Here is the eighty-third article in our Republicans on Parade series, featuring individuals who personify what the Republican Party has become. Today’s honoree is Texas State Boards of Education candidate, Mary Lou Bruner. She is so honored for her Republican conspiracy theories and for her Republican hatred of Obama, Democrats, Muslims, the UN and LGBT folks.
On Super Tuesday, Dale Clark voted for a local Republican who claimed on social media that President Obama had worked as a gay prostitute in his youth, that the United States should ban Islam, that the Democratic Party had John F. Kennedy killed and that the United Nations had hatched a plot to depopulate the world.
Mr. Clark, 75, was unaware that the candidate he had supported — Mary Lou Bruner, 68, a former kindergarten teacher running for a seat on the State Board of Education — held such views. But as he sat with his wife eating lunch in this East Texas city, Mr. Clark was ready to give Ms. Bruner the benefit of the doubt.
“I would not discount her on the basis of having those beliefs,” said Mr. Clark, a retired pilot. “It convinces me, though, that she’s quite conservative, and if I were going to err either way, I would want to err toward the side of the conservative.”
Ms. Bruner’s anti-Obama, anti-Islam, anti-evolution and anti-gay Facebook posts have generated national headlines and turned an obscure school board election into a glimpse of the outer limits of Texas politics. In a part of the state dominated by conservative Christians and Tea Party activists, Ms. Bruner’s candidacy has posed a question no one can answer with any certainty — how far to the fringe is too far for Texas Republicans?…
Inserted from <NY Times>
It’s hard to get more Republican than she is. She hasn’t been elected yet. I hope that exposing her views might help keep her out of office. That’s very important, because the Texas State Board of Education is the nation’s most influential body in determining the content of our nations k-12 text books. Since this is Texas, however, it may be a lost cause.
10 Responses to “Republicans on Parade–3/13/2016”
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A deserving choice…the country's salvation in the last couple of decades is that CA's Board and Dept. of Education have told the publishers that CA will not use textbooks with a TX skew in them preserving accuracy for various subjects US students need.
Thank the heavens for CA telling Texas re: the textbooks, JL. That's been a sore spot with many teachers here for years now, and rightly so. Texas will not do well if she gets elected. ugh!!
"Bruner stands a good chance of having a say in what 5 million Texas children learn in public schools. Bruner and Ellis meet in a May runoff, The winner faces Democrat Amanda Rudolph in the November general election for the right to represent the Republican-leaning East Texas district." *tfn.org
Thanks, Tom.
Oh!!! Happy Birthday!!!
Mary Lou Bruner certainly deserves a place in your parade for her anti-Obama, anti-Islam, anti-evolution and anti-gay Facebook posts and her firm believes in conspiracy theories where only Democrats are doing the evil deeds. But then so does Dale Clark who voted for her because her views convinced him that she’s quite conservative, and that's what he's after. Crikey, they're both so old even their grandchildren no longer go to school, so why is she a candidate and why is he voting? A job as a Kindergarten teacher is not really a good enough recommendation for a seat on the Texas State Board of Education, but her fringe views apparently are what really count. I fear with you, TomCat, that it's a lost cause and she's going to get on that Board. Sadly it won't be the last we hear from her then.
OMG! A well deserved parade!
Why for pete's sake take a chance? And why would a group endorse her without doing some investigation? A check of social media is a very basic employment check and should have been done. Granted, this is an election and an endorsement, but in essence, it is an employment situation. If she had already privatised her social media rants, they should have, at the very least, interviewed her. You don't see Bernie Sanders or Hillary Clinton (or presumably any Republican) getting endorsements from large groups without that group knowing something about them.
Please, move the Texas progressives to other states, move the Republicans to Texas, and then let Texas secede.
I was recently thinking it had been a while since we had a parade. Yes, indeed, the is a winning loser. Very appropriate.
JFK called Texas "Nut countrty" shortly before his fatal trip there. The Texas State Board of Eduation has shown a proclivity for idiocy for many years now, an I have signed petitions, to book publishers, especially McGraw-Hill about not letting the group didctate publishing policy. This lady, and anyone willing to give her the benefit of the doubt, is/are delusional!
This kind of willful, abject, hate-mongering stupidity is no longer humorous.
I concur.
Mary Lou Bruner is a complete walking disaster of being completely wrong on just about everything in her mind. Mary is an excellent candidate for the mentally deficient state care hospital. Mary is obviously so wrong and unfit to be a part of the education board as are a few other members as well.
Thanks all, Hugs!!