Senator Ben Sasse Rips Into 'Pajama-Boy-Nazi' Richard Spencer on Twitter
Republican Senator Ben Sasse of Nebraska is known for sharing quick, personal and sometimes funny tweets.
Case in point:
For all its flaws, the Great Flood taught Noah's grandkids the value of boat repair. https://t.co/QhXDcuVKmk
— Ben Sasse (@BenSasse) September 26, 2017
Kid at this grocery store: "I gotta go to the bathroom!"
— Ben Sasse (@BenSasse) September 15, 2017
his distracted mom: what?
Kid: "Number 3!!!"
(they both sprinted away...)
This evening, he took to Twitter for something different: fighting back against white nationalist Richard Spencer.
Sasse tweeted, "No one loves American-vs-American fighting more than Putin. His intel agencies stroke both sides of every divide," with a link to a Reuters article about the NFL debate and Russian internet trolls.
No one loves American-vs-American fighting more than Putin. His intel agencies stoke both sides of every divide.https://t.co/H6BwjHzokH
— Ben Sasse (@BenSasse) September 28, 2017
Spencer, American internet troll and one of the leaders of the alt-right movement, responded: "In the minds of goober conservatives, the Russians are to blame for racial divisions."
In the minds of goober conservatives, the Russians are to blame for racial divisions. https://t.co/CzpGfL6u4M
— Richard "5%" Spencer (@RichardBSpencer) September 28, 2017
And Sasse got pretty Sasse-y.
1/
— Ben Sasse (@BenSasse) September 28, 2017
Oh let goobers & nongoobers agree on this: Racists like you are to blame. But Putin's agencies also love using you as their divisive tool https://t.co/DaD4XaNvI5
2/
— Ben Sasse (@BenSasse) September 28, 2017
Don’t get me wrong: we’ll always have brown-shirt-pajama-boy Nazis like you & your lonely pals stoking division. But here’s America 101: https://t.co/SboVZmOuu2
3/
— Ben Sasse (@BenSasse) September 28, 2017
You don’t get America. You said: “You do not have some human right, some abstract thing given to you by God or something like that.” https://t.co/ScXDGFcbGp
4/
— Ben Sasse (@BenSasse) September 28, 2017
Actually, that's exactly what America declares we do have: People are the image-bearers of God, created with dignity& inalienable rights. https://t.co/d4orBrHJMw
5/
— Ben Sasse (@BenSasse) September 28, 2017
Sadly, you don't understand human dignity. A person's skin, ancestry, and bank balance have nothing to do with their intrinsic value. https://t.co/5JsyVAKQRL
6/
— Ben Sasse (@BenSasse) September 28, 2017
This declaration of universal dignity is what America is about. Madison called our Constitution "the greatest reflection on human nature" https://t.co/NQluVs1KvA
7/
— Ben Sasse (@BenSasse) September 28, 2017
You talk about culture but don't know squat about western heritage--which sees people not as tribes but as individuals of limitless worth https://t.co/VKNvDUXLtT
8/
— Ben Sasse (@BenSasse) September 28, 2017
The celebration of universal dignity IS our culture, & it rejects your "white culture" crybaby politics. It rejects all identity politics https://t.co/Adlj9AvNPR
9/
— Ben Sasse (@BenSasse) September 28, 2017
Sometime after moving back into your parents' basement, you knock-off Nazis fell in love with reheated 20th century will-to-power garbage https://t.co/XDTeATVGSe
10/
— Ben Sasse (@BenSasse) September 28, 2017
Your "ideas" aren't just hateful, un-American poison--they're also just so dang boring. The future doesn't belong to your stupid memes. https://t.co/bNHSlf1uOx
11/11
— Ben Sasse (@BenSasse) September 28, 2017
Get a real job, Clown. Find an actual neighbor to serve. You'll be happier.
Have a nice day. https://t.co/ToREd7VwDM
Sasse didn't properly thread his tweets, and many of his followers pointed out the mistake, to which he answered, "My bad... (I learned how to thread tweets on a 1997 Blackberry in Kansas)."
my bad...
— Ben Sasse (@BenSasse) September 28, 2017
(I learned how to thread tweets on a 1997 Blackberry in kansas) https://t.co/pb8l7oswPu
Spencer is president of the National Policy Institute, a white supremacist think tank. He rejects the idea that he is a white supremacist, instead referring to himself as an "identitarian." He does, however, advocate for a "white homeland" and called for a "peaceful ethnic cleansing."
Spencer has led the alt-right movement and runs the website AlternativeRight.com. During a National Policy Institute conference, he denounced Jews and quoted from Nazi propaganda. He also led a rally in Washington, D.C., after Trump's election, where he guided members of the rally in a Nazi salute in which they loudly declared "hail Trump."
Many moderate conservatives, Sasse among them, have denounced the alt-right movement led by Spencer. But Trump has yet to come out to denounce them himself, and once even retweeted an alt-right leader who praised Spencer.
