By now you have heard the latest from Wisconsin State Senator Glenn Grothman, but before we get to that let’s have a brief review of the record. Glenn Grothman is the Republican State Senator from West Bend, Wisconsin – not exactly a hotbed of intellectual acumen, but rather a community that may have more redneck, white trash residents per capita than any other Wisconsin community. It seems that every time Senator Grothman opens his mouth, against all odds, something even more stupid than his last utterance emerges. Consider the evidence.

Early last year, after the election of Scott Walker and the implementation of Walker’s plan to systematically destroy unions in Wisconsin, citizens gathered in and around the State Capitol building in Madison to protest not only Walker’s union busting plan but also his repeated neglect for the State’s open meeting laws and his attempts to conduct government business behind closed doors. Grothman had some wisdom to offer on that occasion, characterizing the citizens of Wisconsin who were exercising their right to protest as “slobs” because they were sitting in and so didn’t have access to showers – though in fact they were regularly relieved by other protestors. In fact, in an epic show of oppressive force backed by absolutely no compassion or sense that he is accountable to the people, Governor Walker eventually restricted public access to Capitol building restrooms and later expelled citizens from the Capitol building entirely.

Grothman wasn’t done yet. He introduced legislation making it more difficult for women to sue companies for gender discrimination in their pay under the equal pay for equal work laws. His reasoning was that women don’t care as much about money as men do, because they eventually get pregnant anyway and so don’t work as hard as men. It’s such an idiotic perspective that had it not been made in public nobody would have believed it – but he wasn’t done yet.

Next Glenn Grothman turned his attention to single mothers, introducing legislation that define single mothers as a cause of child abuse by claiming – despite the complete lack of evidence to affirm his position and the preponderance of evidence that refutes it – that single mothers by virtue of their very existence are committing acts of child abuse. Naturally, he made no mention at all of the sperm donors who share responsibility for the existence of single mothers by impregnating them and then not taking responsibility for their seminal emissions.

Of course, being the icon of consistency he is, Senator Grothman is absolutely opposed to abortion. He prefers those babies to be born to single mothers and then denied State assistance so that they die post-partum, a circumstance that doesn’t seem to concern Republicans. By now you might be wondering how Senator Grothman’s wife puts up with his antics. Not surprisingly, Senator Grothman is an anti-gay “life-long confirmed bachelor,” a term roughly equivalent to “self loathing, misogynistic  gay man whose anger at himself and his own identity is most often misdirected at innocent people.”

Apparently feeling a little restless at not managing to say anything profoundly idiotic recently, Senator Grothman announced just days ago that we need to “slap down” Kwanzaa because it’s founder – though not the holiday itself – was a violent man and besides, nobody but white liberals cares about Kwanzaa. According to this asshat, schools shouldn’t teach kids about Kwanzaa without first telling them that the holiday isn’t really supported or celebrated by black Americans but only by the aforementioned white liberals. And, he added on CNN that “slapping down” Kwanzaa shouldn’t matter because all we need is Jesus and Christmas.. He seemed nonplussed when confronted with black Christians who also celebrate Kwanzaa, was completely ignorant of the Pagan roots of Easter (and Christmas, though that wasn’t mentioned), denied that Christopher Columbus was a violent man, and other similarly ignorant well documented historical facts.

You see, Grothman objects to Kwanzaa founder Maulana Karenga’s history of violence in the late 1960s. Karenga has consistently denied the charges he was convicted of and characterizes himself as having been a “political prisoner” when he served time for his conviction – a claim that, given documented FBI involvement to increase tensions between the Black Panthers and Karenga’s social change organization US, isn’t without merit.

Here’s the problem. Grothman allegedly wants to “slap down” Kwanzaa because of the history of violence of Kwanzaa’s founder. He admits that violence took place after Kwanzaa was founded. He seems unwilling to answer whether the core beliefs of Kwanzaa (unity, self-determination, collective work and responsibility, economic responsibility, purpose, creativity, and faith) are objectionable to him or not. However, Grothman’s own language is laden with violence! When he says that Kwanzaa needs to be “slapped down,” he is advocating violence – the very thing he uses in his twisted, bigoted attempt to discredit Karenga and, by extension, Kwanzaa in fact discredits Grothman himself – and he is too bloody stupid to see it.

Fortunately, there is hope. I will be doing everything I can to help Tanya Lohr win Glenn Grossman’s seat in Wisconsin’s State Senate. Anybody with any self-respect in Senator Grossman’s district should be doing the same.