Art Robinson

Via the campaign for Representative Peter DeFazio, some choice quotes by his opponent this year, Republican Art Robinson, are making the rounds. Most notably this one:

Public education (tax-financed socialism) has become the most widespread and devastating form of child abuse and racism in the United States. Moreover, people who have been cut off at the knees by public education are so mentally handicapped that they cannot be responsible custodians of the energy technology base or other advanced accomplishments of our civilization. These ignorant people vote, and their votes are beginning to destroy our way of life.

Can this problem be corrected? Yes. Can it be corrected by improving the public schools? No – only by abolishing them. There are over 2 million reasons (aside from the fact that socialism does not work) why public education cannot be improved – two million education bureaucrats and educators who belong to the powerful teachers unions. These people are firmly ensconced on the over-taxed backs of the nation’s property owners and have no intention of changing.

Its source is a 1997 edition of a newsletter Robinson produced called Access to Energy, and the quick quote could be called an aberration. But it isn’t, as a review of the publication makes clear. The front page notes that it “goes into effective action for the causes it espouses. The latest instance of this is the Petition Project – an anti-global warming petition signed by over 17,000 scientists – which exposes Al Gore’s “scientific consensus” on global warming as phony.”

On the basis of a bit of reading there and on Robinson’s campaign site, DeFazio seems to have plenty of material to work with. Of course, that may be only in the opinion of the “mentally handicapped” who attended public schools . . .