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GOP's Anti-Immigrant Leader, Steve King, Finds Something New To Attack: The Civil Rights Act

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We’re getting the distinct impression that Rep. Steve King doesn’t like legislation that benefits people of color.

King is infamous for his attacks on immigrants. But, now it appears that Steve King is claiming that the 1964 Civil Rights Act was a bad thing – for purely political reasons.

That seemed to be the sentiment, after the GOP’s most notorious anti-immigrant hardliner and Calves-Inspector-in-Chief told a conservative radio host that President Obama was, through his 2014 immigration actions, “importing” millions of “lawless” “illegal aliens” in order to create a voting bloc for Democrats.

Attacking immigrants has long been King’s trademark crusade in Congress. But his repugnant diatribe on the 1964 Civil Rights Act — landmark legislation stemming from the historic movement demanding the equal and fair treatment of disenfranchised African-Americans — is an ugly low.

From Buzzfeed:

Republican Rep. Steve King says President Obama’s executive action on immigration was done to create an entire class of voters for the Democratic Party. King, an immigration-hardliner from Iowa, says Obama’s move is reminiscent of African-Americans voting for Democrats in large numbers following the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

“To put it simply, the President is importing millions of illegal aliens who when they arrive here he thinks, and he’s right, they are undocumented Democrats, and so the next phase of this is to document these Democrats so they can vote,” King told the Virginia radio program, the John Fredericks Show on Thursday.

[…]

“This is the President of the United States trying to stack the electorate with millions of people, lawlessly bringing them into the United States of America and giving them a presence here, and thinking and realizing that the longer you can keep them here the less likely it is that they will go home,” added King.

[…]

“And they will see Barack Obama and his party are the beneficiaries, that they are the beneficiaries of his lawlessness. They don’t understand the law, they come from lawless countries. So they’re not at all likely to defend our Constitution or the rule of law. They take an oath to it when they are, when they are naturalized, and I speak at those services as often as I can.”

First of all, immigrant families eligible for work permits and protection from deportation under DACA and 2014’s immigration actions can’t vote. That’s something only Congress can ultimately address, and, last year, House Republicans refused to let such legislation come to the floor for a vote. But in King’s twisted mind, even the mere notion that one day those immigrants could potentially be able to vote is abhorrent to him.

But, as Buzzfeed notes, apparently attacking DREAMers and immigrant parents hasn’t been enough. King takes his fear-mongering a step further, suggesting that the civil rights legislation that granted African-Americans easier access to the ballot box and the basic human dignity of eating at a lunch counter without fear of discrimination has been harmful to the country:

King said Obama’s action would create a “massive electorate” that votes for Democrats the same way the 1964 Civil Rights Act made African-Americans vote for Democrats.

“It erodes the politics of this country, the respect for the rule of law, and it creates this massive electorate that will likely vote in large numbers for Barack Obama and his party, just like African Americans have done so after Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act, which by the way took the majority of Republicans in the House and Senate to make sure that that passed.”

Republicans like to pretend that King is some sort outlier who doesn’t represent their party’s thinking. But it’s been King’s stuck-on-repeat agenda to deport DREAMers — legitimized by the GOP House leaders who keep allowing his amendments to come to the House floor for a vote — that’s become the GOP’s sole immigration platform. Now he’s attacking African-American voters, too.

In the last Presidential election, Mitt Romney won just 27% of the Latino vote, a landslide defeat. That is, until you see how much of the African-American vote Romney managed to win: a mere 6%. If Latinos handed Republicans a landslide loss in 2012, then it can only be said that African-American voters handed Republicans a complete and total repudiation.

King sets the House GOP’s agenda on immigration. And, he hosted Iowa’s first forum for 2016 GOP presidential candidates. It’s proof positive King sees no repercussions for his bad behavior. Instead, he’s consistently rewarded for his anti-immigrant rants. But, any Republicans still concerned about national relevancy should be very concerned about continuing to keep King as the party’s unofficial mouthpiece.

After all, the very same voters King ceaselessly attacks shut the door on Republicans in 2012, and they can do it again in 2016, and by even more extraordinary numbers, too. If Republicans and their calves aren’t shaking in their boots by now, they better be soon.