I Like this Guy

Gary Chambers is running for Senate in Louisiana as a Democrat. He hopes to defeat John Kennedy.

His campaign went viral when he smoked a joint in a campaign ad to argue for marijuana legalization, and now he has burned a Confederate flag in another video.

I like this guy:

Last month, Gary Chambers drew attention for sparking up a marijuana blunt in a political campaign ad. Now the Democrat from Louisiana is getting attention for sparking up something else: a Confederate flag.

The new ad shows Chambers, who’s running for U.S. Senate, dousing the flag in gasoline in slow motion and setting it ablaze as he denounces what he describes as systemic inequality among Black Americans and argues that “remnants of the Confederacy remain.”

“The attacks against Black people — our right to vote and participate in this democracy — are methodical,” Chamber says in the one-minute video released Wednesday, adding: “Our system isn’t broken; it’s designed to do exactly what it’s doing, which is producing measurable inequity.”

………

By Friday morning, Chambers’s new ad, titled “Scars and Bars,” had amassed nearly 1 million views on Twitter. One of Chambers’s previous campaign ads, released on Jan. 18, racked up 6.7 million views on the platform. In it, Chambers smokes marijuana and advocates for the drug’s legalization, arguing that laws that prohibit cannabis have disproportionately targeted Black Americans.

In a statement sent to The Washington Post, Erick Sanchez, a senior adviser to Chambers who conceptualized and scripted the ads, said the campaign was pleased with the response.

“Our ads are representative of Gary’s passion to raise awareness for the issues that leave the often forgotten communities in this country behind,” Sanchez said. “While the imagery might be deemed controversial by some, the harsh realities that are highlighted in these ads should be infuriating to all.”

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This is how it should be done:  Don't accommodate the racist claims of Confederate heritage, mock them, and demonize them, because this is something to be fought, not tolerated.