Why is This GOP House Candidate Dressed as a Nazi?
An election year already notable for its menagerie of extreme and unusual candidates can add another one:Rich Iott, the Republican nominee for Congress from Ohio’s 9th District, and a Tea Party favorite, who for years donned a German Waffen SS uniform and participated in Nazi re-enactments.
Iott, whose district lies in Northwest Ohio, was involved with a group that calls itself Wiking, whose members are devoted to re-enacting the exploits of an actual Nazi division, the 5th SS Panzer Division Wiking, which fought mainly on the Eastern Front during World War II. Iott’s participation in the Wiking group is not mentioned on his campaign’s website, and his name and photographs were removed from the Wiking website.
While I most certainly don’t agree with the politician’s views, it should be pointed out that reenactment does not necessarily equal belief. Yes, war reenactments are problematic and there may often be a correlation wrt sociopolitical beliefs—that I won’t deny—but it seems that the question should not be, “why is he dressed as a nazi,” but “why is that what he wants to reenact?”
(via robot-heart-politics)
