Mike’s Midterm Tsunami Truth #15
Republican candidate for Governor of Pennsylvania
(A daily dose of truth about how millions of American voters are going to crush the traitor Trumpsters on November 8th)
Well folks, we’re just 28 days away from arguably the mother of all midterms — literally a midterm election that will decide whether you’ll actually be forced to be a mother should you become pregnant.
And while the pundits are busy playing a game of whack-a-mole with your emotions, I’m here to remind you that the GOP’s slate of candidates in so many key races across the country are so extreme, so Whackadoodle, it seems like they have decided to hand the election over to the Democrats. They’ve given the majority of their own party no choice but to vote Democratic, or abstain. Which means win-win for us.
To prove it, I’ve made a list of The Top 10 Whackadoodle Republicans.
Take Trump’s fascist tendencies, add Pence’s ultra-conservative religious conviction, and sprinkle on a layer of white nationalism and you’ve got #8 on my list of the top 10 most whackadoodle Republican candidates…
8. Doug Mastriano — Republican candidate for Governor in Pennsylvania
Mastriano ticks every ‘nut’ in the nutbar.
Let’s start with an excerpt from a rapid-fire interview Mastriano did in 2018 to announce his then-candidacy for a Pennsylvania House seat:
Interviewer: Is global warming real?
Mastriano: “It is not. It’s fake science. And it’s a racket at the academic level.”
Interviewer: Should gay marriage be legal?
Mastriano: “Absolutely not. I’m for traditional marriage. And I am not a hater for saying that. It’s been like that for 6,000 years. It was the first institution founded by God in Genesis, and it needs to stay that way.”
Interviewer: Should LGBTQ couples — ie two moms or two dads — be allowed to adopt?
Mastriano: “No.”
Interviewer: Should gender identity be added to the nation’s anti-discrimination laws?
Mastriano: “Absolutely not. That’s madness.”
Interviewer: “Is Islam compatible with the Constitution?”
Mastriano: “It is not. The Constitution was founded on Christian Judeo ideas and it’s only compatible with that worldview. Guess what? Not all religions are created equal. And they all have different worldviews”
That’s just the tip of the Pennsylvania-sized iceberg.
As the New Yorker reported in a 2021 profile:
As a state Senator, “bills that Mastriano supported in the legislature would have mandated teaching the Bible in public schools.”
“He has often spread Islamophobic memes online. In one, he spread a conspiracy theory that Ilhan Omar, the Democratic congresswoman from Minnesota, directed fellow-Muslims to throw a five-year-old over a balcony. In another, he shared a graphic that read “Islam wants to kill gay rights, Judaism, Christianity and pacifism.”
And…
“At a gun-rights protest on the steps of the state capitol, he posed for pictures with white men in fatigues carrying AR-15s and several others in Hawaiian shirts, a hallmark of the Boogaloo Bois, a white-nationalist militia. In July, Mastriano attended a rally on the Gettysburg battlefield, where militia members gathered in response to a hoax circulated on social media that Antifa was going to topple Confederate statues. ‘A lot of people here just keeping an eye on stuff,’ he said. ‘Americans doing American things. Isn’t that beautiful?’”
In early July, it came out that Mastriano’s campaign made a payment of $5,000 on April 28th to the far-right social media platform Gab for “consulting services.” Gab (as you may remember from my post on Whackadoodle #9 Blake Masters) was started by white nationalist Andrew Torba to provide a safe, “censorship-free” space to share racists memes, antisemitic rants, and conspiracy theories. Torba said the money was paid for an advertising campaign. A few days later, on May 2nd, Torba released an interview with Mastriano on Gab. During their 16-min chat, Mastriano thanked Torba for creating the platform saying, “Thank God for what you’ve done.” Torba then officially endorsed Mastriano on Gab, and a late September campaign finance report revealed Torba, in July, contributed $500 to Mastriano’s campaign.
Mastriano himself joined the Gab community in February, and between February & July posted 66 times. As the local NPR station in Pittsburgh reported:
“A recent post on July 9 — a criticism of Democratic economic policies — received 157 comments. At least two dozen of those responses — the most common response by far — were antisemitic insults about state Attorney General Josh Shapiro, the Democratic candidate in the race for governor. Shapiro is Jewish.”
At the end of July, days after Torba spouted antisemitic tropes to defend Mastriano’s connection to Gab, Mastriano deleted his Gab account and finally issued a statement via Twitter:
"Andrew Torba doesn't speak for me or my campaign. I reject anti-Semitism in any form. Recent smears by the Democrats and the media are blatant attempts to distract Pennsylvanians from suffering inflicted by Democrat policies.
While extremist speech is an unfortunate but inevitable cost of living in a free society, extremist policies are not and the only candidate in this election who wants to impose extreme policies on Pennsylvania inflation, crime, lockdowns, and mandates is Josh Shapiro."
