Compare and contrast this Gomer Pyle looking troglodyte wearing an offensive costume many years ago and losing his job over it…
versus
Kevin Hart and/or James Gunn losing their job (offers) due to offensive tweets posted many years ago.
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One:
He didn’t “lose” his job; he willingly resigned before the backlash against him could gear up into full swing.
Two:
Kevin Hart and James Gunn are entertainers, not policy makers and so-called leaders of the government who make decisions that have a real impact on the masses.
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This person reached a state cabinet position, he must have had a good education. Stupidity is not an excuse.
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Dollars to donuts if he was a Republican he would still be in office and the whitesplainin’ on Fox would be in full force.
EDIT Nevermind misreading where it said Democrat. Wow I am surprised he resigned
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Can Boing Boing just get a Florida tag already?
Fark has had one for years.
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Stupidity ≠ Ignorance, but either way fuck this guy.
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What are you talking about? Stupidity is a virtue for a Republican candidate. The less they know about global warming, vaccines, evolution, abortion, monetary policy, etc… the better. An informed candidate is not as reliable at toeing the line. People have flipped sides after being elected to office and accidentally exposed to facts. It drives the GOP crazy.
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The photo should be on the front page- so that every time he applies for a job & gets googled- it’s the first result.
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I just have so many questions…
OK - lets just set aside the idea that he thought poorly executed blackface was cool:
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Why exactly did he target a “Katrina Survivor”? I mean that is oddly specific. Unlike lots of other things you can ridicule, other than the fact they lived near the southern edge by the ocean (as anyone in Florida does), being a victim of Katrina was no fault of their own.
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Ok, so you decided to make fun of Katrina Survivors - why are you dressed as a woman? I mean they had that “Lootie” meme back then. Going as that would allow you to look like a stupid racist in black face and not look stupider in really bad drag.
Plus he had a bucket of beer. Even if people don’t like stupid racists in black face, people like beer.
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I mean when you’re neck deep in racism, why not add some sexism as well? 
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It was right after Katrina, he was probably trying to be topical. Right wing media at this time was wall to wall about how the looters were robbing the city blind, this was the image they were presenting for Katrina. How a horrible city tore itself apart through no fault of the current administration. For someone living in the bubble this probably seemed like a fresh costume idea.
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Governor Ron DeSantis said he accepted Ertel’s resignation because “I don’t want to get mired in side controversies.”
Get it? Mired? Katrina victim? Mired? Governor made a funny!
I genuinely do not understand under what circumstances short of having to do so to appease someone holding a busload of orphans hostage at the point of a flamethrower why anyone would ever think that funny or wise to do at this point in time and society.
I am left to presume alcohol was involved in ridiculous quantities. Not that I find that to be an excuse, just one more aspect of this person’s mindset perhaps.
The weird thing is this costume needed a fair bit of prep work. There was forethought put into it. At the very least he had to make the shirt, and probably acquire the headgear.
It doesn’t seem likely that he was trying to win some meta “most offensive costume” contest.
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Technically, his shirt said “Victim”, not “Survivor”. And he went with it because it was – no doubt – amusing to him since he lacks a shred of human empathy. Seriously. I’m not kidding when I say that. If you dress up as a “victim” of a tragedy that JUST HAPPENED, you have zero empathy, at least for the people you are mocking. Prove me wrong.
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He may be in denial about a certain corner of his sexuality that he only allows himself to show in public during Halloween? Maybe dig around and see what he was up to in college. That, or he thought it made the joke just that much funnier.
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It’s not completely implausible that he immediately resigned not for the black face, but for the cross dressing.
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That is literally the only plausible scenario I could think of for coming up with this costume… like to wear to a frat party with that semi-veneer of irony providing just a little cover, getting attention, and making that “stand” thing where straight white dudes get together and show off what they can get away with to keep the rest of us in line.
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OH yeah, good point. I think many of his constituents would find one more forgivable than the other.
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Mmmm. I don’t know. That’s so common among straight boys on Halloween that I think it has the official “Bro Seal of Approval!”
I’m also wondering if his resignation was the political equivalent of a forced suicide note. A “fall on your own sword” type of thing to avoid further scrutiny into him and those around him. Better to bow out now, quickly, before the shovels come out and the real digging begins.
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Ugh, I can’t wait for someone to throw out “youthful indiscretion” as a defense of this picture of a 36 year old man being a racist, classist shitbag.
As for why a woman, I think you can probably boil it down to an Extremely Republican attempt to make the “Cadillac-driving welfare queen” stereotype into a hip trendy reference.
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