Nat’l headlines are rarely kind to Indiana politics. An 1897 bill to set the value of Pi was comic. [FN1] Indiana’s dominance by the KKK after WWI was horrendous. [FN2] Even when it comes to “vice,” as in Vice Presidents, we are no better than a #2. [FN3] Yesterday, 11/7/23: 1/10

Nat’l media (again) reported on Hamilton County’s “Moms for Liberty.” [FN4] In June the group quoted der Fuehrer on its “newly launched newsletter, ‘The Parent Brigade’” & drew harsh reactions. [FN5] Paige Miller, chapter chair, after the quote was pulled said: 2/10

“We should not have quoted him in our newsletter and express our deepest apology.” [Id] More problems emerged when the election for mayor of Carmel is won by the GOP candidate “who refused to denounce” M4 for its quote of the nasty Austrian corporal. [FN6] After M4 3/10

apologized, “other instances when group members had cited Hitler approvingly” came to light as were “ties between the group and multiple white supremacist and extremist groups, including the Proud Boys..” [FN7] People should not try to downplay quoting the man who was 4/10

responsible for The Holocaust. Comments I heard, as a kid, were variations on “Ya might not like what he did but he was a genius.” First: he was NOT [FN7] a genius. He grabbed power & his bloody thousand-year Reich was a 12-year + death spiral killing tens of millions. 5/10

Second: enough people were desperate in Germany AND Indiana in the 1920s that dictatorial crap floated. This GOP quotes Hitler but boasts of its support for Israel. This GOP is NOT the party of Lincoln. And times are not that desperate. 6/10

Footnotes: FN1. Mathematical value of ratio of circumference of a circle to its diameter in House Bill 246 of the 1897 General Assembly. FN2. The KKK’s control hit a wall w/conviction of leader D.C. Stephenson for homicide. Leibowitz, My Indiana, 1964, pp. 191-223. 7/10

Footnotes: FN3. Schuyler Colfax (1869-1873); Thomas A. Hendricks (1885); Charles Fairbanks (1905-1909);b Thomas R. Marshall (1913-1921); Dan Quayle 1989-1993); and Mike Pence (2017-2021). South Bend Tribune, 06/10/18. 8/10

Footnotes: FN4. “M4": to save space & because I find the group is anathema to liberty. FN5. Swenson, “Moms for Liberty...” AP, 06/22/23, quoting M Pitcavage, Sr research fellow, Anti-Defamation League, Ctr on Extremism & R Carroll Rivas, Southern Poverty Law Center. 9/10
. .
Footnotes: FN6. Volmert, “Candidate who Wouldn’t Denounce...” AP, 11/08/23. FN7. Hadjenberg, “What Happened When a Jewish Group...” The Jewish Exponent, 07/12/23. FN8. I know: all CAPS = raised volume. 10/10