Welcome to the 670th original profile here at “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day”, where we’re going to be discussing Anthony Kern, a member of the Arizona House of Representatives from District 20 who was first elected to office in 2014, usually by running second behind fellow GOP legislator Paul Boyer in that district. It wasn’t until Kern was into his second term in office that he managed to earn our notice here at CSGOPOTD, and that’s because only a few weeks after he was sworn in, he decided to go to a Trump rally in Phoenix to speak, and where he brought out the “LOCK HER UP!” rhetoric against Hillary Clinton four months after the election not just as a colorful chant, but something he actually suggested needed to be revisited as an actual policy. More interesting was that this rally featured several members of the anti-government militia group, the Oathkeepers, and people baying out other great opinions, like beginning “liberal genocide” and the deportation of either all Muslims or all Jews from America. Y’know, nothing that would seem at all like the sort of thing Neo-Nazis would be yelling out loud, unprompted.
That wasn’t the first time Kern faced some sort of controversy, though. Back in his first few weeks in office in 2015, co-sponsored Arizona’s HR 1445, a law meant to conceal the name of whatever police officer should kill a suspect in the line of duty from the public for at least 90 days. Now, that law in and of itself seems pretty fascist and extreme, given the wide swath of police killings in the past few years. But it’s not the bill that stirred up controversy. It was the fact that Kern lied during debate on the bill and claimed to be a “certified peace officer”. Shocker, the media did some checking, and could not find a record of Kern being a police officer, let alone having any sort of certification to be one.
So… yeah, we think speaking at what amounted to a hate rally and helping to work the crowd into frothing madness is enough alone to get Anthony Kern a profile here. There’s also the fact that he chose to give Donald Trump a tongue bath a few months after getting on our radar, celebrating Trump’s executive order to reverse every executive order Barack Obama made to combat climate change, and whining about how the coal industry had “suffered”, which is an odd choice of energy to support in a state that’s famous for getting SUN all the time, y’know?
And over the past three years, Anthony Kern’s voting record has shown us he’s definitely the sort of Arizona Republican worthy of a CSGOPOTD profile:
- February 3rd, 2015: Anthony Kern co-sponsors HB 1445, the bill to conceal the names of police officers who murder suspects for at least 90 days.
- February 18th, 2015: Kern votes for HB 2173, a lunatic bill written to legalize gold and silver as legal tender in Arizona.
- March 11th, 2015: Anthony Kern votes for HB 2643, an attempt by Arizona Republicans to nullify the Affordable Care Act.
- February 29th, 2016: Kern votes for HB 2338, a bill written to allow the legalization of concealed carry near public schools, which we are certain would make the parents of Arizona schoolchildren must feel much safer about their kids’ well-being.
- March 28th, 2017: Anthony Kern votes for SB 1122, which would allow the sale of firearms without any background check (ignoring federal law again).
- March 29th, 2017: Kern votes for SB 1367, an insane anti-choice bill aimed at forcing abortion providers to have to attempt to revive a “viable fetus” after an abortion, which ignores the fact that the way the law is already written, no fetus viable outside the womb can be aborted.
We’re going to keep monitoring Anthony Kern going into the 2018 elections, and hope that whatever momentum Democrats have carries into Arizona and sweeps him out of office. Because our gut tells us the longer he’s around, the more insane he’ll get, and the more he’s going to pal around with militia lunatics and conspiracy theorists. That seems to be the overall direction the Republican Party has taken itself over the past five years.
One Year Ago, April 25th, 2017: Frank Guinta (NH)… 2017 Update
Two Years Ago. April 25th, 2016: Frank Guinta (NH)… Original Profile
Three Years Ago: April 25th, 2015: Christine Jones (AZ)
