Search Results for: zeiger

Given the circumstances it’s hard to imagine they could have done otherwise, but the Tacoma News Tribune endorsed incumbent Democratic state Rep. Dawn Morrell today in her 25th Legislative District race, citing her influence and independence. But they also spent a couple paragraphs taking a whack at Republican nominee Hans Zeiger and his “wacko commentary.”

Zeiger, 25 and working on a graduate degree, doesn’t have enough seasoning or life experience for the Legislature. He also hasn’t put enough years and mileage between him and some wacko Internet commentary he authored all too recently as a college student.

Zeiger’s comments – which included attacks on the Girl Scouts and a suggestion that Baptists worship a dubious deity – should be a cautionary tale for young people accustomed to spouting off on the Web. Diamonds are forever; so are embarrassing rants cached on Google.

Exactly. Old men like me have the right to dismiss far past embarrassments as “youthful indiscretions,” 25-year-old kids like Zeiger, do not.

Try again in a decade, Hans. In the meanwhile, you need to get about to proving you really have moved into the mainstream, instead of just saying it.

The Hillsdale College Collegian, the school newspaper of Hans Zeiger’s alma mater, calls their “favorite son” to task for his long record of bigoted commentary:

If Hans Zeiger’s recent skirmish with liberal blogs can teach us anything, it’s basic common sense: Don’t call the Girl Scouts a feminist training corps and expect to get away with it.

Learning common sense from the liberal blogs. That’s not a bad start.

But too bad the editorial doesn’t stop there, for in attempting to elaborate on the lesson, the author provides an unflattering window into Hillsdale College culture that probably explains an awful lot about Zeiger and his abhorrent views:

Your friends at the table in Saga might think it is okay to make jokes about women needing to know their place. Your professor might jokingly refer to Catholics with a derogatory phrase. And your frat buddies might even crack the occasional racially-charged joke.

At Hillsdale, most students overlook offensive comments like these. But in the future, your coworkers, neighbors and pew-mates may not.

That’s because Hillsdale College –– despite the school’s history of gender equality and racial inclusion –– consists primarily of white Christian conservatives.

Um… so let me get this straight: your professor might “jokingly refer to Catholics with a derogatory phrase,” because Hillsdale College “consists primarily of white Christian conservatives.” So that means… uh… Catholics aren’t Christian?

Coming from an alma mater that was home to the infamous “water buffalo” incident, I can’t imagine students just shrugging off a professor’s anti-Catholic remark, but I guess white Christian conservatives say the darnedest things. Which I also guess is why Zeiger chose Hillsdale College, and why he felt so comfortable routinely disparaging woman, gays, Muslims, Catholics, Unitarians, mainstream Baptists and whoever, during his four years there. He felt right at home.

Of course, a lot of us regret some of the things we did (or didn’t do) in college. For example, I regret not having taken more philosophy courses, while Christine O’Donnell regrets having dabbled in Satanism. But both Christine and I have had a couple decades to maturely muse over our regrets, and reshape ourselves into more philosophical, less Satanic people.

Zeiger on the other hand is only 25, just a few years out of college — and sexist, racist, anti-Papist Hillsdale College at that — and only weeks removed from regretfully pulling down from the Internet huge swaths of his hate speech. So forgive me for not taking his sudden mea culpa at face value.

Finally some print reporting on 25th LD Republican nominee Hans Zeiger’s anti-gay/anti-Girl-Scout/anti-Islam/anti-Baptist agenda. In the Seattle Times? No. In the TNT? No. In the Puyallup Herald? Nope.

If you want to get ink on your fingers while reading about the controversial candidate, you’re gonna have to pick up a copy of the Seattle Gay News. And in it, you’ll find the following hilarious quote:

Alex Hays, executive director of Mainstream Republicans, told SGN that the HorsesAss piece was “intellectually dishonest” because it quoted selected articles by Zeiger “out of context.”

