On this day in both 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021, that “Fanatical Republican Extremist 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. Carter almost always coasts to victory when his seat comes up for re-election, with his worst showing being a still-impressive 58% of the vote back in the “blue wave” election year of 2006. 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 remarks and conspiracy theories she’s spread online (probably because she’s a kindred spirit).
- February 25th, 2021: Carter doesn’t even 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.
- November 5th, 2021: John Carter votes against HR 3684, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
- March 31st, 2022: Carter votes against HR 6833, the Affordable Insulin Now Act, which would limit the cost that drug companies could list insulin at to $35 and make sure no diabetic was priced out of surviving their condition. John Carter would rather they be gouged by pharmaceutical giants and/or die.
- May 18th, 2022: John Carter is one of 192 Republicans who vote against HR 7790, to create supplemental funding for infant formula (while claiming to be pro- life).
- May 18th, 2022: Rep. Carter 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: Carter votes against HR 7688, a bill which would help prevent gas companies from gouging customers on prices.
- July 13th, 2022: Carter votes against the Honoring Our PACT Act, to provide healthcare to veterans affected by toxic burn pits while serving in the War on Terror that leave them more susceptible to forms of cancer.
- July 15th, 2022: John Carter 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 enforcment by Neo-Nazis and white supremacists, offer measures to be taken to remove them from their ranks, and prevent further infiltration by others.
- July 21st, 2022: Carter 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.
John Carter is now 81 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”.
Y’know what would have been nice? If a Democrat filed to run against him to bring that up in a debate. Yeah, John Carter is getting an eleventh term in office this fall, because no one filed to run against him in the general election.
We’re going to go drink heavily, facing that fact.
One Year Ago, August 14th, 2021: John Carter (TX)… 2021 Update
Two Years Ago, August 14th, 2020: John Carter (TX)… 2020 Update
Three Years Ago, August 14th, 2019: John Carter (TX)… 2019 Update
Four Years Ago, August 14th, 2018: John Carter (TX)… 2018 Update
Five Years Ago, August 14th, 2017: John Carter (TX)… 2017 Update
Six Years Ago, August 14th, 2016: John Carter (TX)… Original Profile
Seven Years Ago, August 14th, 2015: Ken Cuccinelli (VA)… 2015 Update
Eight Years Ago, August 14th, 2014: Ken Cuccinelli (VA)… Original Profile