Among the Republican members of Congress who used their inherent loathsomeness to shoot to fame, who never turn down a Fox News hit or a chance to tweet something racist or inflammatory, there is one who stands out as the shittiest among the shitty.
This MAGA Mutt may be dumber than Jim Jordan, crazier than Marjorie Taylor Greene and fouler than Louie Gohmert, yet he has somehow flown beneath the radar of the national press.
That’s Paul Gosar (D, for dentist) of Arizona, though the American Dental Association has published numerous letters from dentists disavowing him. Dentists think Gosar is bad for their brand.
Of course, Gosar was right there in the group of Republicans who floated the idea of an America First caucus last week, because the existing Freedom Caucus just isn’t racist and reactionary enough for them. The new caucus was going to embrace all 88 white supremacy buzz words, if you catch my drift, including “European architecture” according to a bizarre draft statement that declared “America is a nation with a border, and a culture, strengthened by a common respect for uniquely Anglo-Saxon political traditions.”
You know the caucus was stupid because Gohmert, who may be the dumbest member of Congress, said it would focus on issues, “that will sustain us for the future.” You know, like European architecture and pushing the big lie about election fraud. He was joined by such luminaries as Greene, the Congresswoman from Q who has nothing to do but stir shit since she’s been removed from her committees, and Matt Gaetz, a creep so creepy even Trump doesn’t want to speak up for him.
Rep. Dentist, who said he knew nothing about this new Naz--oops, America First caucus until reading about it as Greene and others ran away from their own idea, but pledged he “will continue to work on America First issues in the House Freedom Caucus.” You know, America first issues like worshipping Trump, dogwhistling or sometimes plain old whistling racism, and screaming about imaginary voter fraud.
The Anglo-Saxon alliance Greene had planned wasn’t Gosar’s first puff of overt white supremacy. Gosar spoke at white supremacist Nicholas Fuentes’ America First Political Action Conference, which is most famous for hosting now ousted white supremacist Rep. Steve King and being banned from almost all major social media platforms. The day after that, Gosar showed up at CPAC, which used to be THE crazy show but is outright moderate compared to AFPAC, and did the literal least he could do by denouncing “white racism.” He said, boldly, “that’s not appropriate.”
His “ask me why I’m talking about white racism” T-shirt had people asking lots of questions.
Spoiler alert: The dentist who stands besides racists is pro-insurrection. He joined fellow terrible Reps. Mo Brooks and Andy Biggs to speak at the “stop the steal rally” that immediately preceded the armed insurrection at the Capitol. In fact, many of the same people who were at that rally then marched down to storm the Capitol. The rally was planned by serial schemer Ali Alexander, who claimed in a now deleted Periscope video that he and Gosar along with Biggs and Brooks had organized the rally: “We four schemed up of putting maximum pressure on Congress while they were voting.”
To put that into a coherent sentence: They tried to overturn the election because their guy didn’t win.
Dentists aren’t the only ones who want nothing to do with Gosar. “He is, in my opinion, about as despicable a politician as I have ever seen,” one of his sisters said. A brother said “Paul has no character, no integrity, no honor and is absolutely (as) close as you get to a pathological liar.”
They didn’t mutter that under their breath or say it as a cocktail party. The other Gosars are committed to campaigning against this man they know well. In an advertisement airing on Fox, sister, Jennifer, took it a step further, saying, "There is no one member of Congress more responsible for the attack on the Capitol than Congressman Paul Gosar."
Least you think this is a new thing, Gosar has always been this way. In 2017 he said the Charlottesville rally was “created by the left,” and that “George Soros is one of those individuals that helps back these individuals.” Later, Gosar retweeted a bogus claim from racist Rep. Steve King that Soros’ son was the whistleblower who exposed the Ukraine shakedown call that led to Trump’s second impeachment. And, during the impeachment, Gosar put out what seemed like a regular, raving 23-tweet thread until someone realized the first letter of each tweet spelled out “Epstein didn’t kill himself.”
But the Republican Party just doesn’t care, certainly not enough to do anything about it. Steve King was stripped of his committee assignments by Republicans for going openly white nationalist. But that was then, this now, as the GOP complained bitterly about Greene getting punished by Democrats, and have kept Matt Gaetz on the judiciary committee and Gosar, too, remains a member in good standing.
The Republican Party can’t be bothered any more to police its own, or to pretend to care about decency, democracy or equality. They’re too busy being mad about the shoes and the imagined canceling of Dr. Seuss.
