You gotta see this. Scott Baugh, the valueless kleptocrat whom Republicans are counting on to take back Katie Porter’s abandoned seat in Congress, said at the “International Christian Ambassadors Association” (in June, but normal people are just now hearing about it) that “WOKE-ISM,” whatever that is, is the “greatest threat this nation has ever faced.” Feast your sensibilities:

Literally. Looks like these right-wing “Christian ambassadors” put this up themselves, they were so taken by it. (Or should I say, “taken in?”)

“We were born in the Revolutionary War. We survived civil wars, World War II, World War I, a lot of wars, 9/11. None of those were that threatening to our country compared to the war that we’re fighting now. That war is about woke-ism and the lack of common sense. That woke-ism ― it’s communism, woke-ism, whatever you want to call it…”

Aside from you know this phony doesn’t even believe this shit, “woke-ism” and “communism” are interchangeable? “Whatever you want to call it.” “The lack of common sense.” That’s too stupid to even bother with, but let’s take him at his word, that “woke-ism,” defined as “a view on the left that racism, sexism and other forms of prejudice are ubiquitous and intersecting sources of oppression in American society and that combating those forces requires vigilance and identity-conscious policies,” is …

A bigger threat than Imperial Britain

Armed with a vision of pride and liberty, our Founding Fathers waged a rash, longshot War of Independence against the World’s Greatest Navy. Oddsmakers called it suicide. We lost 6800 lives in those 8 years, which doesn’t sound like a lot, but it was 1% of our population, which’d be two and a half million dead Americans today.

And we BARELY won that, with the invaluable help of the French. It was close – we coulda stayed a colony for who knows how much longer, subject to the rages and whims of that distant foggy isle. After Yorktown though we could hold our heads high, and start to work on a living Constitution, that has adapted and progressed over the centuries and which is the envy of the nations.

But none of this was such a big deal to Scott, compared to the danger of finding “Heather Has Two Mommies” in our kids’ libraries. You just know Scott woulda been a TORY anyway – that’s where the money and the safety was. Too bad we can’t watch him scurrying away to Canada with his tail between his legs, eh?

Bigger than the Civil War to end Slavery

Black slavery was a cancer on this country for 400 years. But the economy of the South was dependent on it, as were a lot of Northern businessmen as well, who sort of remind me of Scott Baugh. As the writing on the wall became clearer with the election of Abe Lincoln, the South felt their “peculiar institution” threatened and seceded from the Union, an outcome that Honest Abe WOULD NOT ACCEPT.

So the four-year Civil War ensued, in which we lost 620,000 Americans (on both sides) – more than in any other war before or since – for the twin goals of ending the scourge of slavery and preserving our nation as a union.

Small potatoes though to Scott Baugh, compared to kids being forced to LEARN and READ BOOKS about all that.

A bigger threat than Fascism and WWII

As Hitler began his rampages across Europe, a lot of American industrialists – Scott Baugh types – urged that we form an alliance with the dictator – a lot of profit could be seen in doing business with European fascists. FDR was dead-set against that, itching instead to take up arms against the encroaching Axis. You don’t read about it in American history books, but these industrialists had a coup planned to take power from our President and turn us into a Nazi-allied corporatocracy. This sinister plot was exposed and foiled by the great General Smedley Butler.

Then the unprovoked Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor (which killed 2403 Americans) solidified public opinion behind FDR and against the Axis powers, and young American men signed up in droves to go fight the fascists. We lost 418,500 Americans in that war, the Great War to prevent a fascist Europe and Asia. Men are still alive who fought in that war. I wonder what they think about this Congressional candidate, Scott Baugh, who thinks that the cretins who banned Art Spiegelman’s MAUS are doing more important work to protect this nation than they did.

Bigger than 9/11 and Terrorism

We ALL remember the trauma of losing nearly 3000 people in the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, an attack from angry Islamic fundamentalists with some legitimate foreign policy grievances combined with a puritan loathing of our freedom-loving sensual American lifestyle. In the years since we have lost many thousands of lives in attempts, well and ill-advised, to tamp down on this threat from Islamic terrorists.

I was just thinking though, how these same angry Islamic fundamentalists would agree whole-heartedly with Scott Baugh that losing a few thousand lives here on earth is NOTHING, compared to the threat of allowing a comfortable welcoming environment for gay and transgendered people. Terrorist fist-bump, Scott!

A bigger threat than the Trump Cult’s threat to Democracy

Funny, if you asked me about the biggest current threat to our nation, I would have gone with all the attempts to subvert our democracy, as Scott’s ONCE Grand Old Party becomes a Cult of Trump, most evident in the insurrection of January 6, 2021, but consisting of more subversive tentacles, in every state, than we can count.

Scott can’t say that, even if he MAYBE half believes it, or he could lose some Trump-tard votes. But he CAN find an existential threat to American freedom in the proliferation of same-sex bathrooms.

Who needs the Military?

A corollary of Scott’s craven pandering is that the heroic sacrifices of our military over the centuries is really not such a big deal, as the “threats” they protected us from were NOTHING compared to “woke-ism” or “communism” or “lack of common sense” or “whatever you want to call it.”

In Scott’s view of things, the REAL heroes in this country, our REAL last line of defense, are freaky-ass school boards like the ones we have in Orange, Placentia and Temecula, the knuckle-dragging parents that come to make noise at those meetings, and the inbred state legislatures vying with each other to make life miserable for as many unpopular minorities as possible. Thank YOU all for your service!

A bigger threat than CLIMATE CHANGE.

Praise the Lord, this polar bear is “marked SAFE from WOKE-ISM!”

A bigger threat than GUN VIOLENCE.

Marked SAFE from CRITICAL RACE THEORY!

And this phony doesn’t even believe this shit.

Scott Baugh is a worldly Newport Beach mover and shaker who probably can’t even count all his gay friends. But he’ll say whatever he thinks he needs to to get enough votes to wedge his lardy ass into a Congressional seat.

The one time I ever stood next to him (at a 2011 Fair Board meeting, when he was still OC GOP chairman and some business interests of his were being threatened by the new Fair Board), the “irrepressible” Barbara Venezia was trying to get him to answer a question: “What is the Republican position on ‘CAN THE GAY BE PRAYED AWAY?‘” As I wrote at the time, he looked like he had swallowed a hummingbird. He knew the correct answer but he couldn’t risk scandalizing the homophobes in the OCGOP’s already-shrinking coalition. “Barbara, why do you put me in this position?” Then he glowered over at me, whom he vaguely knew to be some kind of “blogger” and snapped, “Do you mind, I’m trying to have a private conversation with my friend.”

Scott Baugh KNOWS that “woke-ism or communism or lack of common sense or whatever you want to call it” is not ANY kind of threat to America, let alone the “greatest ever.” But he figures that’s what he has to say to a gaggle of right-wing Christians. Well, I hope he gets a RON DE SANTIS-sized bump out of that!

Weiss, Min, you’re up!