In both 2015, and in 2016, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” posted profiles of Elaine Morgan, a Rhode Island State Senator and dry cleaner who only seemed like as kooky as the average conservative at first when she voted against the state of Rhode Island’s attempt to raise the minimum wage, in the midst of its worst period of income inequality in the United States in almost a century, despite in her own words that she thinks the people know “MONEY WORKS BEST IN OUR POCKETS”. But what really got our attention about her was her response to a letter from a constituent who was angry about the idea that the United States would potentially allow Syrian refugees to seek refuge and potentially emigrate to the United States, sending them a horribly Islamophobic response while accidentally CC’ing EVERY MEMBER OF THE STATE LEGISLATURE. Her inflammatory and disgusting take read, “I do not want our governor bringing in any Syrian refugees. I think our country is under attack. I think this is a major plan by these countries to spread out their people to attack all non Muslim persons. The Muslim religion and philosophy is to murder, rape, and decapitate anyone who is a non Muslim. If we need to take these people in we should set up a refugee camp to keep them segregated from our populous. I think the protection of our US citizens and the United States of America should be the most important issue here.” When asked about her e-mail the next day, she didn’t apologize, and continued to suggest internment camps as an option, saying, “We have veterans in the streets starving, alcoholics, drug addicts. I can see taking Syrian refugees in, but keeping them all centralized – it sounds a little barbaric, but we need to centralize them and keep them in one central area.”
We have a new update on Elaine Morgan… she co-sponsored an unsuccessful attempt in February of 2017 to pass a law to drug test welfare recipients. You know, one of those kinds that lose a state a ton of money on the cost of drug testing, that then find that almost statistically no one if on drugs so no savings are found in booting people off of government assistance, and the law really only exists to shame poor people for asking for help in the first place. At least, that’s the initial money lost. States then get the opportunity to lose millions of dollars in lawsuits where the laws, if passed, get overturned as violations of the 4th Amendment that protects citizens from illegal search and seizures without cause. Point being, Morgan’s an idiot for even suggesting such a thing, and thankfully the Democratic majority voted down her attempt.
And, in an extremely depressing turn of events… the Rhode Island GOP did not find anyone to challenge Elaine Morgan for her seat on the Rhode Island State Senate in 2016, and she got her party’s nomination unopposed, before going on to defeat Democrat Catherine Rumsey with 54% of the vote. It will be interesting to see if she can survive a predicted Blue Wave election coming in 2018, given how narrow her victory was only a year ago.
One Year Ago, November 24th, 2016: Elaine Morgan (RI)… 2016 Update
Two Years Ago, November 24th, 2015: Elaine Morgan (RI)… Original Profile
Three Years Ago, November 24th, 2014: Roger Rivard (WI)