Huh. You know what’s really intellectually dishonest, Alex? Accusing me of being “intellectually dishonest” without disclosing to the reporter that you are also Zeiger’s political consultant.

Pot, meet kettle, and all that.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6oeSFAIKaX4&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

Attorney General Rob McKenna has yet to reply to my email asking if he still endorses far-right-wing rising star Hans Zeiger, now that his anti-Muslim/anti-Girl-Scout/anti-Baptist views have come to light. But at least one local Republican appears eager to come forth and denounce Zeiger’s impressive portfolio of wing-nuttery:  Hans Zeiger.

The last time I looked at the writings of House candidate Hans Zeiger, the 25-year-old Republican was drawing fire for his published views on Girl Scouts (“a pro-abortion, feminist training corps”) and public schools (“polluted with the filth of moral relativism.”)

Zeiger said he no longer stands by those columns and blog posts, made when he was 18 and 19. He had some of them pulled down from the Web, which unleashed attacks by Democrats and liberal bloggers accusing him of hiding his real views.

But Zeiger’s posts continue to trickle out, and one unearthed by blogger David Goldstein (warning: foul language) is especially incendiary.

The post on WorldNetDaily, “The right must unite against Islam,” calls for conservatives to rebuild their coalition after their 2006 defeats by making a common enemy of “the cult of Islam.”  […] I asked Zeiger about it today. He called the column “unacceptable.” and repeated comments that he has grown a lot since being a “young and naïve” college student schooled on talk radio.

Yes, according to Zeiger, he’s done a lot of growing up these past four years, and is very, very sorry for the two books and couple hundred columns worth of wackadoodle hate speech he published during his nine-year stint as Andrew Villeneuve’s evil twin. Kinda reminds me of the Monty Python sketch in which a convicted serial killer charms the court by offering a profuse and heartfelt apology.

But the problem is, all apologies aside, this is who Zeiger really is. Indeed, according to his own online Voters Guide statement:

Elected Experience:
No information submitted

Other Professional Experience:
Hans Zeiger is an author and a senior fellow at a national non-profit organization.

That’s his entire resume. Zeiger is an “author” and, at 25, a “senior fellow” at The American Civil Rights Union, a right-wing think tank whose board includes Ed Meese, Ken Starr, Linda Chavez and Robert Bork. And why do you think they hired this 25-year-old kid as a “senior” fellow? Because of what he wrote as an author. In fact, Zeiger was hired by the ACRU back in 2007, just months after writing the anti-Islam screed he now recants as “unacceptable.”

Since his first book was published at the precocious age of 16, with a foreword by Oliver North, to the day after his primary victory, when he first started scrubbing the Internet of his vast and embarrassing written record, Zeiger’s whole identity has been wrapped up in his prolific and often offensive right-wing rantings. Over the past nine years Zeiger has produced a portfolio that is as impressive as it is crazy. That’s why he’s been described by his fellow Republicans as a “wunderkind” and a “rising star.” And that’s why a national right-wing think tank would make him a “senior” fellow at the tender age of 22.

So for Zeiger, rightfully worried that general election voters might be shocked and offended by his views, to attempt to dismiss his very raison d’etre as mere youthful indiscretion is as absurd as it is disingenuous. It would be sorta like me attempting to use my notoriety as a controversial blogger to propel me into public office, only to take down HA as an irrelevant distraction.

Goldstein regrets having accused Luke Esser of fucking pigs, the candidate told me today. He called the post “unacceptable,” and repeated comments that he has grown up a lot since 2006.

So does he still think Esser fucks pigs? “Luke Esser’s sexuality is very complex, and I would not profess to make sweeping judgments about it.”

I mean, it was almost four years ago, right? All the way back in 2006. I’ve matured a lot since then… just look at my hairline.

Or is there some statute of limitations on authorship for which my lack of a J-School education has left me unawares? Is seven years too long to hold Zeiger responsible for his own words?

