澳彩开奖

Kobach addresses the 2015 Writers鈥� Workshop. (Source: @Hunter7Taylor on Twitter/Via Center for New Community.)

The Social Contract Press is a Michigan-based publishing house that routinely puts out race-baiting articles penned by well known white nationalists. The press is a program of U.S., Inc., the foundation created by John Tanton, the racist founder and principal ideologue of the modern nativist movement and TSCP鈥檚 publisher. Tanton has assiduously cultivated relationships with Holocaust deniers, eugenicists and various other extremists over the years. And he鈥檚 clear about his racism: 聽鈥淚鈥檝e come to the point of view that for European-American society and culture to persist requires a European-American majority, and a clear one at that.鈥�

Given TSCP鈥檚 publisher, it鈥檚 not surprising that articles from their eponymous journal聽The Social Contract聽have propagated the myth that Latino activists want to occupy and "reclaim"聽the American Southwest, argued that no Muslim immigrants should be allowed into the United States聽and claimed that multiculturalists are trying to replace 鈥渟uccessful Euro-American culture鈥� with 鈥渄ysfunctional Third World cultures.鈥�

Nor should we be surprised that the journal is by Wayne Lutton, a longtime member of the white supremacist Council of Conservative Citizens, the hate group that inspired the Charleston mass shooter Dylann Roof. Also on staff is well known white supremacist Kevin Lamb, who was fired in 2005 by Human Events and the Evans-Novak Political Report over his extremist activities.

Kobach鈥檚 closeness to hate groups runs far deeper than speaking to TSCP. For years, Kobach has worked as a for the legal arm of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR). The 澳彩开奖 has listed FAIR as a hate group since 2007鈥攁nd for good reason.

Tanton founded FAIR, and its current President Dan Stein has said, among other things, 鈥淚mmigrants don鈥檛 come all church-loving, freedom-loving, God-fearing 鈥� Many of them hate America, hate everything that the United States stands for.鈥� In another instance, Stein said that the 1965 Immigration Act, which undid four decades of explicitly racist immigration policy in the United States, 鈥渨as a great way to retaliate against Anglo-Saxon dominance and hubris鈥�and it鈥檚 a form of revengism, or revenge, that these forces continue to push the immigration policy that they know full well are [sic] creating chaos and will continue to create chaos down the line.鈥�

One has to wonder if Kobach will be held to the same standard by his fellow Republicans as Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) was last December, when it came to light that he had attended a dozen years earlier an event put on by former Klansman David Duke鈥檚 European Unity and Rights Organization. Scalise ultimately .

Kobach was at a hate group event last week鈥攏ot a decade ago.

Of course, Kobach has been working with FAIR for almost decade and no one has held him to account. Worse, in 2012, he dissimulated about his relationship to FAIR and Tanton. In a piece published by , Kobach was quoted claiming that he is 鈥渘ot familiar with [Tanton鈥檚] writings or his views.鈥� He also said: 鈥淚 have not done any legal work for any organization that expresses or supports racial discrimination, nor will I ever do so in the future.鈥� Just the year before, the New York Times ran a front-page laying out Tanton鈥檚 racism at length.

So what is Kobach鈥檚 excuse now? It鈥檚 been three years since he was last asked about Tanton by Salon. Surely by now Kobach can no longer play dumb. After all, Tanton is the publisher of TSCP. That鈥檚 where Kobach went to speak last week.

Given Kobach鈥檚 racially charged main efforts of recent years鈥攚orking to restrict voting rights and curtail immigration鈥攈is relationship with racist groups isn鈥檛 too difficult to understand. Maybe it鈥檚 time to question Kobach鈥檚 claims that he is simply pursuing these issues to enforce the law. His strange bedfellows in the white nationalist movement would certainly agree that fewer immigrants and stricter voting procedures are a good thing, because, well, that would stop brown and black people from being empowered.

It鈥檚 time for Kobach, too, to be asked if that鈥檚 what drives him.