The case to expel white supremacist Steve King from Congress

[turbinetree]

This is long overdue, but the racist Iowa Republican really deserves it.
FRANK DALE
NOV 14, 2018, 8:00 AM

Rep. Steve King (R-IA) should be expelled from Congress.

The noted white supremacist, who also happens to be a Republican congressman, makes no effort to hide his racism.

In addition to his very long history of offensive conduct, King follows Twitter accounts “belonging to unabashed white supremacists, including Blair Cottrell, a violent Australian activist who’s called for hanging a picture of Adolf Hitler in every classroom; Stefan Molyneux, a Canadian alt-right vlogger who thinks whites are more intelligent than blacks; and an anonymous Twitter user (with only 334 followers) using the handle @DiezNewAge, who regularly tweets out anti-Semitic and anti-black messages,” according to HuffPost.

With President Donald Trump sitting in the White House, King’s re-election to a ninth term in Congress last week was further proof that most Republicans don’t draw the line at racism, which has become a feature of the party rather than a bug.

Democrats, with their new House majority, could remove arguably the most vile American politician while giving the GOP an opportunity to save some dignity by starting proceedings to expel King from Congress.

https://thinkprogress.org/steve-king-iowa-republican-expel-congress-white-supremacist-gop-house-of-representatives-290b64da1e23/

[Shell_Seas]

1. How does Steve King keep getting elected in the first place?

Are there a lot of racists in Iowa? Or what?

More so, he hasn't been convicted of a crime, so I think we'll find that a lot of Repubes won't turn against him. Remember, they choose party over country at every given chance.

[Celerity]

2. 'He's so openly racist': why does Iowa keep electing Steve King to Congress?

The eight-term congressman has Donald Trump’s backing, and looks likely to be re-elected in November’s midterms despite his ties to European far-right

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/oct/26/hes-so-openly-racist-why-does-iowa-keep-electing-steve-king-to-congress


Nobody in Iowa is undecided, it seems, about whether Steve King, the eight-term Republican congressman, is a racist. The contention is either obviously true – or totally preposterous, depending on whom you ask.

“His comments are so negative and small, and just not very knowledgeable, and condescending,” said Peg Raney, 62, a registered Democrat from Jefferson. “He comes across as very racist.”

Dan Clark, a retired city administrator with a big “King for Congress” sign in his yard in Correctionville, interrupted his lunch to talk with a reporter. Asked whether he thought King, who is up once again for reelection this November, was racist, Clark physically recoiled. “No, no,” he said. “I’ve never heard anybody talking that he is. He was just a common, ordinary person, not a titled person of any kind before he was first elected, so that’s just kind of what we like.”

Over two decades in Washington, King – whose 2012 campaign slogan was “one wife, one house, and one church for 40 years” – has developed deep support in Iowa’s fourth congressional district, home to shining grain bins, picturesque farms and fading small towns.

Ask people why they like King, and they point to his relatability – “you understand what he says, and you know what he means” – and his reliability on issues such as opposing abortion and promoting corn-based ethanol fuel, two top perennial concerns in the Hawkeye state.

snip

[Shell_Seas]

5. So basically the old and tired Republican argument of:

"It's not racist, now let me explain why it's true."

I hate when they do that.

[Demsrule86]

3. I am against removing King even though I despise him as he won re-election.

[Shell_Seas]

4. I think I agree with you.

If that's who the Iowa people choose to represent them. However, I mean, do they know he's racist? Are does Iowa have an anormous amount of racist people that live there?

[Bettie]

6. He's in the far Western part of the state

and yeah, there are a whole bunch of rural, very racist people there.

ON the plus side, his opponent came way closer to unseating him than ever before and we have three Dems as the rest of our house delegation.

[Shell_Seas]

8. In 2018,

I would literally be scared to go and visit a rural place because I have a mixed race family. Especially, where I live in Texas. These are enough of these people to get them a voice in congress. That's terrifying.

[Bettie]

9. I get that

I'm white, but last night, we were at an honor band concert. That's where places with many small rural high schools get the best of the band kids from a bunch of schools together for a day to get them the experience of playing in a really large band.

It was the whitest group of kids I've ever seen in my life. There was literally one black kid there (a girl from the school district our small school does plays with) and one who I suspect was Latino. But they did have all shades of blonde covered!

I wish we lived in a place where our kids would encounter diversity more often.

[Eric J in MN]

7. Bad precedent. I don't want Democrats expelled. NT

NT