ATLANTA – Rep. Jason Spencer’s foray into the underside of popular culture is one of the most cringe-worthy moments in recent memory, an occasion where you can’t help but feel sorry for the guy.
I thought he was absolutely unembarrassable.
I was wrong.
Spencer is the now-infamous Republican Georgia legislator who went on a new Showtime series “Who Is America?” run by the guy who played “Borat” and acted like A) the ultimate rube and B) someone out of his mind.
The lawmaker thought he was dealing with an Israeli security expert and was learning methods to fight terrorism, including screaming the N-word, acting like a rude 1930s caricature of an Asian and then ramming his bare butt into an actor playing an Islamic terrorist.
As his former colleague Joe Wilkinson put it, “You just can’t make this stuff up.”
Two things strike me regarding Spencer. The first is that someone can be smart enough to earn a master’s degree and become a medical assistant, yet be dumb enough to get duped so damningly.
The second and more important takeaway is there seems to be an increasing number of Jason Spencers in politics.
The GOP immediately and loudly insisted that he resign. And after saying he wouldn’t, he soon caved in.
He had hoped to hang on for five months to finish his term and qualify for the lifetime health care afforded to legislators who serve eight years. Sure, he doggedly fought Obamacare. But when it’s you, it’s different.
Spencer is by no means unusual. Conspiracy theories, dog whistles, personal attacks and insipid meanness are increasingly in play. Spencer represents the dark id of politics, a coupling of ignorance with partisanship.
Spencer once warned a former black legislator that she might “go missing” in the Okefenokee Swamp if she kept pushing for the removal of Confederate statues. It was a friendly warning, he said, not a threat.
He also pushed legislation to bar women from wearing burqas on their drivers’ license photos or n while driving. He said he was fighting terrorism but pulled the bill when the Republican leadership essentially said: You’re making us look like you!
Eventually, and thankfully, it finally caught up with him this year when the voters in conservative District 180, tossed him out of office in the GOP primary, putting in a 24-year-old sheriff’s deputy.
Sandy Springs Mayor Rusty Paul, who used to be a state senator and head of the state GOP, said, “We’ve been headed down this road for 30 years. The old school of politics allowed the two sides to battle it out and then talk afterwards to see if there was any middle ground.”
“You hear people say, ‘I want my country back,'” said Paul. “Now your adversary is not only wrong, he’s evil.”
Wilkinson, the Republican former representative, said his son recently ran into an Atlanta Journal-Constitution political reporter at a rally for gubernatorial candidate Brian Kemp. He said they talked about the bitter campaign with secret tapes and Donald Trump’s Twitter endorsements. His son said, “Have you ever seen a week like this?”
And then, the next day Spencer was on TV ramming his butt into Sacha Baron Cohen in an attempt to defeat ISIS.
Democratic state Rep. Scott Holcomb of House District 81 in Atlanta noted two reasons for the growth of fringe characters: “First, gerrymandering has resulted in some districts where extremists win. Second, there is massive distrust of government and people are frustrated. They want change. That leaves openings for people like Trump and Spencer and others like that.”
Spencer said he has received death threats because of his political stands and that Cohen and his producers took advantage of his fears, while also lying to him.
He thought he was engaged in a “demonstration video” of Israeli terror-fighting skills
“As uncomfortable as I was to participate, I agreed to, understanding that these ‘techniques’ were meant to help me and others fend off what I believed was an inevitable attack,” Spencer said. “I deeply regret the language I used at (Cohen’s) request as well as my participation in the ‘class’ in general. If I had not been so distracted by my fears, I never would have agreed to participate in the first place.”
These are fears that Spencer fanned to get elected.
Said Holcomb, “I think Jason believed every word that he said on the show. Every word. He was baited a little, but he jumped at it.”
Holcomb added that there are lots of serious issues during this era of change, especially in the employment and technology world.
“It’s unfortunate all the focus is on politics because the policy is what makes a difference,” said Holcomb in his best eat-your-vegetables manner. “I can see why people get turned off. We too often fail to give a good reason to tune in.”
But when they do tune in, what they see scares them.
BILL TORPY writes for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
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