Texas Teaparty official was officially the Director of Propaganda for the American Fascist Party.
“James Ives, a prominent Tea Party activist who has hosted statewide rallies and political debates and has been a regular contributor on conservative radio, was the AFP’s fourth in command, commenting about the party’s principles on a fascist message board. An image of Ives in what appears to be a black uniform with yellow shoulder patches can be seen in a 2006 promotional video for the party.”
Who woulda thunk that a Texas Teabagger was also a prominent fascist? I mean besides everybody?
Anyway, Ive’s trying all the tricks in the book to distance himself from his own recent past. From claiming he was going under cover to blow the lid off of it, to saying it was just research for his novel (never written). So he’s kinda twisting in the wind. But some of his quotes on the Fascist bulletin board show us the sort of novelist lurks within:
“It will be our greatest challenge, and our sweetest victory, to finally surpass this dark menace, this numbing threat from the shadows, and replace it with the pure sunbeam that is our Fascist Faith, our Fascist Truth.”
That’s some mighty fine writin’.
Anyway, the fun part of the article is how Texas’ GOP is now running away from him:
State Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston, whose radio station has regularly hosted Ives’ political commentaries in recent years, said that if his past connections to the American Fascist Party were legitimate, the station would no longer put him on air. Patrick said Ives had “never been on our payroll, never been an employee.” He called the promotional video and online postings “very disturbing, no matter how far in the past it is.”
[snip]
State Rep. Rick Miller, R-Sugar Land, who spoke at an event for the Greater Fort Bend County Tea Party last week, said he first heard about Ives’ possible connections to fascism on Friday, in a meeting of concerned conservatives. “It does sound like something worth following up on,” he said.
Debra Medina, a well-known Tea Party activist who ran against Gov. Rick Perry in the 2010 Republican primary, said she isn’t familiar with Ives and isn’t in a position to judge his dealings with the fascist group. But she said part of the challenge of working with the grassroots is that it’s “so hard to know who you’re working with sometimes.”
“Even with the best intentions — and I can speak from my own experience — you can be judged by those who work around you and are supportive of you,” she said. “It tends to tarnish the work that others are doing, and cause people to go, ‘Here we go again.’”
As the sainted Molly Ivin used to tell us, you gotta dance with them what brung you, fellas. Good luck with that outreach thingie.
(Texas Tribune via Scissorhead Skinny-D)
