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January 14, 2019 02:25 PM UTC

Steve King Spoke At Denver Conservative Gathering Last Year

  • 19 Comments
  • by: Jason Salzman

(Promoted by Colorado Pols)

Rep. Dave Williams (R), Congressman Steve King (R-IA).

Colorado Christian University “generally” doesn’t repeat speakers at its annual conservative gathering near Denver, said the event’s director Jeff Hunt when asked whether a Republican Congressman, who advised people not to be offended by white supremacy, would be invited to the annual event again this July.

Iowa Congressman Steve King, who made the comments to the New York Times, spoke at the last year’s Western Conservative Summit, billed as the “largest gathering of conservatives outside of Washington D.C.”

Other top shelf Republican speakers last year included then Attorney General Jeff Sessions, then EPA chief Scott Pruitt, U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner (R-CO), and U.S. Rep. Ken Buck (R-CO). Gardner has spoken there multiple times.

Hunt directs the summit in his role as head of CCU’s Centennial Institute.

On a House floor speech, “King argued he was saying terms like white supremacist, white nationalist and Nazi were ‘almost always unjustly labeling otherwise innocent people,” according to the Des Moines Register.

In the wake of a controversial comment by King in 2010, then congressional candidate Cory Gardner canceled a joint fundraiser with the Iowa Congressman.

King is now facing disciplinary action from fellow U.S. House Republicans after he told the New York Times it was wrong to consider white nationalism and white supremacy offensive.

“White nationalist, white supremacist, Western civilization — how did that language become offensive?” Mr. King told The New York Times Jan. 10. “Why did I sit in classes teaching me about the merits of our history and our civilization?”

Republican House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy told CNN over the weekend that he would meet with King today and “action will be taken.”

Comments

19 thoughts on “Steve King Spoke At Denver Conservative Gathering Last Year

  1. Even Mitch the Weasel —
    "I have no tolerance for such positions and those who espouse these views are not supporters of American ideals and freedoms. Rep. King’s statements are unwelcome and unworthy of his elected position. If he doesn’t understand why ‘white supremacy’ is offensive, he should find another line of work."

    1. I mean, this is basically Mitch saying, "Shh… Don't say the quiet part outloud!!!" He doesn't disagree with Steve King. He just disagrees with how open and honest King is about his politics.

      1. I have to disagree a little, not on the facts, but on jamming too many things into one box. Bigotry is different from racism. Bigotry is hating on the out-group, let's say black people or immigrants. Racism is about social structures that are used to keep the out-group down or to protect structures of privilege. 

        Given that distinction, Steve King could be called both a bigot and a racist. Donald Trump, obviously.

        Mitch McConnel? Ron Paul? I don't know if they are personally bigoted, but they are certainly racist. 

        We have is a strategic alliance between Libertarians, Racists and Evangelicals. Individual Republicans might not be bigoted at all, but they hold power by using Racist appeals, coded language, dog-whistles, dog-megaphones, etc.

        States rights is coded language for letting Southern states prevent blacks from voting. It has little resonance in Colorado, because our historical context is different.

        School vouchers is coded language to evangelicals to use state funds for religious schools, but also to racists to allow them to create segregated schools and reduce funding for public schools. 

         

        1. Are you really trying to suggest that there is any mainstream Republican who doesn't actively support and reinforce social structures that are used to keep racial minorities down and protect structures of privilege?

          1. Sen. Tim Scott appears to be both Republican and cognizant of his speaking and voting in order to treat people equally.  I think of him as the exception that clarifies the generalization.

            There may be others — but they certainly are not prominent.

      2. I don't think so, DeadBird. McConnell's wife is Elaine Chao, an Asian-American. Regardless of what ever other RWNJ opinions he holds, I'm pretty sure McConnell isn' a closet racist. 

  2. These people have been speaking dog whistle for 50 years.  To clutch your pearls when someone starts saying the quiet parts out loud garners no sympathy.

