One Big Fiesta for Immigrants and Homosexuals

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


That’s how Vernon Robinson describes America under the leadership of North Carolina Congressman Brad Miller. Robinson, who is running for Miller’s Congressional seat, has radio and television ads that are so offensive, they are funny. Not so funny is Robinson’s claim that those who are endorsing this campaign or who have endorsed one of his previous campaigns include Sen. Elizabeth Dole, Bill Bennett, the Police Benevolent Association, Governor Jeb Bush, the Wall Street Journal, and the Greensboro News & Record. If some of these endorsers do not endorse the current campaign, they certainly have not rushed to have their names taken off of the list.

Another of Robinson’s TV ads contains this text:

If you’re a conservative Republican, watching the news these days can make you feel as though you are in The Twilight Zone. Americans are under attack from Islamic extremists in every corner of the world. Homosexuals are mocking holy matrimony and the lesbians and feminists are attacking everything sacred. Liberal judges have completely re-written the Constitution. You can burn the American flag and kill a million babies a year but you can’t post the Ten Commandments or say “God” in public. Seven out of every ten children are born out of wedlock and [Rev. Jesse] Jackson and [Al] Sharpton claim the answer is racial quotas. And the aliens are here but they didn’t come in a spaceship, they came across our unguarded Mexican border by the millions.

Robinson, who appears to be obsessed with the subject of homosexuality, was the one who suggested that Congressman Miller was homosexual because the Congressman had married later in life and had no children. Miller then caved in to the baiting and disclosed that his wife had had a hysterectomy prior to their marriage.

When Robinson ran for Congress in 2004, he raised nearly $3 million, almost all of it from individuals. He has also received significant financial support from PACS associated with Congressman Ron Paul of Texas and Colorado Congressman Tom Tancredo. Tancredo, you will recall, received overnight fame by suggesting that–should al Qaeda launch a nuclear attack on the U.S.–we retaliate by “taking out” Muslim holy sites.

Accusations of FEC violations have also been made against Robinson, and these are pending. In 2004, he was fined for not filing papers with the FEC. But for those North Carolinians who want to see crotch-grabbing illegal immigrants burning the American flag, election violations probably count as insignificant. Fortunately, the polls show that Miller is likely to win.

WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

payment methods

WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate