Republicans aren’t much for celebrity. We don’t care much about them, and we tend not to be them. Even among ourselves.
But if you are a Republican – and, redundant to say, obscure – there still are a few ways to become famous.
The big one? Express any view that is grossly out of whack with society at large, to say nothing of the GOP (which, outside most metro areas, reflects “society at large” pretty completely).
For example, you could be like this fellow in Illinoiis,who is running for. Congress in the greater Chicago area:
Arthur J. Jones, 70, of Lyons, is the lone candidate on the March 20 Republican primary ticket for the seat that includes Western Springs, La Grange and parts of southwestern Chicago. Jones, a former member of the American National Socialist Workers Party, has run for political office several times in the past but has never made it past the primary stage in the 3rd District.
He may get on the ballot as a “Republican” because there’s no other GOP challenger in the Illinois’ stultifyingly blue 3rd District. The IL GOP has been fighting against the guy for years; I have no idea what the rules are to run as any given party on a ballot in Illinois, and it’s for damn sure the Chicago Tribune isn’t going to explain them; they got their headline: Holocaust denier likely to appear on ballot for GOP for Chicago-area congressional seat”.
And that’s all that really matters, isn’t it?
Of course, the issue strikes a bit close to home for me; last week, the chairman of the Fourth CD GOP – Republicans in Ramsey and parts of Washington county – made a posting on the district’s Facebook page that went (hold on to your hats, here) viral – at least among people who are watching an obscure GOP official in an utterly blue district.
Or this fella in Coon Rapids who’s become perhaps the most famous caucus attendee in Minnesota.
A thousand of us could descend on Cedar Riverside and plaster the place an inch deep in “All People Are Created Equal” flyers and it wouldn’t get a second on the news, anywhere. And I’m tempted to try it, if only to cover an entire neighborhood in paper.
Drive by bombing at a mosque that hurt nobody.
Setting fire to a daycare at St. Kate’s that hurt nobody
Handing out Trump flyers in a Muslim neighborhood that hurt nobody
Whoever is doing these hate crimes isn’t very good at it. They can’t be Irish – plenty of experience during The Troubles. Can’t be Marines – nobody killed and nothing broken.
I blame Methodists.
Or you can be Keith Ellison and deny the Holocaust….and launch the cricket chorus.
Methodists? They can be pretty dangerous–didn’t you read “Trulbert”, Joe?