As much as I hate rewarding stupid MAGA tricks with attention, a pundit’s gotta do what a pundit’s gotta do. And that is why Valentina Gomez is malaka of the week.
Remember when almost no one knew who their own secretary of state is let alone someone running for that office in another state? That changed in 2020 with the BIG LIE and MAGA election denialism. Valentina Gomez is the poster girl for both as well as a minor league arsonist.
Trumpers hate immigrants unless you’re one of them. Like Trump’s favorite judge Aileen Cannon, Gomez was born in Columbia and moved to America as a child. I was horrified to learn that we have something in common: a graduate degree from Tulane. In her case, it’s an MBA.
On paper, Gomez looks like a GOP whiz kid: she’s only 25 years old and running for office in a former swing state, Missouri. That concludes our biographical sketch of this sketchy election denialist.
Let’s get down to Gomez’s malakatude: One of her campaign slogans is: Don’t be weak and gay. What that has to do with elections in the Show Me state is beyond me.
She specializes in using social media for her hateful message:
In February, Gomez posted a video in which she used a flamethrower to burn books with LGBTQ+ themes.
“This is what I will do to the grooming books when I become secretary of state,” she said. “These books come from a Missouri public library. When I’m in office, they will burn.”
Say what? Here’s how its web site describes the duties of Missouri’s secretary of state:
The Office of the Secretary of State has many diverse responsibilities, all linked by the common theme of information. The office is responsible for collecting, compiling, storing and publishing a variety of state documents. The Secretary of State, as keeper of the Great Seal of the State of Missouri, authenticates official acts of the governor. In addition, the Secretary of State serves as the chief elections official in Missouri.
Functions of the office are divided into six areas: Elections, Securities, Business Services, State Library, Records Services, and Administrative Rules. The Executive Deputy Secretary of State is charged by law with implementing the policies and procedures of the secretary, and supervising day-to-day operations of certain phases of the office.
Book banning and burning are not part of the job description, neither is homophobia or trolling. Gomez has gone after WNBA star Britney Griner, who has nothing to do with Missouri, as weak, gay, and unpatriotic. I dare Gomez to rot in a Russian jail for 10 months like Griner. It would drive her crazy if she weren’t already barking mad.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: performative politics is a pox on our body politic. There’s long been a freak show element to our politics but the combination of MAGA and social media has led to an explosion of malakatude. Is Valentina Gomez the Latina Marge Taylor-Greene? She tweeted out this photograph with Marge’s pal, Matt Gaetz:
🚨If you’re in Texas🚨GO support @TheAKGuy He’s defeating the corrupt political machine, and has my full support. America First🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/VvoN5O0Nbq
— Valentina Gomez (@ValentinaForSOS) May 20, 2024
Despite the efforts of Gaetz and Gomez, the AK Guy lost his Texas Congressional primary race to GOP semi-moderate Tony Gonzalez.
I missed the Valentina Gomez saga until reading Rebecca Traister’s great article about Republican women in New York Magazine. The flamethrower stunt earned Gomez a place in that article alongside puppy killer and past malaka of the week Kristi Noem and Cassandra’s pal Nancy Mace.
Here’s how Traister described her contact with Malaka Valentina:
When Valentina Gomez agreed to respond to my emailed questions, I noted that she had used “MAGA” to describe her politics and wondered whether she saw a distinction between MAGA and the Republican Party. “I do not use MAGA,” Gomez corrected me. “I am MAGA and The Future of the Republican Party.” Gomez told me she developed her political ideals while swimming Division I, graduating from college at 19, earning an M.B.A. at 21, and “building a real estate empire with my family” — all achievements enabled by the feminist movement. But, she said, “feminism is exactly like the Trans Movement, they are both doomed.”
So, Gomez is a prophet as well as a troll. What should be doomed is book burning. Gomez seems not to be familiar with images such as this:
In an article about the Gomez candidacy, the Kansas City Star tried explaining that she’s in bad company with her book burning stunt:
“Public book burnings typically illustrate extreme censorship related to political, cultural and religious materials. They often invoke historic atrocities such as burning of Jewish texts in Nazi Germany or racist bonfires by the Ku Klux Klan.”
Bad company indeed. The malakatude, it burns books. And that is why Valentina Gomez is malaka of the week.
The last word goes to XTC:
