Too Big a Tent: Indiana Republicans Struggle with Nazi Sympathizer Running for Congress

For those who advocate a “big tent Republican party” of different views, the tent may be slightly too big in Indiana where a candidate for the 2nd congressional district values not just low taxes and a strong defense but Adolph Hitler. Tony Zirkle has a resume that makes him the perfect candidate from being a top prosecutor to his attendance (for two years) at the Naval Academy. It is just that little Nazi thing that tends to jump out from his resume.

For civil libertarians, Zirkle is well-known in Indiana for his crusade against Internet pornography. A graduate of Georgetown (that is George TOWN not George Washington), he was a popular tough on porn leader. Few people asked exactly what he hated about pornography: he believes it is a Jewish-inspired attack on women. Just in case that was not a sufficient addition to the Republican platform, Zirkle also believes that the races should be segregated into different states.

On April 20th, Zirkle attended a curious photo-op: the 119th birthday celebration for Adolf Hitler. In addition to the over-sized birthcake for the Fuhrer, there was Nazi flags and nazi uniforms galore. Brown shirts optional but BYOS (Bring Your Own Swastka).

Zirkle wants to stop the “the genocide of the white race” of pornography which he calls the “unholy pornocaust.” He traces the greatest threat to white women as black porn stars: “We now have a small army of male black porn stars that are sifting through five, ten, fifteen thousand women. One man can now genocide the wombs of thousands of women.”

Look, I can live with a Nazi running for office, but I cannot abide using use of destruction of the English pursuit in what Zirkle might call the
“verbocaust” of the English language.

Just before you dismiss him as another unhinged wingnut, consider this: he won 30 percent of the vote in the Republican primary in 2006 and was the best known prosecutor in the state. His website, here, features his life story, including his take on the porn mule massacre.

Here another interesting factoid about Heir Zirkle: he was born Jewish (later converting to Christianity): “What most people don’t know about me is that I’m the father of three beautiful Jewish Christian children.” Of course, he know cites a “massive number of Jews” as using porn to destroy America and noted that “most of the early porn stars were Jewish men.”

The fact that Zirkle holds a license and served as a leading prosecutor is an interesting issue. Not long ago, Illinois denied a license to Matthew Hale due to his racist and anti-semitic views, click here. It is a free speech v. good character dilemma for bar associations.