Throw the book at them

| 10:00 pm EST February 8, 2024
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In September, I warned that “Even as Republican-led book banning gets more aggressive, there are growing indications that the GOP may not be content to stop there.” I pointed out how a spectator video of Missouri Republican state senators appearing to ignite a flame thrower on books at a GOP-funded event involved only cardboard. However, the senators, one of whom was running for Governor, threatened that actual book burning is not off the table.

Less than half a year later, another Missouri Republican has taken the torch, so to speak, and run with it. Valentina Gomez, who wants to be Missouri’s next Secretary of State, posted an official campaign video on Tuesday showing her using a flame thrower to destroy what she identifies as “grooming” books.

Facing the camera, Gomez identifies the two books propped on a stool as having come from a Missouri public library. According to Newsweek and others who have examined the video, the books Gomez proudly burned included Naked: Not Your Average Sex Encyclopedia by Myriam Daguzan Bernier, and Queer, 2nd Edition: The Ultimate LGBTQ Guide for Teens. As Gomez sets both these books aflame, she warns that “when” she becomes Secretary of State, more such books “will burn.”

Banning books is one thing, but threatening to burn books if elected plus actually burning books while campaigning brings the Republican Party’s hatred and fear to a new level. It should also be mentioned that those books were not Gomez’s to burn. She destroyed the property of the taxpayer-funded Missouri public library system. Ironically, the libraries are overseen by the Secretary of State—the very position for which Gomez believes herself to be a serious candidate.

This development, which reveals that the Republican Party is expanding its repertoire from book banning to book burning, is disturbing for many reasons. However, it also reflects the GOP’s desperation to win voters through confused and hateful messaging. Republicans are continuing to evolve in the wrong direction.