Today in Disgusting People: How Did I Miss Steve King?

The white supremacist congressman from Iowa's 95% white 9th congressional district waxes eloquent. From Tom Sulivan at Hullabaloo :

Except for bald-faced lying, it is not as if some of our politicians work all that hard at hiding the truth. It is just still a surprise when they speak it aloud, as Rep. Steve King, Republican of Iowa did ... again:

A New York Times piece on King is generating more controversy for the already embattled Republican. “White nationalist, white supremacist, Western civilization—how did that language become offensive,” King wonders in the piece. “Why did I sit in classes teaching me about the merits of our history and our civilization?

Note that he's conflating "Western civilization" with "white nationalist" and "white supremacist". I see it as another tactic to legitimize his racism -- after all, "Western civilization" is the basis of all that's good, right? If you ignore the destruction of the environment, the genocide, the obliteration of native cultures, and the like.

But he goes on:

King has drawn fire for the comments, but really, it is nothing new. In July 2016, King bragged of his white pride to MSNBC's Chris Hayes, saying, “Where did any other sub-group of people contribute more to civilization?”

Um, let me see: those anonymous people from, probably, Anatolia who started farming -- along with the Chinese and Indians in the Indus Valley. The Chinese in general. The Sumerians and Babylonians, the Egyptians, whom we claim as cultural ancestors. The Arabs, who gave us our number system and algebra (the latter being a mixed blessing, in my opinion).

Sullivan wonders:

Since the partial shutdown of the government for the last three weeks is over immigrants from largely Christian, Spanish-speaking lands to the south, one wonders just what defines western civilization in King's mind.

That's easy: white, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant, heterosexual.

Which is coming to mean anti-American.