, new treaties, new military (the US will pull their hardware; either that or they’re gonna cut the a nice check to keep it), new flag carrier, new border patrols….
SiubhanDuinne
@raven:
How was the Battle of Atlanta tour? I guess the rain eased up for you.
Howard Beale IV
@LevelB:
As if….these morons are that stupid to realize that the citizens of the US are the biggest debt holders-Not China, not Japan-us-you and me.
raven
forward
maya
@Mike in NC:
The Great Wall of ‘Zona
scav
@gene108: What I’m assuming is that individual actors focussing on local, short-term, small-scale actions are saying shit that overall arcs into a larger narrative that has larger implications and motivating oomph. see also how the war on women worked. Were only women in the exact districts with the asperine-knee-clutchers motived and for that election alone? Individual idiots saying ridiculous things that win don’t hurt them personally during that race, but reflect poorly on the brand. Yes, I’m thinking at multiple scales. That’s all. They’re not thinking or acting as a team with long term, disciplined strategy. mouthy gits in safe districts are digging things deeper for others, elsewhere, even during later ‘real’ elections. No es rocket science.
g
So, shoot the kids who are fleeing from violence, right? Fucking xenophobic assholes.
g
when you’re talking about a government that refuses to secure our borders,
The kids are all in custody, you asshole. That’s a secure border.
Brutusettu
@wenchacha:
Verily I say unto you, use the 2nd Amendment of your Founding Fathers, when you see a brown skin kid too far from the side of the street, “DEFEND” your property how you see fit.
Lurking Canadian
In the speaker’s “defense”, I interpret the 2nd Ammendment comments to mean “Gun owners need to rise in revolt against the Kenyan usurper who refuses to defend the border”, not “Shoot the brown kids”.
So, crazy and evil, but in a different way.
Kyle
The ammosexual nativist cowards have finally found a target they’re not afraid of taking on while armed — 10 year-old Honduran kids.
LevelB
@raven: if guns were mentioned, I missed it. It does seem odd in retrospect.
B.
LevelB
@Howard Beale IV: Yah, I really don’t get this one. No debt = no bond market. A lot of retirees have their savings tied up in bonds – so what happens to them?
B.