“Our public schools have assaulted the Christian faith time and again, and the present hyper-glorification of Islam only exacerbates the confusion to which young students are now subjected. We must decide, with finality, whether we will be a people reflective of our Christian heritage in ordered liberty, or whether we will deepen our wounds already inflicted by the poisonous doctrines of multiculturalism and moral relativism.

While America decides, parents must be vigilant. They must beware of the radical Islamization of their children’s schools.”

Or is the statute of limitations more like four years?

“Conservative Christians have prepared their children far better than liberals to fight the battles of our generation. Liberals, in fact, haven’t had many children. They’ve aborted too many. And out of the curse of abortion has come this blessing: The left is losing demographically.”

Or for one as young as Zeiger, is a post from a mere one year ago too ancient to criticize?

“As an operative view for society, atheism is destructive, to say the least.”

I’m not doubting Zeiger’s ability to change or mature or even, dare I say, evolve. Nor do I dismiss the possibility of redemption. It was a mere three years ago that Zeiger railed against “the tyranny of political correctness,” and yet in the years hence, as a writer, Zeiger has certainly appeared to submit to exactly that. His more recent pieces have tended to be more measured, more cautious and in turn, more boring. Indeed, I think it is fair to speculate that if Zeiger’s writing style had been this understated and uncontroversial from the start, he’d have no published portfolio nor wunderkind reputation to speak of.

Instead, I’d argue for Zeiger the same standard that I have long argued for myself: that if you want to judge his character, his temperament and his values, then you must read Zeiger and his words within the broad context of his entire oeuvre, and not by the selected excerpts of the author or his critics.

As for me, I feel comfortable that should I ever run for public office, I could proudly stand by and defend nearly every word I’ve written, even the foul ones. Sure, I might wince at some of what I wrote during my high school and college years, but mostly due to the quality of the writing, not the content. And while I’ve no doubt been wrong or wrongheaded from time to time, I’d never attempt to scrub the Internet of my mistakes, for I remain confident that my collected work speaks well of who I am and what I stand for.

Zeiger, on the other hand, while he often writes about honor and morality, has sought to hide from voters who he really is… or at the very least, who he recently was. And that is a coverup our local media should not allow him to get away with.

No word yet from Attorney General Rob McKenna on whether he might reconsider his endorsement of Hans Zeiger and his call to reunite conservatives in opposition to Islam (and radical feminist, lesbian, cookie peddling Girl Scouts), but there’s at least one Republican willing to put principle — and, well, sanity — above party loyalty: Zeiger’s GOP primary opponent, Steve Vermillion.

The TNT’s editorial blog has posted a condensed version of an email sent to supporters by Vermillion today, in which he endorses Democratic incumbent Rep. Dawn Morrell in the 25th LD race, and pretty much trashes Herr Zeiger as unqualified and dishonorable. It’s a great read:

In hopes that a “mystery box” of missing ballots would appear with sufficient votes to move me into second place, my hopes were extinguished with my wife’s reminder that we lived in Pierce not King County and the likelihood of missing votes appearing was slim to none.

Zeiger asked for my endorsement, which I declined to give him. Early on, I told the folks in the Pierce County GOP that I had no intention of supporting him should be win in the primary as I do not think he is remotely qualified to be in the Legislature.

I have been asked to at least remain neutral, which were my plans until Zeiger recently moved into his cover-up mode by working to delete many of his controversial writings. I expect that he is working on his “dishonorable” scout badge for the next level of his scouting adventures.

My plans are now to endorse Dawn Morrell for Position 2. I’ve known Dawn for several years – she is the only legislator that has served our district that is willing to respond to email questions. I’ve disagreed with some of her votes but I am sure she would have disagreed with some of mine if the situation had been reversed.

I’ve studied Zeiger’s writings from 2003 to 2009. Whether I agree or disagree with his position is a moot point. I take deep umbrage with his selection of verbiage and his focus on judging people versus being inclusive of others. The problems with his writings are they are either reflective of the “Zeiger Values” he campaigns on taking to the legislature or formulated via his political courses and religious studies at Hillsdale College.

