In 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, as well as 2018, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” published profiles of Art Robinson, the former Chairman of the Republican Party of Oregon who is stuck in a time loop where he keeps running for U.S. House in Oregon’s 4th Congressional District. Even with the Tea Party wave working for him back in 2010, Robinson still lost by double digits. The key factor why might be that Art Robinson has some of the weirdest opinions on science of any member of the GOP we’ve ever profiled. Like mad scientist levels of weird.
It would be one thing if he just denied climate change (which he does), but Art Robinson has argued that the dangerous banned pesticide, DDT, was wrongly discontinued by environmentalist “opportunists”, and suggested we dilute nuclear waste and sprinkle it in the ocean, or even over the mainland as a means of its disposal. He’s even suggested it should be added to the water supply, specifically, and that such an action would “hermetically enhance our resistance to degenerative diseases”. Robinson also denies the link between the HIV virus and AIDS, and that it’s just “a natural consequence of the gay lifestyle”. Robinson has said public schooling is “tax-financed socialism” and “child abuse”. He has also argued against diversity in universities, because “difficult, total-immersion training in science is an experience few women and blacks desire”.
That last comment might make sense when you consider that Robinson is a self-professed fan of G.A. Henty, an author he recommends in his own home-schooling curriculum whose books tend to say things like the average intelligence of an adult of African descent equates to a 10 year old white person, or that the plight of American slaves wasn’t that bad. In 2014, Art Robinson also sent out mailers asking his district’s constituents for five years of urine samples, without much explanation of what he was going to do with them, scientifically.
Now, maybe Art Robinson would have a chance to knock off Bill DeFaizo, what with Oregon’s 4th only having a +2 Democratic lean in the Cook Partisan Voting Index… but on the other hand, DeFazio is a capable legislator, while Art Robinson is bats*** insane. The good people of Oregon’s 4th are well aware of that, thankfully, and Art Robinson keeps losing to Peter DeFazio. Robinson has been propped up by the conservative billionaire Mercer family, who you may also know as the biggest donors to Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. And, after Trump won the presidency but Robinson lost his latest bid for Congress, they were recommending he be brought on to Trump’s administration as a science advisor, because the Cabinet of Horrors that Trump assembled wasn’t deliberately meant to destroy the agencies they were placed in charge of enough as it is. Thankfully, Robinson didn’t get the gig, and is kept… skulking about Oregon. And at the age of 76, would you believe the Mercers have propped up Art Robinson again as a candidate in 2018, when by all estimations, Democratic voter turnout is predicted to be at its highest in a decade, and his candidacy will truly be a lost cause?
And… the same result. Art Robinson won the GOP Primary for Oregon’s 4th District, and lost for the fifth straight election cycle, getting yet another ***-kicking courtesy of Peter DeFazio by double digits. The definition of insanity is considered by many to keep doing the same thing and expect different results, and at this point, Art Robinson’s persistence seems like one more point to prove he’s deranged. Think we’re joking? Art Robinson has already announced his intention to get his ass kicked by Peter DeFazio for a SIXTH consecutive time in 2020. It’s just a tradition, now.