On this date one year ago, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” first profiled Steve Palazzo, the sitting U.S. House Representative for Missouri’s 4th Congressional District, who after serving five years in the Mississippi state legislature, was first elected to Congress in… what else? The 2010 Tea Party Wave. And, we have concerns about Steve Palazzo because of his close ties with the anti-gay hate group, the Family Research Council, and its lunatic leader, Tony Perkins.
It was back around 2013 that Palazzo really kicked the homophobia into overdrive, when he reacted strongly to the Boy Scouts of America planning to lift its ban on gay scout leaders by comparing it to his career fighting in the Marines. He said at the time that President Obama and “his highly organized liberal machine”had “unfairly attacked” the organization. “These people who are out there protesting and petitioning, I don’t think they care one thing about the Boy Scouts of America and want the organization to fail,” he insisted.
Palazzo did not dial back his homophobic comments until January of 2014, when he started up a Facebook campaign against “Gay Hollywood’s version of matrimony” in response to that year’s Grammy Awards, where on air, Queen Latifah officiated 33 same sex marriages on air. As commenters on the thread began to point out how bigoted Palazzo was being, his people responded by not just deleting their comments, but blocking them.
So brave, Steve. So brave.
Steve Palazzo’s intolerance against the LGBTQ community is so ingrained that in November of 2013, when as a part of his defense of another anti-gay hate group, the American Family Association, it made him come to the logical conclusion that President Obama’s support of LGBTQ rights and that he signed the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” was clearly a sign that he was “doesn’t share the same Christian faith that we do”, as part of some backwards Birther logic. Because, y’know, if Obama is a secret Muslim, that would make him REALLY supportive of gay rights, y’know?
Mind you, that isn’t the only example we have of Steve Palazzo irrationally hating President Obama. Such much so that during the 2013 Government Shutdown he helped a bunch of right-wing nut-jobs and Neo-Confederates who staged a protest at the World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C. to start grabbing barricades to drag over to the White House and throw down in impotent rage. Y’know, while Larry Klayman yelled at the president to “put down the Koran and come out with his hands up”. That would be the government shutdown that PALAZZO VOTED TO CREATE.
Speaking of stupid things Palazzo has voted for or against, there was also the time he voted against disaster relief for victims of Hurricane Sandy, when he seems to want disaster relief whenever a hurricane hits his district.
But then… his whole voting record is a series of damaging ideas for the country, from repeated attempts to repeal the Affordable Care Act, to twice voting to defund Planned Parenthood, to votes against disaster relief unless it’s for his district, to votes for the past two government shutdowns, he is, for lack of a better term, a legislative miscreant. Oh, and in the waning days of the GOP’s majority in the House, Palazzo sponsors legislation to create bonds for the American people to buy that would fund Donald Trump’s insane idea for a wall on the U.S./Mexico border.
Over the past few years, Palazzo has continued to make a name for himself, and not in a good way:
- January 23rd, 2019: Rep. Palazzo voted against HR 648, because he was gleefully enjoying the longest government shutdown in history.
- February 28th, 2019: Palazzo votes against HR 1112, a bill which would have required universal background checks on all firearm purchases, and close the gun show loophole.
- March 7th, 2019: Palazzo votes against HR 183, a resolution to condemn anti-Semitism as a hateful extension of intolerance.
- March 14th, 2019: Rep. Palazzo votes against HJR 46, which sane members of Congress voted for to reject Donald Trump’s “national emergency” regarding the U.S. border and his attempts to reallocate funds for a border wall without Congressional approval.
- April 4th, 2019: Steve Palazzo is one of 158 Republicans who choose to vote 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 17th, 2019: Palazzo votes against The Equality Act, which would have prevented discrimination towards Americans based on their gender identity or sexual orientation.
- June 4th, 2019: Rep. Palazzo votes against the Dreamers Act, because he’s too xenophobic and partisan to care about immigration reform.
- July 16th, 2019: Steve Palazzo votes against a resolution to condemn Donald Trump for his racist statements that four people of color in Congress should “go back where they came from”.
- October 17th, 2019: Palazzo is one of 60 Republicans who vote against HJ Res 77, which opposed Donald Trump’s disastrous decision to abandon Syrian Kurdish forces in Northeast Syria to the mercies of a Turkish invasion.
- December 3rd, 2019: Steve Palazzo is one of 71 Republicans who vote against House Resolution 546, which stated disapproval of any attempt to readmit the Russian federation back into the G7 and make it the G8.
- December 19th, 2019: Rep. Palazzo votes against the impeachment of Donald Trump, in spite of glaring evidence of abuse of power.
- May 15th, 2020: Palazzo votes against the HEROES Act, to further support the healthcare industry and citizens affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.
- December 10th, 2020: Palazzo 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 6th, 2021: After a group of Trump-supporting, fascist domestic terrorists spend a day terrorizing the Capitol Building, upset over the results that Trump lost the election, Steve Palazzo votes against certifying the electoral college results.
- January 13th, 2021: Palazzo votes against the second impeachment of Donald Trump, commenting before his vote that “impeachment is the most inappropriate course of action at this time.” Because accountability is anathema to this seditious ***hole.
Steve Palazzo has the advantage that the partisan lean of Mississippi’s 4th Congressional District is +21 Republican. This helped him easily win re-election in 2020, only having to survive a few primary challengers, which he did with 65% of the vote, and then he did not face an opponent in the general election. It will be interesting to see if he is willing to abandon Trumpism, as his party begins to watch approval polls for their despot fade, and try and reinvent himself. His entire decade in Congress has shown he only seems to understand operating from an insurrectionist’s stance, so it will take a level of growth we’ve yet to see from him.
One Year Ago, January 26th, 2020: Steve Palazzo (MS)… Original Profile
Two Years Ago, January 26th, 2019: Phil Bryant (MS)… 2019 Update
Three Years Ago, January 26th, 2018: Phil Bryant (MS)… 2018 UpdateFour Years Ago, January 26th, 2017:Phil Bryant (MS)… 2017 Update
Five Years Ago, January 26th, 2016: Phil Bryant (MS)… 2016 Update
Six Years Ago, January 26th, 2015: Phil Bryant (MS)… Original Profile