Had I not read his writings, I wouldn’t have known that, being a Baptist, I was praying to a pagan god all these years. No wonder I haven’t won the lottery yet.

Cordially,

Steve Vermillion

Wow.

Vermillion got only 16% of the vote in August, compared to Zeiger’s 36%, but if Zeiger hopes to win in November he’s gonna need the bulk of Vermillion’s voters to swing his way. Normally, you’d expect that to happen, but you gotta wonder how many voters would have the exact same reaction to Zeiger that Vermillion did if only they had access to the exact same information?

And you gotta wonder how much longer our local media can keep their lips sealed on what is shaping up to be a pretty entertaining story?

Subject: Does Rob McKenna endorse Hans Zeiger?

From: david@horsesass.org

Date: September 13, 2010 1:28:21 PM PDT

To: Janelle Guthrie (ATG)

Cc: Dan Sytman (ATG)

Janelle,

As a long time reader, perhaps you’ve seen my series on 25th LD Republican nominee Hans Zeiger? Over the past couple weeks I’ve reported a lot of startling things about Zeiger’s offensive and disturbing views, but perhaps my most surprising discovery is that Attorney General Rob McKenna headlines the list as Zeiger’s most prominent endorser.

Surely, this must be a mistake. Surely, Mr. McKenna would not endorse a candidate who called the Girl Scouts “a gathering of radical feminists, lesbians, and cookie peddlers,” who described the National Education Association as a “terrorist organization” that “has made greater progress in the tearing down of American institutions and ideals than Iraq or Al Quaeda,” who berates other religions and Christian dominations for “praying to the generic god,” who dismisses Seattle’s St. Mark’s Cathedral as “hardly a Christian church,” and who argues for conservatives to fight against “the problem of Islam” as the organizing principle behind a reunited conservative movement and a resurgent Republican Party.

For surely, wouldn’t the endorsement of Zeiger by Washington state’s most prominent elected Republican appear to some as an endorsement of Zeiger’s hateful and intolerant opinions?

So could you please ask the Attorney General if he has in fact officially endorsed Zeiger, and if so, whether he is prepared to publicly withdraw his endorsement now that he has been made aware of Zeiger’s vast portfolio of disturbing and bigoted commentary? Or, if Mr. McKenna maintains his endorsement, could you please ask him to defend it?

As always, I thank you for your cooperation, and look forward to your reply.

David Goldstein
HorsesAss.org

[cc: my readers]

We get a lot of people with crazy views running for office, but it’s no so often that they’re endorsed by the most prominent Republican elected official in the state. So I just sent this email to the Attorney General’s office to ask whether Rob McKenna really endorsed Hans Zeiger, as Zeiger claims on his website, and if so, whether McKenna would withdraw his endorsement now that he nows how crazy Zeiger is.

I’ll let you know if I get a response, but you might want to contact the AG’s office and ask for yourself.

See, the Seattle Times editorial board agrees with me. Only in a lot more boring fashion. And I agree with them: Rev. Terry Jones is “an idiot.”

If Jones wants to be a beacon instead of a bozo, why doesn’t this clown organize an interfaith group to feed the poor, build housing and help sustain families of all faiths through this economic crisis?

But the question is, would 25th LD Republican nominee Hans Zeiger agree with the Times call for “interfaith” outreach, or would he find the editors to be a bunch of watered-down ecumenists?

Unitarians, mainstream Baptists, Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, members of the “Military Pagan Network” and other watered-down ecumenists will hold an “Interfaith Day of Prayer and Reflection” on the steps of the Oklahoma State Capitol today to pray to the generic god.

[…] But … the significant difference between the kumbaya sessions and interfaith vigils and atheist protests of the Religious Left and the Bible studies and prayer circles of the Religious Right is that our God is real.

