If you ever just pick a judicial candidate randomly at the polling place -- I mean who really knows one from the other, right -- I hope that after you read this, you'll never do it again. On page 7 of the Los Angeles "Official Sample Ballot" for next Tuesday's primary is a race for Judge of the Superior Court (Office number 125). The contest hasn't gotten much publicity. But I want you to read this:
"No person shall be a citizen of the United States unless he is a non-Hispanic white of the European race, in whom there is no ascertainable trace of Negro blood, nor more than one-eighth Mongolian, Asian, Asia Minor, Middle Eastern, Semitic, Near Eastern, American Indian, Malay or other non-European or non-white blood, provided that Hispanic whites, defined as anyone with an Hispanic ancestor, may be citizens if, in addition to meeting the aforesaid ascertainable trace and percentage tests, they are in appearance indistinguishable from Americans whose ancestral home is in the British Isles or Northwestern Europe. Only citizens shall have the right and privilege to reside permanently in the United States."
The man who wrote that-- a proposed constitutional amendment-- is asking for our votes for the Superior Court. His name-- well he has many names-- is Bill Johnson. He also goes by the names William Daniel Johnson, Daniel Johnson and James O. Pace. He's an attorney, a Mormon, and, as you may have concluded, a white supremacist (and Ron Paulista). The paragraph comes from his 1985 book, Amendment to the Constitution-- Averting The Decline And Fall Of America in which he urges the repeal of the 14th (which defines citizenship as well as due process and equal protection under the law) and 15th (which guarantees voting rights for all citizens) Amendments. He advocates deporting tens of millions of Americans within one year. That would include... well, read his little amendment again. American Indians, Eskimos, Hawaiians won't be citizens and won't be deported to "their countries of origin" -- but they'll have to live on reservations.
This isn't Johnson's first bid for elective office. When Dick Cheney resigned from Congress to become Secretary of Defense in 1989, Johnson ran for his House seat in Wyoming. He didn't win although a GOP front group publication, All the Way, strongly backed him.
"The strongest pro-majority campaign in the nation is mounting here with far-reaching implications. Congressional candidate Daniel Johnson is being blasted as a 'white supremacist' because he favors repatriating non-whites to Africa and scrapping affirmative action programs.
"Johnson, 34, seeking the post vacated by now-Secretary of Defense Richard Chaney [sic], is a smart Harvard-law grad who persuasively articulates the pro-gun, pro-family, pro-American position. He is a dedicated anti-communist with many youthful supporters."
He also ran for Congress in Arizona in 2006, trying to sneak into the Democratic primary. Like Joe Lieberman and Zell Miller, he claimed, rather outrageously, to be a "traditional Democrat" who was abandoned by the Democratic Party. Blue Dog Gabby Giffords won the primary with 54.1% of the vote. Johnson managed to get 3.0%. Giffords went on to beat Randy Graf, a Republican extremist with similar-- albeit somewhat less extreme-- views to Johnson's.
Aside from being active in Ron Paul's campaign, he is also a Minuteman activist and exactly the kind of person made to feel empowered by CNN's vicious daily broadcasts by resident xenophobe Lou Dobbs. Johnson's campaign manager, Holly Clearman, is also state coordinator for the Ron Paul for President campaign and is herself is a candidate for the Republican L.A. County Central Committee. They are counting on well-organized Paulistas to put him over the top. I recently sat next to one on an airplane; very nice, polite guy, even if he was, politically speaking, quite the brainwashed little zombie. This is the kind of low-turnout, low interest election where he and his energetic Meet Up buddies could make all the difference in the world. Fortunately, there are legal community newspapers that actually do the research on judicial candidates. In L.A. we have the Metropolitan News Enterprise, which dug up a lot of the facts on Johnson's multiple identities.
UPDATE: LET'S HOPE ALL THE LITTLE ZOMBIES FIND OUT BY TUESDAY
Ron Paul just withdrew his endorsement of this loon.