Washington Post: "Bishop" E.W. Jackson Is Too Extreme, Vote for Ralph Northam

A study n lunacy: Obenshain, Cuccinelli and Jackson

All three of the Republican Party of Virginia' nominees for statewide office are ideologue extremists.  None of them is fit for office outside of some far right religious organization.  Yet of the three nominees - all more or less hand picked and nominated by the theocrats at The Family Foundation who would happily overthrow the U.S. Constitution - "Bishop" E. W. Jackson, in my view, is most assuredly in need of a mental health intervention and involuntary commitment.  That someone as mentally deranged as Jackson could be nominated by a heretofore respectable political party speaks volumes about how far the Republican Party has fallen.  In an editorial, the Washington Post slams Jackson and more otr less endorses Hampton Roads' own Ralph Northam for Lt. Governor.  Here are excerpts:

TO E.W. Jackson, the Republican candidate for lieutenant governor of Virginia, Democrats are agents of the antichrist. Homosexuals are “frankly very sick people psychologically, mentally and emotionally” who “poison society” and invite God’s wrath. Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims and others who don’t follow Jesus are adherents of “false” religions. Slavery and the Ku Klux Klan were no great threat to African Americans compared to that posed by Planned Parenthood and the welfare state.

 Mr. Jackson has made demagoguery his oratorical stock in trade for some time; before mounting his current candidacy for lieutenant governor, he ran last year for the GOP nomination for the U.S. Senate.  Lately he has been trying to take it all back, insisting that his past remarks — the bit about Democrats pushing the Antichrist’s agenda was a year ago, and the disparaging remark about minority religions was this week — were simply in the context of his day job, not a reflection of his political views.

Even fellow Republicans aren’t buying his 11th-hour conversion to love, tolerance and acceptance. The National Rifle Association and some tea party types have endorsed Mr. Jackson, but other conservatives are keeping their distance. Apparently appalled by his bombast, seven of the eight Republicans in Virginia’s congressional delegation have withheld support, including Rep. Frank Wolf, who represents part of Northern Virginia.

It would be easy to ignore Virginia’s race for lieutenant governor.  . . . . But the lieutenant governor does have one important task: preside over the state Senate and cast the deciding vote in the event of a tie. 

Mr. Jackson is an embarrassment to the Republican Party, which nominated him in a sparsely attended party convention based on little more than stirring oratory. If elected, he would be an embarrassment to Virginians.

The Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor is Democratic state Sen. Ralph Northam, a pediatric neurologist. In contrast to Mr. Jackson, Mr. Northam, a fiscal conservative who represents a district encompassing parts of Hampton Roads and the Eastern Shore, is a calm, collected fellow, well respected by members of both parties. Four years ago, Republicans in Richmond tried to get him to switch parties; Mr. Northam graciously declined. Unlike his combustible opponent, Mr. Northam has a reputation for considered judgment. Wouldn’t that be a desirable quality in an elected official?

Not to sound like a broken record, but it is urgent that gays, blacks, women and other minorities go to the polls en mass on November 5th and vote against the GOP extremist.  It is the best way to send a message to the Virginia GOP and the nation as a whole that whacked religious nut cases  favored by the Christofascists and Tea Party will be DOA in general elections and, more importantly, that the Christofascists and Tea Party are no longer welcome in the GOP or anywhere else in secular society.