If the mere mention of the phrase “midterm elections” makes you want to book a one-way ticket to another planet, you’re not alone. That Republicans are very likely to retake control of the House—and have a good chance of seizing the Senate as well—is not just scary by virtue of the fact that they have an R next to their names, but because of what that R has come to represent: absolute delusions about who won in 2020, an all-out war on reproductive rights and LGBTQ+ people, an acceptance of neo-Nazis and white nationalism, a complete and total aversion to the truth, an affinity for fascism, and a clear desire to bury democracy in a shallow grave. And it’s not just Congress that’s cause for existential terror; from governorships to secretaries of state to state legislatures, there are a hugely disturbing number of candidates out there who, given the opportunity, will make America a more terrifying place.
And the following people are the worst of the bunch.
Blake Masters
As of July, billionaire Peter Thiel had spent $15 million on Masters’s campaign for US Senate in Arizona, and that’s relevant because, among other things, Thiel believes women getting the right to vote was bad for democracy; was one of Donald Trump’s biggest 2016 donors; and, according to his biographer, has an economic and political philosophy that “border[s] on fascism.”
But back to Masters. While the Senate candidate’s website previously declared, “I am 100% pro-life,” and, per CNN, mentioned his support for an amendment that “recognizes unborn babies are human beings that may not be killed,” in August he suspiciously backtracked on the most extreme possible position on abortion; now, he says he simply supports Arizona’s law banning the procedure after 15 weeks with no exceptions for rape or incest. (Generous!) He has said one of his favorite historical figures is Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew, a dictator whose government at one time offered incentives for poor and uneducated people to undergo sterilization and, later, as the country’s senior minister, “sometimes use[d] use defamation suits or the threat of such actions to discourage public criticism,” per the US State Department. Masters has also said that “everybody” should read the 1995 manifesto written by Ted Kaczynski, a.k.a the Unabomber; promoted the racist theory that Democrats want to replace white Americans with nonwhite immigrants; and blamed gun violence on “Black people.” Not surprisingly, at least one white nationalist website has had nice things to say about him, as has the founder of the Daily Stormer, a site for neo-Nazis.
Don Bolduc
It’s hard to know where to start with Bolduc, who, according to the latest poll, is narrowly leading Maggie Hassan for the race to be the next senator from New Hampshire. Perhaps it’s that he has:
- Promoted the batshit crazy, anti-trans, right-wing conspiracy theory that schools have become so permissive about gender identity that they are catering to kids who identify as cats, saying, according to audio obtained by CNN, “Guess what? We have furries and fuzzies in classrooms. They lick themselves, they’re cats. When they don’t like something, they hiss—people walk down the hallway and jump out. And get this, get this. They’re putting litter boxes [out], right? These are the same people that are concerned about spreading germs. Yet they let children lick themselves and then touch everything. And they’re starting to lick each other”
- Said that Bill Gates wants to put microchips “inside people”
- Described the disposal of embryos for in vitro fertilization as “pretty disgusting,” and left the door open for a national ban on the practice that thousands of people rely on each year to have a child
It almost makes the fact that he was an out-and-out election denier until the day after he won his primary—when he admitted the election wasn’t “stolen,” but then last month said he “can’t say that it was stolen or not”—seem quaint.
Mehmet Oz
Supposedly living in New Jersey is pretty much the least objectionable thing about Dr. Oz, who is going up against Pennsylvania lieutenant governor John Fetterman to be the next US Senator from the commonwealth. Much worse than that is:
That’s right: We’re not even including the crudités video and the one about cousin sex on the list of the worst things about him.
Bess Levin
Source link
