https://thinkprogress.org/20000-illinois-republicans-voted-for-nazi-7bbeeb7631fd/
The former head of the American Nazi Party ran for the Republican nomination of Congress in Illinois’ 3rd Congressional District. No Republican stepped up to oppose him.
On Tuesday, despite his vocal Holocaust denial, his anti-Semitic rhetoric, and his white supremacist views, 20,339 Illinois Republicans, according to preliminary totals, cast their ballots for Arthur Jones.
Jones’ Nazi-sympathies were not a secret going into election day. His campaign website features a slideshow of pictures of him speaking at white nationalist events. He is a perennial candidate who has previously run for U.S. House, Chicago alderman, and mayor of Chicago, and even mayor of Milwaukee. Chicago media extensively covered the race. The Anti-Defamation League warned voters of his record. The chairman of Illinois Republican Party even disavowed him, saying “The Illinois Republican Party and our country have no place for Nazis like Arthur Jones. We strongly oppose his racist views and his candidacy for any public office, including the 3rd Congressional District.”
Still, a stunning portion of the GOP primary electorate opted to cast their ballot for Jones rather than nobody. This includes, according to unofficial totals as of Wednesday morning, 13,158 voters in suburban Cook County (more than 70 percent of 18,595 GOP primary ballots cast), 4,093 voters in Will County, 3,023 voters in the City of Chicago, and 65 voters in DuPage County.
While the National Republican Congressional Committee, the campaign arm of the House GOP, dismissed Jones last month as “a fringe candidate who has been doing this for over a decade with with no real connection to the GOP,” his campaign platform mirrors President Trump’s agenda. Jones’ campaign website promises to “put America first” with border protections, the elimination of “Sanctuary Cities”, no “amnesty for illegal aliens,” gun rights, and a repeal of the Affordable Care Act.
unbelievable. I hope he doesn’t have a chance in the general election. This is really sad.
Optimist: He was the only option on the Republican primary ballot. 20,000 Republicans voting for a guy who is the only candidate for this particular office listed on the Republican primary ballot is not unbelievable. With no other options, I imagine many wouldn’t bother to learn much about him.
How many voting Republicans are there in this jurisdiction? How many Republicans voted in this election? Even if a nazi is the only person on the ballot, I still wouldn’t vote for him/her. I would cast a write-in vote. I doubt it was all that unknown that a nazi was on the ballot.
Pessimist: Now he’ll be the only candidate on the general ballot with an (R) next to his name. With no other candidates with an (R) next to their name, how many Republicans still wouldn’t bother to learn much about him?
Real Pessimist: How many Republicans would bother to learn much about him, and think he sounds pretty good?
This is one time where the Democrat should run all kinds of negative campaign ads. It needs to be gotten out there in that jurisdiction that they have nazi on the ballot.
The thing is, there’s no downside for the Nazi. If the Democrat runs attack ads, he plays victim to win sympathy using lines that by now are already well-worn and familiar to everyone (“You can’t say hardly anything these days without getting called a racist, amiright guys?”). If anyone (particularly the media) gives him any attention at all, then his message is magnified and spread to various sick minds throughout Illinois. If everyone ignores him, he’s got a (slim) chance of winning based entirely on voter ignorance.
That’s why Nazis are unlike other political ideologies. They don’t buy into that whole idea of “convince the voters/may the most popular ideas win” foundation of democracy, not one bit. To them, elections are nothing more than a tool to win power and followers, and winning and losing elections isn’t really that relevant. If they win, elections are great, but no longer necessary once they’re in charge. If they lose, elections are rigged by a conspiracy please subscribe to our newsletter. Media is the same. If media likes them, free speech is great, but no longer necessary once they’re in charge, if media hates them, free speech is rigged by a conspiracy please subscribe to our newsletter. Same with law enforcement – that’s nothing more than a weapon they can use against opponents, maintaining a civil society has nothing to do with it. They know they’re not liked. They know they’re not popular, and they wear their unpopularity as a badge of honor. They see the tools of democracy as toys that they can rig to take over regardless of how things are supposed to work. They operate outside political norms, and if you treat them like just another political ideology instead of a national security problem, you are going to find yourself in trouble.
You are the one that said maybe the Republican voters didn’t learn much about the guy. I am saying maybe the Democrats should teach them about the guy they just voted for.
I’m saying winning the election isn’t what he’s after, so Republican voters learning about him isn’t relevant.
Well I and I think any sane person is concerned about a nazi winning an election, so voters(and the includes Republicans) learning about him is relevant.
Sure. Sane people can, and most likely will, prevent him from winning the election. But sane people winning the election does not mean he loses. It just means he’s the same as he is today, but with a longer mailing list and better funding.
Well right now it is choice between him the same as he is today but with a longer mailing list and better funding, and him in Congress. I think I will pick him the same as he is today but with a longer mailing list and better funding. I’d rather not have a nazi in Congress.
And that’s why we haven’t had good luck stopping Nazis in the last seventy years. We treat them like any other political party, and think defeating them at the ballot box is where it ends.