On this day in both 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020, that “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” presented a profile of the sitting U.S. House Representative from Texas’ 31st Congressional District, John Carter, now in his eighth term in Washington, coming into office back in 2002 after spending two decades as a district court judge in the Lone Star state. Due to the extensive bounty of Texas Republicans out there exhibiting obvious signs of mental deficiency or psychological imbalance out there, you might not have heard much about Rep. Carter. Well, that and when you do a Google search of “John Carter” you either get news about a movie that completely tanked at the box office, or art inspired from the book it’s based on featuring a shirtless guy posing with a scantily clad Martian woman wrapped demurely around his leg. I’ll wait a moment while everyone tests that fact to ogle some cheesecake and/or beefcake.
Okay, back to Congressman Carter, now. Our main objection to John Carter being in Congress is not just that he opposes climate change, but to the extent that he does. He actually thinks a phenomenon proven by the great majority of scientific studies is just the result of some massive campaign to trick the populace into supporting it:
“Global warming is simply a chicken-little scheme to use mass media and government propaganda to convince the world that destruction of individual liberties and national sovereignty is necessary to save mankind, and that the unwashed masses would destroy themselves without the enlightened global dictatorship of these frauds.“
And that’s right off his campaign website. If that quote alone doesn’t show you how deep he’s into the cause of climate change denial, feel free to read some of his other comments from the Congressional record on January 24th, 2011.
John Carter was also a huge proponent of the 2013 Government Shutdown, and he was in full spin mode in the build up to it, trying to convince the American people that his cause was noble, and if he didn’t bring the federal government to a screeching halt, and the Affordable Care Act was allowed to go forward, that all would be lost:
“We must postpone this overreaching and damaging law that I believe will bankrupt the hard-working every day American.”
One of the things about John Carter that we find unsettling, though, is that he is the Chairman of the Homeland Security Appropriations Committee, and one of his responsibilities is preventing cyberterrorism. It’s quite troublesome that Rep. Carter cannot even pronounce the word ”cyber“, admits ”I don’t know anything about this stuff“, and then proceeds to try and conduct a hearing to discuss encryption where he would demonstrate how much of an understatement that really was. Now in his mid-seventies, John Carter doesn’t “get” technology, and doesn’t seem to be in any hurry to figure it out, with our national security hanging in the balance.
While the rest of Carter’s opinion on national security past that, of course, is to keep out all immigrants and refugees, and his voting record since hitting office has been highly partisan, supporting a resolution towards creating a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage, against the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”, voted against equal pay, a woman’s right to choose, against Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform, for the 2013 Government Shutdown and against reopening the government after it was over.
As his voting record goes on…
- December 3rd, 2019: Rep. Carter can’t even be bothered to show up to vote for a resolution to disallow Russia from re-entering the G7 and makes it the G8 until it leaves Ukraine.
- December 18th, 2019: Carter ignores his Congressional duty to hold a president who has been proven to commit high crimes and misdemeanors accountable and votes against the first impeachment of Donald Trump.
- May 15th, 2020: Carter decides to stay home rather than show up to vote for the HEROES Act, to further support the healthcare industry and citizens affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.
- January 6th, 2021: John Carter votes for the objection to the electoral college’s votes in the 2020 election, a failure to send any sort of message that he wasn’t intimidated or sympathetic to those who attacked the Capitol to attempt a violent coup.
- January 13th, 2021: Rep. Carter votes against the second impeachment of Donald Trump, because the Republican Party no longer feels like they should be accountable for anything, including failed coups that result in the deaths of both their participants and police officers.
- February 4th, 2021: John Carter votes to keep Marjorie Taylor Greene’s committee assignments, because he wouldn’t want her to be accountable for all the bigoted reDons and conspiracy theories she’s spread online (probably because she’s a kindred spirit).
- February 25th, 2021: Carter doesn’t ever bother to vote on HR 5, the latest version of the Equality Act, that would provide workplace protections for LGBTQ Americans.
- March 3rd, 2021: Rep. Carter doesn’t bother to vote on HR 1, a bill created to prevent the corruption of money in politics, and protect voter access to the ballot box.
- March 3rd, 2021: John Carter votes against the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act of 2021.
- March 10th, 2021: Carter votes against the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, because he feels people deserve to die in poverty during a pandemic.
- March 17th, 2021: Rep. Carter votes against the re-authorization of the Violence Against Women Act, likely because they feel the 2nd Amendment remaining absolute is more important than preventing people with a history of domestic abuse from owning a firearm (which statistics show, makes them more likely to use those firearms against women in their lives).
- May 19th, 2021: John Carter votes against HR 3233, the creation of a commission to investigate the Capitol Attack.
He’s now 80 years old, and in 2020 won a tenth term in office with 53% of the vote. That let him be in place to spend a few days providing lip service about how much he cared about Capitol Police following the domestic terrorists who attacked them on January 6th, but then since about January 13th of this year, fighting against any investigations or consequences for anyone, including arguing that Donald Trump shouldn’t be impeached and barred from running for office again because “he only has seven days left”.
Which, indicates that Rep. Carter thinks he’s guilty as hell.
One Year Ago, August 14th, 2019: John Carter (TX)… 2020 Update Two Years Ago, August 14th, 2019: John Carter (TX)… 2019 Update
Three Years Ago, August 14th, 2018: John Carter (TX)… 2018 Update
Four Years Ago, August 14th, 2017: John Carter (TX)… 2017 Update
Five Years Ago, August 14th, 2016: John Carter (TX)… Original Profile
Six Years Ago, August 14th, 2015: Ken Cuccinelli (VA)… 2015 Update
Seven Years Ago, August 14th, 2014: Ken Cuccinelli (VA)… Original Profile