Why Isn't This Racist, Sexist, Gun-Humping, Drunk-Driving Indiana Republican In Congress Already?
He'd be such a perfect fit with the Caucus Of Assholes but he's missing out.
Yr Wonkette tries to be diligent in keeping track of as many far-right dipshits and wackos as we can, so that You The Reader can join in on the disgust and mockery of said wackoshits. But today we must confess that we seem to have missed a real winner in the state-level legislative shithead category. That would be state Rep. Jim Lucas (R-Indiana), who made news this week when teenagers visited the Indiana Capitol to share with him their concerns about gun violence, only for him to show them the handgun he carries with him at all times, even on the floor of the Lege. Because Indiana.
After the students said they were concerned about school shootings, Lucas replied that if people want to be safe, they need to go around strapped 24/7, because the cops didn’t save anyone at Parkland or Uvalde, making clear that in this wonderful nation where any idiot can get their hands on an AR-15, we’re all on our own.
We like the part where he says if you don’t accept the clear objective logical facts of that, you’re just letting emotions rule you. He is not fearful, and that is why he is always ready to use deadly force against the monsters he knows are around every corner.
Lucas said people aren't "truly free" unless they can defend themselves. A student off camera asked Lucas if he means carrying a firearm. Just over six minutes into the 10-minute video, Lucas said, "I'm carrying right now," and holds open his suit jacket exposing a holstered handgun. […]
"Nothing about someone carrying a gun makes me feel safe," a student said off camera after Lucas lifted his jacket.
Rep. Lucas elaborated on Fascistbook about how sad he was for these poor emotional students, who have obviously been “indoctrinated”:
“I fear for, and pity those that are being indoctrinated to fear that which is their best means of self-defense," he added in a post Wednesday, in which he also linked to news articles about the Parkland and Uvalde killings in the comments section. "People are also being indoctrinated to depend on government for their 'safety,' even when shown that government has clearly ruled that government doesn't have the duty to protect us.”
Well there he goes talking like a common Robyn. Isn’t it strange the things on which we agree!
A ROBYN!
Oddly, the students weren’t reassured that the nice man with the gun was keeping them safe. Alana Trissel, 17, told the Associated Press that she rejected the idea that it’s an emotional argument to call for gun control, and said she believed Lucas had simply “talked over” the teens’ concerns:
"Since a state legislator had shown a weapon, I felt all the more powerless," she said. "I felt scared. I felt alone. I was timid and almost petrified with fear."
Well just look at her being all fearful. If she were logical, she would happily wait four years until she can purchase her own handgun, and maybe by then the laws will be loosened so everyone can carry a shooting iron at the Indiana Capitol. That privilege is currently only for legislators, you see.
But wait, there’s more! Over at Talking Points Memo, editor Josh Marshall, intrigued by the brave legislator showing children his gun, dug a little bit into Lucas’s history and came away with the conclusion that “it’s hard to believe Lucas hasn’t yet made the jump to Congress to join the House GOP conference.”
Stone-eyed Crom and his devils in a tiny little clown car, that’s almost an understatement. Marshall catalogs a few of Lucas’s greatest moments, like such as:
A meme Lucas made all by himself, with a photo of Black children and the text “We gon’ get free money!” Lucas explained it wasn’t racist, because he was “mocking our government and it’s overstepping it’s (sic) authority.”
An apparently approving quote of Joseph Goebbels on Facebook
Some “just asking questions” about whether the Uvalde massacre was a “false flag” engineered to take away everyone’s guns
An exchange on Facebook with Dr. James Carson, a Black surgeon in Texas, which involved Lucas asking the good doctor whether he’d ever received “any scholarships or financial assistance because of your skin color.”
Heavens, Marshall even seems to have missed a few, like a 2019 RacistBook post where Lucas commented on a story about an accused Black rapist with a photo of a gallows with two nooses. He explained it wasn’t a reference to lynching because he’d posted the same image about white criminals, too.
Then there was the 2017 FascesBook post where he replied to an Indianapolis Star profile of a rape victim by advising ladies that if they don’t want to be raped, they should be “taking steps & learning how not to be a victim.” Namely they should be armed, so they can never be raped.
The original story wasn’t about guns. Lucas just felt the need to add his great insights; he followed up by offering to pay for any ladies who might want to take a firearms training class. But don’t worry! Lucas met with the woman profiled in the paper and said he was sorry for being maybe insensitive, but also he was very sad at people overreacting and getting all emotional about his advice, sighing, “Is there any wonder people don't want to discuss this issue and it remains off limits?”
In 2016, Lucas posted a funny meme showing a woman in the trunk of a car, with the hilarious caption, “Wanna know who loves you more: your wife or your dog? Lock them both in your trunk and see who's happy to see you when you let them out.”
After Donald Trump’s inauguration and the Women’s March protesting it, Lucas posted another humorous juxtaposition of a cop spraying a woman in the face with pepper spray and the caption “Participation trophies, now in liquid form.”
Nobody seemed to appreciate his subtle wit, and they even said he was making light of violence against women. What a bunch of spoilsports. Lucas deleted the posts but later insisted the reaction to them had been “totally blown out of the proportion.” Honestly, the problem is YOU. It’s like some kind of theme with him, huh?
More recently, as Marshall discusses in detail, Lucas engaged in “a kind of feral wingnut performance art” during a drunk driving incident in which he drove off a county road, smashed his van into the back of a guardrail on a nearby interstate, drove across the 3-lane freeway into the median guardrail, then flipped a U-turn and drove another 3 miles before parking the wrecked van.
Police received a report of the wild driving, went to the scene, and found the wreckage on the highway, but no suspect; they followed a trail of debris and found the van, sans tires on the front driver’s side and the rear passenger side:
When the cops found Lucas wandering a nearby street, he denied driving or seeing any van. Van? “No van.” Then, putting his hands on his head, he advised cops he was carrying a gun — with a round in the chamber, ready to go — and a knife, so they disarmed him instead of shooting him, because after all he’s white.
Here’s the fun part, per Marshall:
He somehow managed to avoid jail time for this with a plea deal, despite the DUI and leaving the scene of an accident. He somehow managed to get off probation early too. Indiana papers are still trying to figure that one out.
With a résumé like that, the only surprise is that Jim Lucas isn’t already sharing a House cafeteria table with Matt Gaetz, Lauren Boebert, Marjorie Taylor Greene (yes, we know the latter two aren’t speaking) and half a dozen other loons. His time will come, we’re sure, and if not, it’s almost certainly someone else’s fault.
[AP / TPM / Indianapolis Star / NBC News / WRTV]
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"He somehow managed to avoid jail time for this with a plea deal, despite the DUI and leaving the scene of an accident. He somehow managed to get off probation early too."
Ah the "Do you KNOW who I AM?" gambit. Works in the good-olde-boy'est of places.
There’s little I enjoy more in this world than being told that I’m a rape victim because I didn’t learn how to not be a rape victim.
Unless it’s the constant drumbeat of equating being a victim with being a moral failing.
It’s super fun out here for all of us who have been harmed by others because the shaming takes so many fun forms.