Remember kids, racism is a barbarous old relic of the past that is no longer applicable in American politics, therefore political remedies for racism like the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act are equally as outdated.
Nevada Assemblyman Ira Hansen (R), who the assembly’s Republican caucus selected as their choice to be its next speaker earlier this month, has a long history of racist, sexist and homophobic statements chronicled in a long list published by the Reno News Review. Among other things, as part of a broader statement of support for school vouchers, Hansen claimed that “[t]he relationship of Negroes and Democrats is truly a master-slave relationship, with the benevolent master knowing what’s best for his simple minded darkies.” Indeed, according to the News Review, Hansen keeps a Confederate battle flag on his wall, which he says that he flies “proudly in honor and in memory of a great cause and my brave ancestors who fought for that cause.” He also “tends to use the term ‘Negro’ and often does not capitalize it.”
Hansen has also published several columns attacking Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., including one where he claims that “King’s private life was trashy at best. … King Jr. is as low as it gets, a hypocrite, a liar, a phony, and a fraud.” In another piece, he wrote that “[t]he lack of gratitude and the deliberate ignoring of white history in relation to eliminating slavery is a disgrace that Negro leaders should own up to.”
Reminder: not only is this charming gentlemen an elected state Assemblyman, elected to represent people in Nevada, but his Republican colleagues believe his views are acceptable (Or non-controversial? Unknown even though he had a newspaper column? You choose!) enough to make him the Speaker of Nevada’s State Assembly.
Oh and there’s more. Because with these aggregate colonies of fungus in people suits, there always is more.
Nor does Hansen reserve his condemnations for African Americans. He’s argued that “women do not belong in the Army or Navy or Marine Corps, except in certain limited fields.” He’s criticized the “sexual revolution” and the “women’s liberation movement” for encouraging women “to act as foolishly as men.” And he also claims to have a strange obsession with gay child molesters. He once wrote that he’s “been keeping a rough tally on homosexual/heterosexual molesters as reported locally” and that this inquiry revealed that “and roughly half of all molestations involve homosexual men preying on boys.” As the News Review notes, “Hansen gave no details, nor did he publish his list, nor did he explain how he knew the sexuality of the alleged molesters.”
I mean this guy is a walking caricature of Republican Racist Asshole, and the guy still ends up Speaker of Nevada’s Assembly. The dean of Nevada politics, Jon Ralston, has more on how Hansen ended up winning that position.
I got some intel from some GOP insiders, who filled me in on exactly what happened during Friday’s marathon session:
It appears that Pat Hickey never had much of a chance to be elected as speaker after serving as minority leader. “It went downhill quick,” one source told me.
Most of the night was a negotiation, with Ira Hansen eventually agreeing to give the majority leader slot to southerner Paul Anderson.
Fact was Hansen started with, as one put it, “all the new members and the Fiore wing,” a reference to Michele Fiore, who does not like Hickey and whose best friend, Victoria Seaman, was just elected.
So, with a majority at the outset, “Hansen had the votes so it ended up more like a negotiation than an election,” one source told me.
Again, Nevada’s newly minted Republican majority in the State Assembly had no reservations whatsoever about putting a guy who used the word “darkies” as their Speaker.
Awesome.
Post-Racial America Update, Simple Minds EditionPost + Comments (62)