Hitler-Quoting, ‘Victory For White Life’ Lawmaker Is So Misunderstood
It will be really, really hard to feel patriotic on July 4, Independence Day.
Words that come to mind on this sad day include evisceration, theocracy, hypocrisy. I have to question the timing of the Supreme Court’s decision to eviscerate a woman’s right to choose abortion. The allegedly, apolitical Supreme Court, majority decision was led by the allegedly apolitical Justice Clarence Thomas and married to Ginny Thomas, a rabid supporter of trump’s claims that he was robbed of reelection in 2020 because of widespread voter fraud. I think the decision was timed to take attention away from hearings into the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection by trump supporters.
That is speculation; what isn’t speculation is that a candidate for Congress yesterday called the high court’s decision on Roe V. Wade, a “victory for white life.” That would be Rep. Mary E. Miller, R-Ill., a freshman lawmaker who has to run again because of a state redistricting and she made her dubious, racist observations after receiving trump’s endorsement at a rally in Mendon, Ill., on Saturday. Miller, a member of the far right congressional Freedom Caucus, beamed and behind her, Trump smirked and clapped, as a rapturous crowd howled in approval of Miller’s comments.
“President Trump, on behalf of all the MAGA patriots in America, I want to thank you for the historic victory for white life in the Supreme Court yesterday,” Miller said at the rally, noting that the court ruling was “a joyous victory.” Thousands of Trump supporters gathered at the fairgrounds, not far from the Mississippi River bluffs across from Missouri. Many wore red “Make America Great Again” hats, while others wore shirts proclaiming “Jesus is my savior-Trump is my president” and “God, Guns and Trump.”
Miller’s spokesman later claimed the congresswoman misread her notes about the “white life” victory but not the “joyous victory” comment.
Perhaps she also misread her notes when two days after she began her term in Congress she issued a prepared speech to the conservative group, Moms for America, and quoted Adolf Hitler who said, “Each generation has the responsibility to teach and train the next generation.”
“You know, if we win a few elections, we’re still going to be losing unless we win the hearts and minds of our children. This is the battle. Hitler was right on one thing: he said, ‘Whoever has the youth has the future,’” Miller said, although later she said she had been misunderstood.
Miller campaigns on family values, similar to former football star, Herschel Walker, a candidate for U.S. Senate from Georgia who campaigns on family values and has been found to have multiple children from prior relationships with whom he has no contact. Miller, a cattle farmer with seven children and 17 grandchildren, hasn’t been found to have children from prior relationships but she did hire a re-election aid, Bradley Graven, a former contractor for the state treasurer who pleaded guilty in 2005 following a sting operation in which he contacted an officer posing as a minor in an internet chat room and agreed to meet with him “to engage in sexual activities.” Maybe Miller just misread the background report on Graven.
This is the same Miller who has been outspoken in policies to protect minors including her opposition to allowing minors to use puberty blockers, hormone therapies and sex-change surgeries before reaching adulthood. She also introduced anti-trans legislation, named the misleading, “Safety and Opportunity for Girls Act.”
And there are the campaign finance reports that show Miller’s husband, state Rep. Chris Miller, donated $5,000 to former Illinois state House candidate Tom McCullagh, who dropped out of the race because he was the subject of a lengthy criminal investigation into allegations of grooming and contributing to the delinquency of a teenager. Maybe Miller’s hubbie just didn’t know.
And published reports say that a summer camp run by Miller’s family featured twice-removed, disgraced Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore as a speaker. Moore lost a 2017 GOP bid for U.S. Senate after nine women accused him of inappropriate sexual or social conduct, some of whom were 14, 16 and 28 years old. Moore denied that any of the girls were underage or that he had sexually assaulted anyone and then he won trump’s endorsement. Maybe Miller’s family hadn’t heard of the sexual allegations.
Miller said there was no misinterpretation, no misreading, when she said the 2020 presidential election was “tainted” by voter fraud, siding with trump’s claims that have been debunked even by his top, former advisors.
The rally also was in support of Darren Bailey, a current Illinois state senator and Republican candidate for Illinois governor, who has refused to admit that Biden won the presidential election. Bailey owns a farm and he and his wife, Cindy, run a private Christian school.
“Here’s the deal. I will not lie to anyone and I will not let anything go unnoticed. And when I see it, I will name it,” Bailey said at the rally. Apparently, there are no newspapers or Internet or televisions on his farm because Bailey apparently doesn’t follow the Jan. 6 hearings and doesn’t know that trump lied about the big lie and tried to intimidate voting officials to support him.
And it’s altogether possible that the Hitler-quoting Miller hadn’t noticed the “Three Percenter” decal on her husband’s pickup truck when it was parked at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Miller’s husband, a member of the Illinois House of Representatives, said he got the decal from a friend, thought it was “a cool decal” but didn’t now about the “Three Percenter” group. The group formed in 2008, is part of a loose network of “anti-government extremists” who compare their crusade against the government to Revolutionary War-era patriots, according to the Anti Defamation League. Their name comes from the false claim that only 3 percent of U.S. colonists fought in that war.
For a bit more about the chronically misunderstood and maybe, far-sighted, 63-year-old Miller:
She is serves on the House Committee on Agriculture and the House Committee on Education & Labor.
Miller sided with trump’s false claims that the 2020 presidential election was rigged and on Jan. 6, 2021, when Congress met to formally count the votes of the Electoral College and certify the results of the 2020 presidential election, Miller was one of the members of Congress who claimed the votes of Arizona and Pennsylvania were flawed.
On March 19, 2021, she was one of 14 House Republicans to vote against a measure condemning the Myanmar coup d’état that overwhelmingly passed.
In June 2021, Miller was one of 21 House Republicans to vote against a resolution to give the Congressional Gold Medal to police officers who defended the Capitol on January 6.
In February 2022, Miller co-sponsored the Secure America’s Borders First Act, which would prohibit the expenditure or obligation of military and security assistance to Kyiv unless the U.S. border with Mexico was secured.
You have to feel for the misunderstood congresswoman.