I dunno… sounds like Zeiger considers Jones to be one of the real Christians praying to the real God. Perhaps, if the Times wants to do its job of educating voters, it should ask Zeiger about that, along with all the other batshit-crazy stuff he wrote?

Yesterday, Democratic incumbent state Sen. Randy Gordon was trailing Republican Steve Litzow by 214 votes in LD-41. After today’s tally, that margin is down to 142. Hmm.

On the one hand, there aren’t a lot of ballots left, so you still gotta consider a Gordon victory a long shot. On the other hand, the remaining sample is so small, there’s room for a lot more statistical variation, so it’s far from impossible. But either way, it sure does look like we’re headed into a hand recount.

Speaking of which, still no update from Pierce County, where LD-25 is destined for a hand recount too.

UPDATE:
With zero ballots reported left to count, right-wing, anti-girl-scout nutbag Hans Zeiger leads Rep. Dawn Morrell by 39 votes in LD-25. In-fucking-credible. If this survives the recount, well, welcome to the future of the Washington State Republican Party.

Two weeks after election day there are still two legislative races that remain too close to call, though the Republican has got the edge in both of them: the 41st LD Senate contest between incumbent Democrat Randy Gordon and faux-moderate Steve Litzow, and the the 25th LD House race between incumbent Democrat Dawn Morrell and proto-fascist hate-talker Hans Zeiger.

After today’s results, Litzow leads by 214 and Zeiger leads by only 36… both within the automatic recount margin. But I’d be pleasantly surprised if either Dem pulls this out.

Oh, and by the way, had the ballot deadline been received by election day instead of postmarked by election day, we still wouldn’t know the final result any sooner.

As depressed as I am over the turn of events in LD-25, where neo-fascist wunderkind Hans Zeiger has retaken the lead over incumbent Democratic State Rep. Dawn Morrell, I have newfound hope in LD-41, where just a few days ago incumbent State Sen. Randy Gordon appeared to be hopelessly trailing faux-moderate Republican challenger Steve Litzow.

In fact, if the trends from the last few days of returns hold up, my calculations suggest that Gordon, now trailing by 336 votes, is currently on pace to take a small lead.

Gordon, who was appointed to replace former Sen. Fred Jarrett after he stepped down to take the number two position in King County, is widely regarded as one of the most liberal members of the Senate. So holding this seat in the former Eastside GOP stronghold would be a huge victory.

While the rest of the media focuses on the allegedly close race between incumbent Supreme Court Justice Richard Sanders and sane challenger Charlie Wiggins (as predicted, Wiggins took his first lead today, on his way to a 10,000-plus vote victory), there really is only one true tossup race listed on the Secretary of State’s website: the 61-vote spread between Democratic incumbent State Rep. Dawn Morrell, and girl-scout-hating challenger Hans Zeiger in LD-25. And while returns have trended Democratic throughout much of the state this past week, Zeiger has closed the gap for the second day in a row.

There’s maybe about 550 ballots left to count in LD-25, and Zeiger would have to win 55.5% of that to pull into the lead, which shouldn’t be likely. But it’s such a small sample of votes left that anything can happen. Either way, this one is almost certainly heading into hand recount territory.

Fortunately, Democrats tend to pick up votes in hand recounts due to the demographic extremes we represent: the poorest, the oldest, the newest, the least educated and the best educated voters… four out of five of which tend to have more problems filling out ballots than your average voter. But, I’d rather not have to put that thesis to the test.

Courtesy of R.R. Anderson

Still no word from Rob McKenna regarding his endorsement of Girl-Scout-bashing, Baptist/Episcopalian-dissing, Islam-vilifying Hans Zeiger, so one can only assume that McKenna must agree with Zeiger when he, say, urges Republicans to unite in opposition to “the problem of Islam.”

I guess one can also assume that McKenna endorses Zeiger’s characterization of the immigration of brown-skinned people into Western nations as a “jihad.”

