In August, the National Republican Congressional Committee promoted Marty O'Donnell's Nevada House campaign. Its video transcript had him promising to bring together people with different viewpoints. Fair enough. There are limits to what ought to qualify as a different viewpoint.
AP's October 17 investigation found racist posts and Nazi apologetics in O'Donnell's campaign-linked Discord forum.
One March 2024 user asked:
“Was Hitler really an evil guy?”
That is a hell of an icebreaker for a campaign community. Most candidates settle for asking whether you can knock on doors Saturday.
Campaign spokesman Keith Schipper cited zero tolerance for hate, monitoring since spring and nearly 200 bans. Most discussion concerned gaming; some banned users' posts remained.
Good. Ban the bigots. Banning an account and deleting its posts are different jobs. The useful questions are what was deleted and what happens when someone does it again. That is a moderation policy. A spokesman's promise is the heading.
We examined the past extremist-group roles of two Mike Collins county organizers. That was a question about vetting. Here, the question is what enforcement should mean in a campaign community. I don't expect a congressional candidate to inspect every argument about a video game. I do expect a promise against bigotry to have some practical meaning. Somewhere between arguing about Halo and rehabilitating Hitler, the moderator ought to find the damn button.
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