Jan Schakowsky Wins-- Illinois Democrat Draws The Craziest Extremist So Far This Cycle

Despite the hairdo, Susanne Atanus is not from EMILY's List

Every good progressive deserves their own opponent like Susanne Atanus. Recall that last January we had a chuckle over the crackpots running against Jan Schakowsky in her Evanston, Wilmette, Winnetka, Des Plaines, Arlington Heights district (IL-09). Safely Democratic (D+15), the NRCC ignores it but it attracts fringe candidates like Susanne Atanus. Atanus is certifiably insane-- like seriously deranged and unable to get in touch with reality-- so, of course, last week, Republican primary voters picked her over a more mainstream Republican. Atanus beat former Democrat and Navy vet David Earl Williams III who fell in love with Ron Paul… and never looked back.

Atanis, a perennial vanity candidate, wants to abolish the S&P, Dow Jones and Nasdaq in order to move the economy "forward" and has publicly stated that God controls the weather and has put tornadoes and diseases such as autism and dementia on earth as punishment for gay rights and legalized abortions. Normal people politely look away. Republican base voters… they gave her a 12,447-12,012 win in last Tuesday's primary.

Fearing a candidate as extreme and delusional as Atanus, the Evanston and Niles Township Republican organizations endorsed Williams, who-- good Republican that he is-- has a domestic violence order of protection that his ex-girlfriend obtained from a judge in Washington, DC. He claims that Schakowsky sent "her legion of supporters" to vote for Atanus and that that is why the GOP is stuck with a demonstrably psychotic candidate. After she won, Cook County Republican Organization Chairman Aaron Del Mar says Atanus should drop out of the race because "her behavior, comments and decisions do not reflect that of the Cook County Republican Party." Establishment Beltway blogger Ed Kilgore points out that Atanus really is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the way extremist fringe candidates have been taking over the Republican Party in the last few years.

I haven’t mentioned Atanus despite a twelve-post blogging quota because I don’t think you have to cite a “fringe candidate,” even if she’s a Republican nominee for Congress, in order to establish that extremist views are vastly more common and welcome in the GOP than in the Donkey Party. There are so many GOP elected officials and major candidates for office espousing such views that who needs to run the risk of being accused of inflating a marginal wingnut?

Take the John Birch Society-generated Agenda 21 meme, which is just as delusional as anything Atanus has said. It’s part of the messaging of North Carolina U.S. Senate candidate Greg Brannon, who could well wind up being the nominee in a crucial Senate race this fall. It was the subject of a legislative “briefing” held by the official Republican caucus in my home state of Georgia. It was the subject of enacted legislation in Alabama. And Agenda 21 was attacked in a resolution formally adopted by the Republican National Committee.

Anyone who thinks the two parties are “equivalent” in extremist influence either isn’t paying attention or is moving the goalposts by pretending that whatever Obama and Democrats are doing is some sort of revolutionary Marxist outrage, even if it’s been ho-hum policy for Democrats and even for Republicans for years. Yes, there are left-of-center news outlets that lazily try to establish this by citing random “fringe” figures, but it’s really not necessary.