On this date, in both 2014, as well as in 2015, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day shared its first two profiles of Ted Yoho, the U.S. House Representative from Florida’s 3rd Congressional District, a former horse-veternarian and Birther conspiracy theorist who thinks that there should be no limits on the 2nd Amendment, and civilians should literally have access to all the same equipment and weapons that the American military does. He also campaigned hard against raising the debt ceiling, even though doing so would cause a catastrophic failure of not just the American economy, but the global economy. He also voted for the 2013 Government Shutdown, wanted to keep the government closed, and was aghast at the prospect that furloughed workers might receive back pay after the fact, and his staunch opposition to the Affordable Care Act that motivated that shutdown vote has made Yoho compare himself to MLK and Rosa Parks (which is amazing considering he once gave his opinion that he didn’t think the Civil Rights Act was constitutional), and his stance was once eloquently expressed in his dismay that African Americans pay at the same rate as white Americans when they can’t use tanning beds (No, I’m not making that up). If that’s not some ridiculous racist perspective, he advocated returning voting rights only to property owners, like back in the “good old days”. (Y'know,like in the 19th Century, when owning slaves was legal).
Ted Yoho has kept on chugging along on his own personal idiot train:
- September 11th, 2015: Yoho votes against the United States’ nuclear treaty with Iran.
- September 18th, 2015: Rep. Yoho votes for a bill with most House Republicans to defund Planned Parenthood, based on highly edited “sting” videos submitted by a Pro-Life advocacy group that have been repeatedly debunked by investigators.
- November 19th, 2015: Yoho votes for the American Security Against Foreign Enemies Act, reacting to the terror attacks in Paris by jihadists from France and Belgium by trying to create greater restrictions to keep out Syrian refugees, of whom exactly zero were involved in those attacks.
- December 8th, 2016: Rep. Yoho again says something bigoted, this time about people of Middle-Eastern descent, in response to Donald Trump’s calls for a ban on Muslims in the United States:
“If you look at what the role of the federal government is, its number-one role is to provide for the common defense of the United States of America. And we need to look at securing our border, we need to look at enforcing the laws on the books. The people that are here that shouldn’t be here, we need to have a way of vetting and screening them. If they have a Middle Eastern background that we can’t verify, they need to be out of the country.” He did not elaborate on how this would differ from the status quo of vetting people, or if anyone who looked to foreign enough to him should be investigated and summarily be kicked out of the nation.
- February 2nd, 2016: Ted Yoho votes for HR 3762, the 61st attempt by Congressional Republicans to repeal the Affordable Care Act (which is still working better than was predicted).
- May 19th, 2016: Rep. Yoho votes against House Amendment 1079, which would have prohibited the use of federal funds for discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. So if you were wondering, yes, he’s pro-discrimination, all right.
- September 13th, 2016: At a town hall meeting, Yoho brags about fishing off the Florida coast when he and his son supposedly spotted a boat of Cuban refugees who “wanted liberty and freedom” and followed them to help the Coast Guard pinpoint their location and deport them back to Cuba, boasting further that he had saved taxpayer dollars in his misadventure.
Ted Yoho survived a 2014 primary challenger you all might remember named Jake Rush who had the handicap of being outed as a passionate Vampire: The Masquerade LARPer, so Yoho coasted to re-election. He faced no primary challenge in 2016 for his attempt at a third term in office, where he faces off against Democrat Kenneth McGurn in November.
Florida’s 3rd District has a pretty weighted +13 Republican lean, which is damned frustrating, because McGurn honestly has done more for the community in that district over the past several decades without being a political insider, if he could legislate on behalf of the whole country, he’d surely do a lot of good. Odds are, though, we’re looking at another two years of the shanty song of “Yoho, a dumbass Congressman’s life for me…” being sung.