Here in the United States, immigration from Mexico and Latin America poses questions, beyond the immediate questions of illegal immigration, about the nature of American cultural identity and whether assimilation is still possible. Far more appalling than the crisis at the American Southern border is the jihad of the Muslim world on the continent of Europe. Facing a negative birthrate among native Europeans, immigrant Muslims from the Middle East are reproducing quickly and opening the very real specter of a culture clash more violent far than the present wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have been.

I mean, how many times can Zeiger proclaim his bigoted, anti-Islamic xenophobia before it’s obvious to folks that Zeiger is a xenophobic, anti-Islamic bigot?

So unless and until McKenna — our state’s highest ranking and most prominent elected Republican — either denies, withdraws or qualifies his so-far unqualified endorsement of Zeiger, we can only assume that his coveted endorsement is based on young Zeiger’s claim to fame: his immense portfolio of batshit-crazy political commentary. And we can only assume that this is the kind of new leadership that McKenna wants to bring into the Republican party.

But there is evil in our world that will destroy souls and nations if conservatives don’t unite against it. Our response to the problem of Judaism cannot mainly be war, though it may include war. We must respond with a renewed culture. We must counter the rise of Judaism with a faith of our own.

That is not to say that conservatives must be Christians, but conservatives must understand that the only defense against Judaism is a vibrant Christian culture. Politics is a contest of opinions about how best to protect a culture; while culture has to do with ideas and relationships, politics has to do with force and order. Our politics need not be immediately religious, but our culture must be.

The cult of Judaism repudiates self-government and all we hold dear. If we are to continue to be a self-governing people, we must be a people of strong character, and strong character is founded in the Christian faith. If conservatives are to be reunited, we must first unite against Judaism. From there we can renew our determination to be a self-governing and Christian nation.

Had any general election candidate written an overtly anti-semitic statement like that, no doubt our local media would be all over the scandal, and you can be damn sure the candidate’s own party wouldn’t touch him with a ten-foot pole. But substitute “Islam” for “Judaism,” and those are all direct quotes from 25th LD Republican nominee Hans Zeiger.

Yet except for a couple bemused blog posts about Zeiger’s labeling of the Girl Scouts as a bunch of “radical feminists, lesbians, and cookie peddlers,” we’ve so far heard crickets from our local media about Zeiger’s intolerant, hateful, and dare I say fascistic political views.

Why? Well, I can only assume that our region’s journalists and editorialists are simply more accepting of anti-Islamic bigotry than they are of anti-Jewish bigotry. I mean, how else to interpret such an extraordinary double standard?

—

(Ironically, should Zeiger defeat Democratic incumbent Rep. Dawn Morrell, the media post mortem will no doubt berate her for failing to get her message out. Imagine that.)

Yesterday I asked whether batshit-crazy 25th LD Republican nominee Hans Zeiger agrees with me and the Seattle Times that, in their words, “loathing of Muslims … humiliates Christians and demeans their beliefs in the eyes of the world.”

Of course, it was a rhetorical question, as Zeiger’s extensive written record makes it clear that he does not.

For example, in a December 2006 column in the online wingnut mouthpiece WorldNetDaily, titled “The right must unite against Islam,” Zeiger actually makes the extraordinarily cynical and prescient suggestion that opposition to Islam should replace anti-communism as the organizing principle that unites the conservative movement:

When conservatism began its popular resurgence in politics and ideas in the 1950s, the thing that tied together the intellectual camps … and made their adherents a collective force, with time, for Ronald Reagan was the spirit of anti-communism. Conservatives, after all, are generally trying to conserve something good in the face of something bad. Conservatives need not agree about the ultimate good (the good could be liberty, or equality, or truth, or tradition). But they must agree about what is bad (communism was bad).

