As President-Elect Joe Biden said on the night of his official win in the Electoral College, the 2020 election was kept fair, free, and secure by patriotic Americans taking democracy seriously and counting ballots honestly and legally, not by armed racist thugs. We needed no guns to conduct a fair election.
Yet now as they lose their bully-in-chief, the Proud Boys and other armed goons are pretending to be freedom fighters when in fact they seek to destroy democracy. Some appeared in Sioux Falls Saturday to promote the fiction the dangerous fiction that Donald Trump won the 2020 election. Outgoing Republican Speaker of the House Steven Haugaard attended this hate rally, and while the mainstream party blog has archly noted the Speaker’s attendance, the South Dakota Republican Party has not spoken out against these racist knuckleheads and their effort to brutalize our democracy.
Why so silent in the face of evil, Republicans? The Young Democrats of South Dakota would like to know:
According to the current administration’s own Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the US election on Nov. 3 was the most secure election in US history. Despite findings from these agencies, dozens of Trump supporters convened at Terrace Park Jan. 2 to protest the outcome of the 2020 federal election.
The public event featured two self-proclaimed Proud Boys as speakers, as well as armed Proud Boys serving as “security” for the event.
The Proud Boys is a far-right, neo-fascist and male-only organization that promotes and engages in political violence. They are labeled as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
In 2017, former Proud Boys member Jason Kessler helped organize the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, that ultimately resulted in the murder of a peaceful counter-protester, Heather Heyer. More than three years later, the attendance of the Proud Boys at a Republican rally demonstrates that our country has not progressed past permitting Neo-Nazis and KKK members to threaten our streets with violence under the guise of political ideology.
“The South Dakota GOP has yet to condemn the Proud Boys’ involvement in this rally,” said Heather Krause, president of South Dakota Young Democrats. “It’s disturbing that even when a terrorist organization shows up, rally participants still stick around and acknowledge no harm in the presence, including former Speaker of the House, Steven Haugaard.
“Aligning with the Proud Boys is openly accepting their white supremacist tenets and violent approaches into the South Dakota Republican party. The South Dakota GOP granted legitimacy to the Proud Boys by welcoming them at their event. The South Dakota Young Democrats vehemently oppose white supremacy. We believe that hate has no home in South Dakota” [Young Democrats of South Dakota, press release, 2021.01.04].
Hanging around with members of violent terrorist groups, choosing economic convenience over saving lives in a pandemic… gee, Republicans, could you explain to me again how you’re the “pro-life” party?
You know Cory, it’s very hard not to laugh at the proud boys. I mean really, why worry about idiots who prance around and call themselves boys. It’s all our lying loser has left apart from the brown noser sycophants in the house and senate. It’s a perfect end to his twitterness.
Your assumption, Mr. H, when you say:
is wrong. There are, despite your angry denials, Democrats who think that too, and also Republicans who are not in agreement with your Proud Boys and not in agreement with Mr. President Trump and not even in agreement with everything the “Pro-life” movement espouts through their spouts.
So. Just keep that in mind when you generalize so broadly, as most of your out-of-state name-callers do.
Dumb boys leader ain’t a white boy, that shows what a bunch of dummies they are. Seriously Enrique Tarrio is a brownie grifter.
Good to have Grudzilla’s daily reminders of all that is wrong with South Dakota’s one party wingnut rulers and those that stick up for them. Imagine how primitive South Dakota would still be if outside ideas where prevented, by Grudz, from taking hold in some fedrtile Democratic minds in your state..
The first amendment protects the speech but the karma is not impressed and as battered as the truth is, it reins supreme. LOSER trumpolini can bite me.
The historical racist Democrats of yesterday are today’s republican party Grudzilla, and you know it. Trump has made that loud and clear. Republicans need to acknowledge their hate problem instead of running from it.
A fair percentage of Republicans are not prolife when it comes to beautiful black men,women and children. White Republicans like Haugaard and his Proud boy friends don’t want blacks or gays moving into their neighborhoods and would not hesitate to call up their local city council to complain or to promote fear.
A disgrace South Dakota sent him to Pierre. Come on sioux falls is this all you have to represent You?
Trump can’t wrap his tiny fingers around the concept that anyone could win an election without cheating, because he sees the world through his own distorted lens, psychologists say that the definition of insanity is repeating the same behavior over and over and expecting a different result. the thing he fears the most is losing and he has been doing it for a lifetime. The people who just want him to quit and not face the consequences are wrong, if he does not pay a price than what is going to prevent someone like Ted Cruz or Kevin McCarthy from a repeat performance?
Indeed, Mr. mike. Even there in Iowa, from whence you hail, you can understand grudznick’s wide reach of influence and how it controls how you think.
Mr. jerry, it’s not allowed to point out the color of people’s skin and call them grifters. Some, not grudznick, would describe that in unflattering terms.
crud can you pontificate on what controls your thinking? Perhaps tee many martunys? Oh well I hope your harmless, because your kind of entertaining in an abstract fashion.
Grudz is right. There are Republicans who are appalled by the neo-fascist element that has become so powerful in the Republican base. Hillary was mostly right when she talked about various “baskets” that Republicans live in, but the basket of deplorables was only a third or so of the party. That leaves a good two-thirds who have morals. What many lack is a backbone. Grudz has made it clear he’s not a deplorable, and he’s got more of a backbone than most Republicans, though not as much as some others.
don, consider the republicant’s in the senate. I don’t buy that 66% of the senate that enabled the wannabe dicktator are guided by morality or duty to their constituents, deplorable is a poor choice of words as is defund the police and democratic socialism they imply that the trumpist is capable of independent thinking, LOL
You are giving Grudzilla too much credit, Don. If you recall, he had harassed Debbo to the point where she won’t come on here anymore because of him. Thats not decency.
Pardon me if I generalize a bit about political parties. With only 2 choices, Democratic/Republican, blue/red, either/or, all or none, it’s very easy to do. And with a 2 party system, people have to side with one or the other…….or none. I know so many people, including myself, who don’t belong to either party. We observe, vote, participate at a minimum, but we don’t see any change.
It’s been 47 years since I first voted and I’ve seen very little progress in this country in every aspect of my life.
Pardon me if I generalize.
It’s easy to spot a Republican. Most are grumpy white men with wives who suffer from low self esteem. Because of their far right religious views favoring the Old Testament, women are the sinful seducers and white men are the honorable heroes who tame those shrews, along with everyone and everything else.
That world view does not go over well with egalitarians like me, who follow Jesus, and you know, the New Testament.
Democrats on the other hand are the honorable people who defend us sinful shrews, the poor, the Constitution….on and on. Always fighting. A few may suffer from grumpiness and low self definition, however they work it off by volunteering and visiting their neighbor or helping the elderly, instead of sitting around complaining all the time.
Pardon me for generalizing.
Grudz is a bit of a piss ant, for sure. The bickering between Grudz and Debbo reminded me of Benedick and Beatrice in “Much Ado About Nothing.” Clearly, Grudz had a history with Debbo that we know nothing about. .Perhaps they were former lovers,but they broke up over breakfast. Also, applies to Grudz and Bob Newland.
I miss Debbo. Her posts were worth reading.
Much rather have her input than grudz’; at least in could be called input.
M, Much rather have her input than grudz’; at least it could be called input.