As we’ve already seen, at least one pastor who reveled in the massacre at Orlando’s Pulse nightclub learned the hard way that there’s a high price for reveling in such butchery. Well, a state senate candidate here in my state of North Carolina must have missed the memo. He’s under well-deserved fire for wondering if the 49 people killed that night actually deserved to die.
Bob Diamond is the Republican nominee for North Carolina’s 37th Senate district, comprising much of downtown and southwest Charlotte. The district is currently held by second-term Democrat Jeff Jackson. Diamond bills himself as “a rock-solid conservative pharmacist” who believes in “limited government, free markets, and personal responsibility.” According to Daily Kos’ database of election data by state legislative district, Barack Obama won the 37th going away, taking 65.5 percent of the vote–making this one of the bluest white-majority districts in the South.
Suffice to say that a guy who is essentially a Republican from central casting would face very long odds in a district this ridiculously blue. Well, those odds got a lot longer on Monday morning. The state Democratic Party’s social media team stumbled on this post Diamond made to his Google Plus feed two weeks ago.
Diamond wondered–presumably with a straight face–if the Orlando victims actually deserved to die, noting that “unless repentance of sin occurs,” we’re all going to burn. He then linked to an article by Dave Kistler, an international evangelist who is also president of the North Carolina Pastors Network. Kistler argued that while homosexuality was a sin, the victims didn’t die because they were gay, but because of a “godless, anti-Christ, anti-God, anti-American ideology called Islam.”
The Democrats didn’t take long to pounce. State Democratic executive director Kimberly Reynolds declared that Diamond had “disqualified himself from holding elective office” with his “unacceptable” and “downright hateful” post. She also demanded that the state Republican Party condemn Diamond’s remarks.
Later that day, Diamond tried to put out the fire in a chat with The Charlotte Observer’s editorial board. He claimed that the post was “just a teaser” to get people to read Kistler’s article. He apologized for “misleading anybody” with that headline, saying that he didn’t believe anyone at that club deserved to die on account of their sexual orientation.
Observer associate editor Eric Frazier wasn’t impressed. In a post on the editorial page’s blog, O-Pinion, Frazier seemed to ask the same question as the state Democratic Party–does Diamond have any business being in this race?
“Given the link to the Kistler article, it does appear that Diamond was trying to give a tease (albeit an inflammatory one) into what Kistler had written. But a pastor writing about his theological beliefs is one thing. A candidate for Senate, who ostensibly will be called upon to represent gay citizens as well as straight ones? That’s another thing entirely.”
Frazier reminded Diamond that if he has any designs on going to Raleigh, he needs to learn that elected officials aren’t just supposed to “speak for themselves or the narrow slice of the electorate that agrees with their positions.”
Now you’re probably wondering–why are North Carolina Democrats calling in an air strike on a guy who is, based on the numbers, a sacrificial lamb? Well, it looks like the North Carolina Democratic Party realizes that even in districts that are comfortably safe, we should expect that our candidates will at least adhere to some basic standards. That’s been the case for years in Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and other countries with more civilized political climates than ours.
If Diamond had been in either of these countries, he would have been pushed out of the race before the close of business on Wednesday. Maybe it’s time to finally set an example. If Diamond thinks it’s acceptable to use clickbait to even wonder if the Orlando victims deserved to die, he has no business running for dog catcher, let alone state senate. Drop him a line on his Facebook and Twitter feeds and tell him to get out–now.
