#679: Ezola Foster

We will reluctantly grant a brief entry also to Ezola Foster. Foster, as you may (or may – more likely – not) remember was Pat Buchanan’s running mate for the presidency in 2000, representing the Reform Party (the takeover of said party was legendary, though, with Buchanan and his allies finally managing to oust all the yogic fliers (!) in a final, epic battle of wills). Foster later left the Reform Party for the charming fellowship of the Constitution Party, but kept her obsession with family values. She is the author of What’s Right for All Americans, and president of Black Americans for Family Values, which means, of course, that she is opposed to most values valued by civilized people. She is also an outspoken opponent of pornography, the civil rights movement, sex education, AIDS education (just a cover for “pro-homosexuality propaganda”) and gay rights. Here is Foster on civil rights.

Like so many wingnut candidates, Foster has a backstory of curious and/or disconcerting behavior, most famously for collecting workers’ compensation payments for nearly a year for a mental disorder she promptly denied having had when she entered Buchanan’s ticket (the link also covers a series of bizarre lawsuits, based on even more bizarre interpretations of the law, from when she worked as a teacher in the 1980s). She (or her party) requested a seal on the records, but the courts were uncooperative (and Buchanan’s campaign had by then run out of money in any case).

Apparently Buchanan had no problems with Foster’s membership with the John Birch Society, which was very broad-minded of him.

Diagnosis: She seems to be still around howling at ghosts and immigrants and Obama, but her influence seems to be rather limited.