Today, as in 1964 and 1980 when communism was pulsing and the right was united, there are different views among conservatives about what constitutes the good. However, unlike 1964 and 1980, conservatives today are divided about what constitutes the bad. Some say that terrorism is the great enemy; others say that war is the great enemy. Some say that government is our undoing, others that the popular culture is evil. It is possible to hate terrorism and war and government and popular culture all at once, but it is not likely that a winning political movement can come together on all these themes.

It’s actually a pretty cogent if simplistic reading of history. According to Zeiger, even though the various flavors of American conservatism couldn’t agree on a single agenda, they were ultimately united in their opposition to communism. That was the organizing principle on which social conservatives and neo-cons and free market libertarians et al were able to join together into a united, disciplined and effective political movement. That was the unlikely coalition at the core of a resurgent Republican Party.

Huh. It’s as good a thesis as any. I’ll give him that.

But with the Soviet Union collapsed and communism vanquished as a meaningful threat, the conservative movement and its party lost it’s way.

Indeed, there is no winning conservative movement. Even if the Republicans are still a force in politics, what passes for the conservative party today is hardly conservative, because it is more driven by special interests than a resistance to something bad.

Zeiger’s solution? Find a new bugbear… a boogeyman… a scapegoat against whom conservatives can reunify into a dominant political force. It is a strategy straight out of Mein Kampf, all the way down to the semitic origins of this new enemy and the disturbingly unselfconscious turn of phrase Zeiger chooses to describe the threat they pose:

But there is evil in our world that will destroy souls and nations if conservatives don’t unite against it. Whatever arguments are to be made for the war in Iraq, the fact is that Iraq in the equation of public opinion and practical statesmanship has distracted from the realities of Sept. 11. It has moved conservatives away from what could define their calling at the launch of the 21st century. Our response to the problem of Islam cannot mainly be war, though it may include war. We must respond with a renewed culture. We must counter the rise of Islam with a faith of our own.

Understand that Zeiger is not simply advocating that conservatives and Republicans unite in their opposition to Islamist terrorism, he is arguing that they need to unite in opposition to Islam. You know… the Islamic Problem.

And Zeiger’s Hitlerian rhetoric doesn’t end there…

That is not to say that conservatives must be Christians, but conservatives must understand that the only defense against Islam is a vibrant Christian culture. Politics is a contest of opinions about how best to protect a culture; while culture has to do with ideas and relationships, politics has to do with force and order. Our politics need not be immediately religious, but our culture must be.

I mean, I hate to drop the F-bomb… but that bit about “force and order” is a fascistic political sentiment if I ever saw one.

And there’s no reading between the lines here. Zeiger goes on to clearly demonize “the cult of Islam,” while reiterating his call for conservatives to reunite in opposition…

The cult of Islam repudiates self-government and all we hold dear. If we are to continue to be a self-governing people, we must be a people of strong character, and strong character is founded in the Christian faith.

[…] If conservatives are to be reunited, we must first unite against Islam. From there we can renew our determination to be a self-governing and Christian nation.

Perhaps Zeiger truly believes that Islam is as “evil” as he says it is. Perhaps he doesn’t. Cognitive dissonance can yield strange results. But in his call to exploit opposition to Islam as the organizing political principle of the American right, one can’t help but hear a chilling echo of the German anti-semitism of the 1930’s, and its transformation of old fashioned, church sanctioned Jew hatred into an organizing political principle that would ultimately lead to the slaughter of millions. Thus as clever or as prescient as Zeiger’s call to action may be, there is little in it to distinguish his political instincts from those of the fascists… or even al-Qaeda for that matter.

—

Unfortunately, while young Zeiger fashioned himself a reputation as a sorta right-wing prodigy, based purely on his prolific portfolio of wingnut commentary, our local media seems prepared to dismiss it all as mere youthful indiscretion… even batshit-crazy columns such as this one, written less than four years ago. So if 25th LD voters are going to learn the truth about Zeiger, they’re going to have to learn it directly from his Democratic opponent, Rep. Dawn Morrell. So you might want to throw her some change.