Yet, in August, Mastriano himself fueled a wildly debunked, antisemitic conspiracy theory about one of Shapiro’s donors, billionaire George Soros, in a speech posted on his campaign’s Facebook page:
“We could talk about Soros, who as a teenager collaborated with the S.S. to turn other Jews in in Hungary. They don’t want to talk about that. So who are the Nazis? It’s not us.”
Mastriano’s rhetoric likening liberals to Nazis goes way back. The Washington Post dug up the thesis paper Mastriano wrote in 2001 in which he asserts the U.S. was at the risk of what he called a leftist “Hitlerian Putsch.” As WaPo reported, “the document displays a disgust for anyone who doesn’t hold his view that homosexuality is a form of ‘aberrant sexual conduct.’”
In his primary election night address, Mastriano avowed:
“CRT is over.”
“Only biological females can play on biological females’ teams…”
And “you can only use the bathroom that your biology and anatomy says.”
In 2019, as state Senator, Mastriano sponsored a “heartbeat” bill banning abortion once a fetal heartbeat is detected — usually around 6 weeks — and said any woman who broke that law should be charged with murder. On the day SCOTUS overturned Roe, Mastriano celebrated. “Roe v. Wade is rightly relegated to the ash heap of history,” he said. “As the abortion debate returns to the states, Pennsylvania must be prepared to lead the nation in being a voice for the voiceless.”
During a campaign speech last Saturday, he pledged to give free reign on natural gas and oil drilling in the state, saying “Pennsylvania will be happy to export our freedom energy.’’
In the same speech, he rejected the idea of Pennsylvania becoming a sanctuary state, promised his administration would remove illegal immigrants, and likened COVID restrictions — including mask mandates — to the loss of freedoms resembling East Germany saying, ““I met a 17-year-old East Berliner. He was in a labor camp for two years. He said America was great … all he wanted was to be free.’’ Mastriano continued,“We take our freedoms for granted but we are starting to look like East Germany.”
In the past he called Governor Tom Wolf’s COVID public health protocols “the governor’s autocratic control over our lives.”
Like Trump, he rails against the mainstream media, and is known for blocking reporters from covering his events. And (surprise, surprise!) he is the ultimate election denier.
A leader of Pennsylvania’s “Stop the Steal” movement, in December of 2020 Mastriano attended “Jericho Marches” in Washington D.C. — gatherings organized for people like Alex Jones, white nationalists, conservative Christians, QAnon followers, Oath Keepers and others to join together and “pray, march, fast, and rally for election integrity.” Inspired, Mastriano appealed to his fellow Christian countrymen: “Do what George Washington asked us to do in 1775. Appeal to Heaven. Pray to God. We need an intervention.”
His campaign committee paid over $3,000 to charter 6 buses, and sold over 130 tickets to shuttle people to the Jan. 6 Capitol protests. While he claimed to have left the Capitol before the violence, video and images appear to show Mastriano passing a police barricade as it was being breached, on the Capitol lawn, and near the base of the Capitol steps.
He was subpoenaed by the Jan 6th committee back in February to hand over documents and information regarding an alternate elector-scheme in Pennsylvania.
I could keep going and going…
Add it all together, and you’ve got a candidate leading the charge to recalibrate the political spectrum.
“You guys think Ron DeSantis is good? Amateur,” Mastriano said at a rally back in May. “We love you, Ron, but this is Pennsylvania. This is where the light of liberty was set in 1776, where this nation was born.”
The problem is, as he’ll soon discover 4 weeks from today… the majority of Pennsylvanians in 2022 have no interest in living in his Christian nationalist state.
Stay tuned for more of the Whackadoodle 10!
ICYMI:
Mike’s Midterm Tsunami of Truths:
Truth #1: The Campaign
Truth #2: Even a kid from 4th hour Trig class can beat this crowd
Truth #3: The Haters, the Bigots and the Supremacists Always Lose in the End
Truth #4: Introducing The Whackadoodle 10
Truth #5: Trump is not the Big Bad Wolf. But he is very afraid of You.
Truth #6: The Easy-to-Digest Republican Party Platform
Truth #7: Biden, Don’t F**k with Me
Truth #8: If you’re not registered, you can’t Roe, Roe, Roe the Vote!
Truth #9: Why will we win? Because the American people hate fascism.
Truth #10: Meet Blake Masters, Whackadoodle No. 9
Truth #11: 147 Reasons We Will Win on November 8th
Truth #12: Biden just gave us a boost and a toke.
Truth #13: Women. That’s it.
Truth #14: If the Mainstream Media Thinks There’s a Chance We May Be Right about Roevember, Watch Out.
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Well done. These psychopathic fascists need to be outed. Hope your message gets the word out. Vote big D all the way!
Mastriano is insanity personified!