It was one year ago that “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” had its first profile of the sitting U.S. House Representative for Georgia’s 11th Congressional District, Barry Loudermilk, who after serving in the Georgia state legislature for about eight years. Loudermilk defeated a clown car full of several Republicans in the primary for his seat in the 2014 elections to replace Phil Gingrey . Before Loudermilk was even sworn in to serve in the House, he was hanging out with the Family Research Council on their program as well, being interviewed by the running joke about hypocrisy that is Josh Duggar, where Loudermilk lamented the suffering he and his fellow Christians have had to endure as “the left in America have so badly damaged the holiday of Christmas”. Loudermilk was quickly hot-shotted to be the GOP’s new head of the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee after being sworn in. and became the latest in a list of Republicans who seemed like they were given the job ironically when at his first town hall, Rep. Loudermilk was asked by a constituent if vaccines are linked to autism and he began boasting that he hadn’t vaccinated his children. After this unprecedented gaffe, there were even Republican strategists calling for Loudermilk’s resignation. This was in his SECOND MONTH on the job. The crazy part, though, is that isn’t even the weirdest exchange from the town hall. Oh, no. Because for whatever reason, Loudermilk started discussing immigration with another constituent, who suggested the United States should “learn something from Afghanistan and start putting IUDs in the ground”. Now, that’s a weird idea for two reasons… the first being that she probably didn’t mean IUDs, which are a form of birth control, but probably meant IEDs, or “improvised explosive devices”. That seemed to be how Loudermilk interpreted her suggestion, to which he only objected because AMERICANS might get hurt. Any Mexican children that might find one of these rigged charges? Serves ‘em right for sniffing a chunk of real estate in the land of the free, man! But in that disastrous town hall, Loudermilk clearly wasn’t misspeaking when he voiced his fears that the Muslim Brotherhood has infiltrated the American government enough that they have gained access to the White House. He went on to elaborate and say that the Republican caucus of the House looked at ways to arrest Attorney General Eric Holder, before insinuating that the Council on American-Islamic Relations was a Muslim Brotherhood offshoot. In March 2016, right on the heels of the terror attacks in Brussels, Loudermilk spoke before the House and explained what the real problem in winning the war on terror was… “political correctness”, which he felt was actually killing Americans, because we are too afraid to hurt the feelings of terrorists. At Loudermilk’s next town hall in July of 2015, he responded to the news of the massacre at the Emanuel AME Church, and how as a result, the South Carolina state legislature had voted to take down the Confederate flag in there state capitol. Well, apparently David Barton’s tendency to re-write false histories is contagious, and Barry Loudermilk has also caught that disease. You see, as Loudermilk explained, the shooting was actually motivated by anti-Christian hate (and not racism, like Dylann Roof actually was). Instead, Loudermilk pivoted the talk to being about gay marriage, comparing it to slavery by saying, “Hey, it was the Supreme Court’s opinion that Dred Scott and slavery was okay, did they get that right?” While his voting record might not stretch on that long, Loudermilk has already voted to defund the Department of Homeland Security over President Obama’s delayed deportation orders on immigration, voted to try and defund Planned Parenthood based on the “sting” videos provided by the Center for Medical Progress, and voted to try and block Syrian refugees from being resettled in the United States by supporting the SAFE Act.
Since we last covered the adventures of Barry Loudermilk, we’ll note he was hanging out with anti-Islamic lunatic Frank Gaffney on his radio show to fear-monger about Muslim refugees. Georgia’s 11th Congressional District has a +19 lean in the Cook Partisan Voting Index, so once Loudermilk survived the GOP Primary for his seat with 60% of the vote, he easily coasted back to Washington for a second term in office. The biggest difference between Loudermilk in the last Congress and this one is that now he’s on the Financial Services Committee, so he has whole new issues to be clueless on (and presumably more back door deals to swing for Wall Street executives). That’s even more terrifying because Loudermilk is even opposed to the Fiduciary Rule, and co-sponsored a resolution to state disapproval with it.
Factoring in Loudermilk’s opposition to prohibiting government funds can be used for discriminating against LGBT citizens, as well as the fact that he failed to even show up to vote for funding to prevent the spread of the Zika Virus (way to be Pro-Life and make sure fetuses stay healthy, Barry) and this guy proves to be an utter failure as a legislator. (You must be shocked.)
We’re going to continue to monitor Barry Loudermilk, especially to see how he votes on the attempt to repeal the ACA going on right now as a member of the House Freedom Caucus. And that vote could make him a vulnerable incumbent in a primary in 2018…
One Year Ago, March 31st, 2016: Barry Loudermilk (GA)… Original Profile
Two Years Ago, March 31st, 2015: Randy Brogdon (OK)