Republican Candidates Call For Racial Profiling

There are currently THREE Republican electoral candidates who are calling for the increased profiling of Muslim/Arab airline passengers. They are Mark Flanagan, running for the House in Florida's 13th district; Paul Nelson, running for the House in Wisconsin's 3rd district; and John Faso, running for governor of New York state. Faso has said the following:

If a 25-year-old Muslim man who has been traveling frequently to Yemen or Pakistan tries to board a plane, then not only statistical analysis but also common sense tells us that he is more of a potential threat than the grandmother from Queens.

Nelson, the candidate from Wisconsin, offered this helpful advice when he was asked how screeners could tell if a passenger was Muslim or not: "If he comes in wearing a turban and his name is Muhammad, that’s a good start."

In a way, it's actually a relief to hear these explicit expressions of bigotry, rather than having to deal with the usual veneer of politesse and euphemistic bullshit that accompanies such ideas. And frankly, I'm surprised there are only three such candidates (I'm sure more will emerge as the election draws nearer). Needless to say, I hope all three of these candidates lose badly and go crawl back under the rock they came from.