On this date in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, as well as 2022, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day posted profiles of the U.S. House Representative from Illinois’ 12th Congressional District, Mike Bost, a man whose screaming, flailing, paper-punching meltdowns back when he was in the Illinois State Legislature made him a Youtube legend before he ever made it to Congress. The Chicago press, fascinated with his temper, did some digging, and as far back as an incident in 1986 where he got annoyed at a neighbor’s beagle for biting his daughter, and rather than wait for the proper authorities to handle it and decide if the animal should be euthanized, Bost instead supposedly opted to shoot and kill the dog with his handgun like he was Charles Bronson in a revenge movie. And during his 2014 campaign for Congress, he joked about putting a bullet in Ol’ Snoopy. Between that and the time he started yelling out lines from the Book of Exodus like “LET MY PEOPLE GO!” over worker pensions, or other incoherent rants… “Meltdown Mike” seemed to be a volatile commodity, even for a modern Republican.With Mike Bost’s history of irrational outbursts, how has he held up against the pressure many Republicans have seen about hosting town halls? NOT WELL. Honestly, it might have been bad enough that he compared the opposition who might show up to Chinese Maoists… but to refer to them with the racist derogatory term “Orientals” while doing it?
- December 18th, 2019: Bost 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.
- December 10th, 2020: Bost signs his name to an amicus brief to the Supreme Court, begging them to overturn the results of the 2020 election. The same election that he won re-election in.
- January 7th, 2021: Mike Bost 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. Bost 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 25th, 2021: Bost votes against HR 5, the latest version of the Equality Act, that would provide workplace protections for LGBTQ Americans.
- March 3rd, 2021: Rep. Bost votes against HR 1, a bill created to prevent the corruption of money in politics, and protect voter access to the ballot box.
- March 3rd, 2021: Mike Bost votes against the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act of 2021.
- March 10th, 2021: Bost 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. Bost 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: Rep. Bost votes against HR 3233, the creation of a commission to investigate the Capitol Attack.
- November 5th, 2021: Mike Bost votes against HR 3684, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
- May 18th, 2022: Mike Bost is one of 192 Republicans who votes against HR 7790, to create supplemental funding for infant formula (while claiming to be pro- life).
- May 18th, 2022: Rep. Bost votes against HR 350, the Domestic Violence Prevention Act, because these days, a plank of the Republican Party is ostensibly domestic terror.
- May 19th, 2022: Bost votes against HR 7688, a bill which would help prevent gas companies from gouging customers on prices.
- July 15th, 2022: Mike Bost votes against House Amendment 262, which would require the FBI, Department of Homeland Security, and Secretary of Defense to publish a report on the infiltration of American law enforcement by Neo-Nazis and white supremacists, offer measures to be taken to remove them from their ranks, and prevent further infiltration by others.
- July 19th, 2022: Rep. Bost is one of 157 Republicans who vote against the “Respect for Marriage Act”, which would codify same sex marriage into law nationally.
- July 21st, 2022: Bost is one of 195 Republicans who vote against the Right to Contraception Act, which codified the right of Americans to have access to birth control.
- October 28th, 2022: Mike Bost files a lawsuit to challenge that mail-in votes postmarked prior to Election Day on Nov. 8th can be counted prior to Nov. 22nd. Because he doesn’t care about actual democracy.
- December 6th, 2022: Bost, embracing the GOP’s white nationalist, anti-immigrant sentiment votes against HR 7946, which was meant to honor the promise to grant citizenship to immigrants who served in the United States Armed Forces.
- September 27th, 2023: Mike Bost is one of 93 Republicans who vote to cut off $300 million of military aid to our ally, Ukraine, to fight back the invasion by Russia.
“Meltdown Mike” is someone you would THINK would be a vocal part of the Republican caucus, but he’s self-aware enough to know his career now is dependent on flying under the radar. After all, Illinois’ 12th Congressional District now has a +24 Republican lean, meaning he can win re-election with about three quarters of the electorate and that he’ll be in office for the rest of the decade unless he decides he’s had enough.His final meltdown can’t come soon enough.