Brunswick Beacon, 01.26.23
It’s said that “hypocrisy is the homage vice pays to virtue.” Congressman Chip Roy (R-TX) exemplified that by paying homage to Martin Luther King, Jr. while boasting that Republicans “do not judge people by the color of their skin, but rather, the content of their character.”
At a hearing on discrimination and hate crimes, Roy said: “There’s old sayings about 'find all the rope in Texas and get a tall oak tree,’” adding “we ought to do that.” Asked about the racial connotations of lynching for African-Americans, Roy said, “Yeah, so?” Roy later voted against a federal anti-lynching bill.
Roy’s colleague George Santos (R-NY) is a serial fabulist who faked his education and work history while falsely claiming he was Jewish and had grandparents who survived the Holocaust. Disabled Navy veteran Richard Osthoff says Santos stole $3,000 from his dying service dog Sapphire’s GoFundMe campaign. Santos says he was inspired by Donald Trump.
Speaker Kevin McCarthy says he “had a few questions” about Santos, whose campaign impersonated McCarthy’s Chief of Staff to solicit donations. Still, McCarthy rewarded Santos with two committee assignments.
Then there’s die-hard Trump supporter Solomon Pena, who attended Trump’s “wild” Jan. 6 Washington rally. Pena was convicted in 2008 of burglary and served seven years in prison. Backed by Republican leadership, he ran for New Mexico’s House of Representatives. After losing by 48% in an overwhelmingly Democratic district Pena vowed to never concede, tweeting “I am the MAGA king” and “Now researching my options.”
The option he chose, according to his arrest warrant, was hiring four gunmen, arming them and conspiring with them to shoot up the homes of four Democratic officials. Sen. Linda Lopez’s 10-year-old daughter was awakened by flying sheetrock when bullets struck her bedroom wall.
Will Republicans expel pathological liars, election deniers, lynching advocates, political terrorists and the twice-impeached ex-president who inspired them, or is their character content-free?
Nancy Briganti
Carolina Shores