When it comes to culture-war politics and candidates for statewide office, it’s tempting to think Virginia’s state attorney general and Republican gubernatorial hopeful, Ken Cuccinelli, represents an extreme wing of his party. But over the weekend, the Virginia GOP officially nominated its slate of statewide candidates, and the man Republicans chose to run for lieutenant governor is arguably even more unhinged.
It’s time to get to know E.W. Jackson. This guy is not your garden-variety right-wing activist; this guy is special.
In his second interview with Peter LaBarbera of Americans For Truth About Homosexuality and pastor John Kirkwood, Bishop E.W. Jackson launched into another blistering tirade against gays and lesbians. The anti-gay activist said that gays and lesbians have “perverted” minds and are “very sick people psychologically, mentally and emotionally,” and bigoted against African Americans and Christians. […]
Jackson added that homosexuality “poisons culture, it destroys families, it destroys societies” and will lead to God’s judgment.
And this really is just the tip of a large iceberg. Jackson has accused President Obama of having “Muslim sensibilities” and seeing the world “from a Muslim perspective.” Jackson sees Democrats embracing a policy agenda “worthy of the Antichrist.” He’s argued that the “repeal of the ‘Don’t Ask Don’t Tell’ law is a disaster of historic proportions and it must be reinstated.”
He believes liberals who support gay rights “have done more to kill black folks” than the “Ku Klux Klan.” And speaking of the KKK, Jackson has argued, “The Democrat Party has created an unholy alliance between certain so-called civil rights leaders and Planned Parenthood, which has killed unborn black babies by the tens of millions. Planned Parenthood has been far more lethal to black lives than the KKK ever was.”
It’s unusual to find fringe figures pushing arguments like these in public, but it’s even more unusual for fringe figures to be nominated by a major political party to run for statewide office after compiling a record like this one. This will be Jackson’s second attempt at statewide office — he ran an unsuccessful U.S. Senate campaign last year, winning about 5 percent of the vote. Update: Zoe Schlanger reports that Virginia’s newly-nominated A.G. candidate advocated requiring women to report miscarriages to the police — or face jail time. It’s quite a slate of candidates.
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