IS IT IN THE WATER?
Hard-right Oxford Republican state Rep Josh Shriver is back in the headlines once again for spewing his white nationalist worldview. First, in mid-November Shriver, now in his second term, verbally sparred with state Democrat Rep. Noah Arbit (Bloomfield Township, West Bloomfield, eastern Commerce Township, Keego Harbor, Orchard Lake, Sylvan Lake) over the latter’s bill to expand 1988 hate crime law. Arbit’s bill expands the definition of the classes protected from violent or threatening behavior. Shriver claimed that the legislation’s definition of a “threat” could be an infringement on free speech, saying it was an “affront to America, our Constitution, our First Amendment, our right to free speech,” and would lead to Michigan becoming a “nanny state.” Perhaps Shirver never really read the bill which carries a provision that says: “This section does not enjoin any individual’s exercise of the constitutional right to free speech.” But no matter to the Oxford Rep., who burnished his rep as a religious zealot even further near the end of November when he called on X (formerly Twitter) to “make gay marriage illegal again,” labeling the U.S. Supreme Court ruling on the issue as “perverted.” His X posting drew a number of responses, including one from progressive political commentator Keith Olbermann, who posted this: “Make religious fanatics’ interference in peoples’ lives a crime. Starting with you.”
