WaPo:
Rep. Rodney Garcia, a state lawmaker in Montana, told a roomful of Republicans he believes the U.S. Constitution says socialists can be jailed or shot simply for being socialists. Garcia initially made the statement at an election event, then he reiterated it to a Billings Gazette reporter.
The Republican Party in Montana swiftly rebuked him.
Garcia’s inflammatory assertion first came Friday night, after former interior secretary Ryan Zinke gave a speech at the party event in Helena. According to reporting from the Gazette, Garcia said he was concerned there were socialists “everywhere” in Billings, which he represents in House District 52.
Billings Gazette reporter Holly Michels later asked Garcia to clarify his remarks, and the lawmaker doubled down.
“So actually in the Constitution of the United States, [if you] are found guilty of being a socialist member you either go to prison or are shot,” Garcia told Michels.
- and then -
Anthony Johnstone, a law professor at the University of Montana, told The Washington Post that “nothing in the Constitution of the United States authorizes the government to punish socialists or anyone else on the basis of their political beliefs.” In fact, the First Amendment prohibits punishing political speech, and the Constitution of Montana “expressly prohibits discrimination on the basis of political beliefs,” Johnstone said. All state lawmakers swear an oath to uphold those doctrines.
...because of course. That's where we are now.
The rubes giggle and run off to make this new bullshit part of the "conservative" dogma, while the Press Poodles feel compelled to fact check it - they stopped long enough to go find someone to tell them whether or not the US-fucking-Constitution says it's OK to shoot socialists.
