Remind me never to run for office.
A California mayor says he is stepping down after recently finding out how much it can suck being a public figure, as they aren’t as free to vent their frustrations on social media as most civilians are. His offense? Posting hyperbole with nuggets of truth mixed in by comparing Trump supporters to the KKK and the president to Adolf Hitler.
CBS News resorts that Auburn Mayor Bill Kirby came under fire for posting a meme last week on the “William Kirby, Mayor of Auburn Fan Club” Facebook page showing a hooded KKK member under the text, “Good news for Trump supporters is that most of them already have masks.” Kirby captioned his post with a single word: “True.”
After opening up a Pandora’s Box of digital white tears, Kirby responded to one of the comments saying, “If Hitler and everyone who supported him was removed from the face of the earth in 1939 the world would be a much better place today. The same is more true of Trump and his supporters today.”
You have to admit, that’s pretty gangster for an elected official. Unfortunately for Kirby, conservatives are every bit as much the “snowflakes” they claim everyone else is, and speaking his mind came with consequences. So now the small-town mayor says he will “hand the gavel” to Councilman Daniel Berlant at the next city council meeting on April 27, according to Gold Country Media.
Kirby didn’t apologize for his comments but in a statement to CBS Sacramento, he did offer some explanation.
“I have spent 40 years of my life dedicated to serving Auburn as a physician and through my volunteer efforts,” Kirby said. “Some people have viewed my posts, which were meant to be private and made out of frustration as over the top. Some were and I regret that.”
“I want to share with you where my frustrations have come from,” He continued. “As a doctor, I see nurses, respiratory therapists, other medical staff, first responders and my medical colleagues as well as their patients dying unnecessarily because of the lack of preparation for the coronavirus, The President has put us all at risk.
“I believe history will judge those who stood up against damaging policies and ideologies and those that did not.”
It would be nice if certain people were as appalled by Trump referring to white nationalists who participated in a rally where a woman was killed as “very fine people” as they were at these comparisons of Trump to Hitler. It would be also awesome if they weren’t more offended by Trump supporters being likened to the KKK than they are by the reality that former KKK grand wizard David Duke was a loud and proud Trump supporter even when Trump was still running for president.
Frank Oradaz, an Auburn resident who told CBS Sacramento that he’s known Kirby for a decade, regurgitated a tired strawman argument saying, “I don’t necessarily support Trump, but anytime somebody feels like you like the policies of the president, then you’re a racist, you’re a bigot, you should die, and I think that’s uncalled for.”
Sure, Jan, it’s not the support of a president that constantly promotes xenophobia and demonizes Muslims and immigrants of color every chance he gets that earns people the “bigot” label; it’s simply liking any of his policies that do it.
Anyway, at the council meeting where Kirby announced his plan to resign, he defended himself saying, “(Facebook) is not a city site. It’s a personal site. This has nothing to do with my job. I re-posted it. I think (Trump) is a racist, absolutely.”