For every one that's a valedictorian, there's another 100 out there that they weigh 130 pounds and they've got calves the size of cantaloupes because they're hauling 75 pounds of marijuana across the desert. Those people would be legalized with the same act.
That was U.S. Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) in an interview with Newsmax last week regarding his opposition to allowing undocumented youth a pathway toward U.S. citizenship. If Rep. King simply opened his mouth and inserted his foot, at least he wouldn't be able to utter a word. Instead, King's modus operandi is to stereotype, scapegoat, and offend entire groups of people while simultaneously embarrassing his constituents, the state of Iowa, the national Republican Party, and the United States in its dealings with nations around the world.
Before I moved from Iowa this past May, though Steve King was elected in my congressional district, he certainly did not represent me, nor did he serve anyone else, including the good people who, for some unfathomable reason, voted for him.
King not only recently equated undocumented youth with drug-hauling pack mules but has repeatedly represented people south of the U.S. border as other forms of animal life. For example, referring to the border fence, he said:
We could also electrify this wire with the kind of current that would not kill somebody, but it would simply be a discouragement for them to be fooling around with it. We do that with livestock all the time.
You put out a beacon like the Statue of Liberty, and who comes here? The most vigorous from every country that has donated legal immigrants to the United States of America. We got the cream of the crop. We've always had bird dogs around our place. Right now in our family there's a black lab, a white lab, and a yellow lab, and my brother has a chocolate lab. You go in and you look at a litter of pups, and you watch them. You watch how they play, and they run around a little bit. And what do you want? You want a good bird dog, and you want one that's gonna be aggressive? Pick the one that's the friskiest, the one that's engaged the most, and not the one that's over there sleeping in the corner. ... You get the pick of the litter, and you got yourself a pretty good bird dog.
King showed his hand on how he considers people who are different from him when speaking to supporters on Aug. 21, 2012, at a town hall meeting in Le Mars, Iowa, when he argued that the promotion of the concept of multiculturalism will ultimately bring about the demise of the United States as we know it. King spoke of a supposed deep-seated and sinister plot to ensnare young and impressionable first-year college students into campus multicultural groups for the purpose of turning them into victims, which will convince them to work toward the eventual overthrow of the social and political power structure. King talked about checking out Iowa State University's website some time ago while preparing for a debate on that campus on the concept of multiculturalism. He stated:
I typed in "multicultural," and it came back to me, at the time, 59 different multicultural groups listed to operate on campus at Iowa State. ... And most of them were victims' groups, victimology, people that feel sorry for themselves.
He warned that these groups are "out there recruiting our young people to be part of the group that feels sorry for themselves," adding:
Think of 59 card tables set up across the parking lot on the way to the dorm. ... And the first group says, 'Well, you're a victim that fits us. We want to help you. Why don't you join us?' ... And then you're brought into a group of people that have a grievance against society rather than understand that there's a tremendous blessing in this society.
Though King attended Northwest Missouri State University from 1967 to 1970, taking courses toward a career as a wildlife officer, he never completed his degree. His political career officially began when he won election to the Iowa Senate, sitting from 1996 to 2002. While there, he was instrumental in passing the law making English the "official" language of Iowa. He then ran for and was elected to the U.S. House of Representative in 2002, where he sits on the Committee on Agriculture and the Committee on the Judiciary, including on the latter's Subcommittee on the Constitution and Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, Refugees, Border Security, and International Law, which he vice-chairs. He also chairs the House of Representatives' Conservative Opportunity Society, a powerful caucus. While in public office, he has consistently taken stands championed by the political right, opposing affirmative action for women and minoritized people, marriage equality for same-sex couples, women's reproductive rights, and gun control, among others.
Over the past few years, the so-called "birther movement," whose views Rep. King has publicly endorsed, has tirelessly worked to define President Barack Obama as an "other" by attempting to deny our president the right of self-definition -- an apparent contradiction within a political party that emphasizes rugged individualism, freedom, and liberty to live one's life as one sees fit. During a town hall meeting in August 2012, King made the absurd accusation that although his staff had found Barack Obama's birth announcement in two separate Hawaiian newspapers, "That doesn't mean there aren't some other explanations on how they might've announced that by telegram from Kenya."
While Obama was running for the presidential nomination in 2008, King also asserted:
When you think about the optics of a Barack Obama potentially getting elected president of the United States, I mean, what does this look like to the rest of the world? What does it look like to the world of Islam? I will tell you that if he is elected president, then the radical Islamists, the al-Qaeda, the radical Islamists and their supporters will be dancing in the streets in greater numbers than they did on Sept. 11, because they will declare victory in this war on terror.
While the late-night comedians are having a field day with the Anthony Weiner scandal, and the political pundits' calls for him to leave the New York City mayoral campaign are growing louder, citing the embarrassment he is causing the residents of that great city thanks to his numerous sexual transgressions and extreme lack of judgment, I would add another politician to the list of those who should bow out: Steve King, a sitting congressman, should vacate his office before he commits further, and possibly irreversible, damage to his constituents, his home state, his party, his country, and, ultimately, himself.