    I mean who could have ever possibly know that Steve King was a white supremacist? s

  3. King asks: "Why did I sit in classes teaching me about the merits of our history and our civilization?”

    The reality is that very little, if any, history of the peoples of color in our hemisphere is taught in any humanities class in high school. In college, you can take Chicano history or African American studies or, for that matter, ancient Chinese or Indian history.

    But the items that are on the tests are Greek and Latin and European history, the "Western Civilizations."

    I don't take issue with teaching western civilization; that is, after all, my own ethnic heritage. But I see how lost my Latino and Asian kids are, many of whom are only a generation away from the cultures of the Aztecs that did brain surgery and made an accurate millenial calendar, the Toltecs and Olmecs that made fantastic art, the Chinese that invented gunpowder and martial arts, the Iroquois confederacy that gave the Founding Fathers the idea for a federation of states, the highly literate Cherokee, the bloodthirsty but indefatigable Spaniards that left their language all over the continent before English was even an unofficial language. 

    Students need to learn about their ancestors and contributions to civilization; otherwise they do buy the myth that only the doings of white folks matter. The subtext was that every other culture was comprised of slaves, layabouts, do-nothings, bad guys threatening the cowboys on their way to Manifest Destiny, estupidos.

    Steve King would object to any non-western civ culture being taught in public schools.

    1. Even with ""western civilization"", we're taught a fairly narrow view of it. Generally, we get taught Greece, Rome, Western European feudalism, the Spanish Empire, the English Empire, some about France, a ton about the US, major wars in Europe and the US in the 19th and 20th century, and the Cold War. We almost never learn about Eastern Europe, we don't learn about Italian or German unification, we don't learn about the Napoleons beyond the first one, we don't learn about the revolutions of 1848, we don't learn about the various French revolutions beyond the first, we don't learn about the Reconquista, we don't learn about Francoist Spain, etc.

      1. Furthermore, in what we are taught, we don't learn that many of the Greek and Roman world's movers and shakers were men of color. We don't learn about the African elements of Spanish culture.  We don't read about the African colonies of Italy, and how they facilitated a more diverse population.

        There simply isn't a great deal of explanation of the roles of different cultures or individuals of various ethnic backgrounds — the story defaults to "white" activity.

        1. I mean, if we learned about the African and Arabic elements of Spanish culture, we'd have to talk about how the Reconquista worked to change that, and that would make us uncomfortable so we can't have that!

      2. Yes. They say "History is written by the victors", but that victor's point of view leaves us a very narrow window on reality, with most of the world's civilizations left unexplored in the darkness.

        This makes it easier for wholesale bigotry to propagate: the lie that all Muslims are terrorists, that Jews control the financial system, that every Central American refugee is a criminal, that women and minorities were graciously granted rights when they asked nicely, that there are "makers and takers", "productive" and "shithole" countries. It's the anti-globalist model.

        Common Core standards try to open up that myopic lens by requiring discourse from multiple perspectives, and using primary sources to generalize about experiences. This is one major reason why anti-public-education activists hate Common Core – it chips away at the Victor's History model.

         

    1. "These are not the first time we've heard these comments." Then why did they wait this long to do this??? Honestly, as much as I hate him, I have to agree with King that this was a political decision, not something based on his actions. If they actually cared that he's a white supremacist, they would've done this years ago, and they absolutely should've. They're only doing this now because now people called him out for it, not because they actually have a problem with white supremacists or white nationalists (I mean, they support Trump).

  4. 2000's Social Conservatives: you college kids better cut off this pro-Muslim, pro-immigrant, pro-LGBTQ, anti-police, anti-patriarchy rhetoric right now because when you graduate into the real world, society isn't going to put up with you saying you're oppressed all the time.  The world isn't going to change, snowflake. 

    2018 Social Conservatives: We're being oppressed! SJWs controllable the entire conversation! We can't even speak our minds in public anymore without society punishing us! 

    1. We keep getting caught in a zero sum game. If my history is important, yours must be silly. If your opinions are worth hearing, mine must be worthless. There is no concept or model of sharing the world stage as an ensemble cast.

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