WHAT A DIFFERENCE A COUPLE OF YEARS MAKE

I would wager that few, maybe none, remember the name Arthur Jones, or, more formally, Arthur J. Jones. Do you?

In 2018 -- seems like  decades ago, doesn't it -- Arthur J. Jones got enough signatures on nominating petitions to run in the Republican primary for Congress in Illionois' 3rd Congressional District. Although Jones was a constant failed candidate in election after election, there was no contest on the GOP side in that primary. So, only later, when the press began to dig, was it "discovered" that Arthur J. Jones was a Neo-Nazi, a Holocaust denier (the Holocaust, he ranted, "...the biggest, blackest lie in history") and an endorser of Lewis Farrakhan. An all-around Nazi.

Then, Jones had publicly endorsed Donald Trump, but after the 2018 Primary, the Illinois GOP made its position clear:"We condemn this candidate and his hateful rhetoric in the strongest possible terms" and called him a "fake Republican." The party ran ads demanding "Say No to the Nazi" and called on him to resign from the race.

The 3rd Congressional District is almost 80% white, located in the suburban areas adjacent to Chicago's Southwest side. In the general election, Jones finished 3rd in a two-person race -- Republicans worked hard to assure his defeat. Jones still received 25% of the total vote.

That was then; and this is now.

In the 2020 Election, among others running as Republicans were two -- now already infamous -- Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert -- who claim to represent Districts in Georgia and Colorado respectively, but are really the Congresspersons from QAnon. These are a gruesome twosome whose rhetoric and actions are not just anti-democratic, they appear to be uniformly criminal. Their rhetoric "...is steeped in racist and anti-semitic tropes"(one of these whackjobs publicly accused Jews using laser guns funded by the Rothschild's to start the California wildfires) and, they appear to have been active seditionists around January 6.  In 2017 the Illinois Republican Party ran Arthur J. Jones and assured his political burial; in 2021 the Minority Leader promised he would "talk with" these two miscreants -- as if that would do any good at all.

And, the Republican Jewish Coalition??? "Fostering & Enhancing Ties Between the American Jewish Community & Republican Lawmakers" as  is their stated purpose -- seem to have neither interest nor influence to rid the party they support of these vipers...or even offer their criticism. They appear to exist today only to support the immediate past-President. Shame on them. Well, shame on me. JTA published an article quoting the RJC as having condemned the anti-semitism of these clowns as "indefensible." My apologies.

Arthur J. Jones ran in the Republican Party Primary once again in 2020. He finished third and last, actively opposed by Illinois Republicans.

Rwexler