U.S. Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) has made no secret of how he views people who aren’t white, Christian or American-born. His latest public remark is being critically viewed as a paean to white nationalism by Democrats and Independents ― but not by his Republican colleagues in Congress.
On Sunday afternoon, King suggested that Muslim children were preventing “our civilization” from being restored.
The tweet was in response to a cartoon tweeted out by an account that supports far-right European candidates and platforms. The cartoon depicts Geert Wilders, a candidate for Dutch Prime Minister, sticking his finger in a dam labeled “Western Civilization” to stop a flow of green ooze with stars and crescent moons ― a color and symbols widely associated with Islam.
A representative for King did not immediately respond to request for comment.
His remarks, however, align with ones made last September when he appeared with Wilders and Frauke Petry, chairwoman of the far-right anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany party saying, “Cultural suicide by demographic transformation must end.”
In explainer on white nationalism last year, Eric Kaufmann, a professor of politics at Birkbeck University in London, told the New York Times the ideology centers around intertwining national identity with ethnicity and the belief that whites should preserve a demographic, social and political majority.
Yet more than five hours after King issued his remarks, most of King’s Republican congressional colleagues were conspicuously quiet. Rep. Pat Garofalo of the Minnesota’s statehouse appeared to be the lone Republican to condemn King, whom he said was a “fake conservative” and a “fake Republican.”
Democrats like Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.) and Evan McMullin, the former Independent presidential candidate from Utah, called King out on his endorsement of white nationalism.
Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean (D) was not so much outraged as he was dismissive of King, whom he called an “ignoramus” who nobody takes seriously.
The one person who did take King’s words to heart and applauded them was former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard David Duke ― a figure who’s arguably the strongest litmus test for whether a political position or worldview is on the wrong side of history.
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Source: HuffPost Black Voices