Congressman Known For Angry Outbursts Derides Angry Constituents With Racist Remark

By aaroncynic in News on Mar 3, 2017 6:31PM

Illinois 12th District Representative and noted shouting enthusiast Mike Bost counts himself among many Republican representatives who believe that constituents unhappy with the way things are going in the government should sit down and stay quiet. He chose to make this known via a conversation with the Southern Illinoisans’ Editorial Board late last week, and chose to do it in an incredibly racist way.

"The amount of time that I have at home is minimal, I need to make sure that it's productive," Bost told the Illinoisan. "You know the cleansing that the Orientals used to do where you'd put one person out in front and 900 people yell at them? That's not what we need. We need to have meetings with people that are productive."

Town hall meetings with legislators across the country have become extremely heated, with mad as hell constituents demanding answers from the legislators on everything from Trump’s ban on immigrants and refugees to the dismantling of the Affordable Care Act. Rather than addressing the concerns of their constituents or even doing the absolute least amount of work and simply acknowledging them, lawmakers have grown frustrated. Some like 6th District Rep Peter Roskam have resorted to literally ducking out back doors to avoid meeting the people they represent face to face. Others like Utah Representative Jason Chaffetz have gone down the conspiracy rabbit hole and accused angry members of their districts of being “paid protesters," a trite accusation that turns out to usually involve shadowy conservative boogeyman George Soros and not be true.

Bost also told the Illinoisan that town halls “have been derailed across the country in an effort to disrupt the honest conversation that representatives need to have with their constituents.”

When given a chance to apologize and clarify his remarks, Bost instead gave a non-apology, saying it was unfortunate his “poor choice of words” distracted from his Very Important shaming of angry constituents.

"I used a poor choice of words in describing the coordinated disruptions taking place across the country,” Bost told CNN in a statement. “While there was no malicious intent, I regret that my words may have distracted from an important point. When the booing and shouting drowns out the conversation we're trying to have with our constituents, it becomes that much harder to govern.”

Interestingly enough, Bost himself is well-known for his own outbursts. During his tenure in the Springfield legislature, the Congressman regularly went off on angry tirades.

Here’s him red-faced and shouting about legislative rules:

Here’s him shouting about pensions and throwing papers everywhere:

And the time he literally tried to rip out a microphone:

Michael Lo, a Chinese-American constituent of Bost’s told CNN the Congressman’s non-apology was “an empty statement.”

"Asians are always misrepresented," Lo said. "People don't always think of Asians facing racism, but we do." He also added that he was just as concerned about Bost’s lack of town halls.

Update 2:40 p.m.

The Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance denounced Bost Friday afternoon.

"What we’re seeing at the local level is this emboldened use of more racist and racially charged rhetoric from our politicians. And it’s no wonder why this is happening,” aid Arathi Jayaram of APALA Illinois and the Chicago Teachers Union in a statement. “We’ve seen racist, xenophobic, and hateful speech on the national scale thanks to 45, and it’s definitely trickling down to the state and local levels too.”

A group of Bost's constituents in southern Illinois also condemned their representative for the remarks. Indivisible 57, say their requests for town hall meetings with Bost have not only been rebuffed but that his office once called the police on a group of constituents, is demanding the Congressman apologize and meet with the people he represents.

"As Congresswoman Grace Ming stated, the term ‘Oriental’ is an “insulting and outdated term” which is offensive to many Asian-Americans," said the group in a statement. "In addition, Congressman Bost comparing constituents requesting a town hall meeting to Mao Zedong’s oppressive regime shows a lack of understanding about American
democracy."