From Wisconsin conservative James Wigderson:
Rep. Steve King (R-IA) has a reputation as an anti-immigration absolutist. That’s actually the kinder description of him. Somebody should have told King that it’s better to be thought a racist than to open his mouth and remove all doubt.
“White nationalist, white supremacist, Western civilization — how did that language become offensive?” Mr. King told the New York Times. “Why did I sit in classes teaching me about the merits of our history and our civilization?”
When King was finally punished by his GOP colleagues and removed from his committee assignments, the Iowa congressman tried to defend himself by claiming Republican House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy was committing an “unprecedented assault” on King’s “freedom of speech” (it’s not) and that King’s quote is being taken out of context.
Yes, the New York Times should release the audio of the interview so the public can judge King’s intent, but it was King himself who placed Western Civilization in the context of the other two racist terms. And if King wants to talk about context, it’s his past actions of cozying up to racists and praising them that are providing the context for his latest statement.
What’s been disappointing to me personally is how some Republicans are running to King’s defense.
“just because the other side gets to be a bunch of gutter-mouthed radicals or anti-Semites”
Gutter mouths? Hardly exclusive to the Left.
Radicalism? Hardly exclusive to the Left.
Anti-Semitism? Again, hardly exclusive to the Left — and certainly not in any way a defining characteristic of it, despite conservative attempts to associate criticism of Israel with hatred of Jews.
How many Democrats can win elections while expressing or advocating bigotry? How many Republicans can do so in comparison? Look at what Republican politicians have said *publicly* about black and hispanic people, about LGBT people, about Muslims and atheists. Perhaps King is an outlier, but he’s not an extreme one and it doesn’t take going as far as he does to be in the wrong. Your party’s consistent knee-jerk reaction of “fake news!” and “media bias!” and “political correctness!” to criticism of people like King speaks volumes in itself. But what can one expect from the party of Trump?