Joel Campbell is running for the Topeka City Council.
He’s also a former member of the Proud Boys, a right-wing extremist group that was involved in the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol building on Jan. 6.
But to hear his account to The Topeka Capital-Journal’s Blaise Mesa, that’s behind him now. Besides, the Proud Boys he knows aren’t like that at all.
“A lot of the values I still support. I still hang out with some of the guys that used to be in it,” he said. “We still hang out. We don’t really have a club or a group, we just go out for drinks.”
Campbell added later: “It started as a wholesome idea and got way out of hand in the last six to nine months. It was all supposed to be about men hanging out, having fun and having drinks together.”
One might ask what that “wholesome idea” was, given that experts say the group has worked to mask its white supremacist attitudes behind talk of being “Western chauvinists.” The Proud Boys have been labeled a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks such things, and the country of Canada.
If we take Campbell at his word, however, young people need to remember that their actions have consequences. He still has a tattoo associated with the group and includes mentions of it in his social media. The fact that he spoke about it to a reporter has likewise linked his name to a group with abhorrent values.
In other words, joining an extremist group can mark you for life.
On the other hand, if you’re inclined to see Campbell’s words skeptically, you owe it to yourself to research candidates. Articles like Mesa’s are vitally important. You need to know who is running to represent you and what their values are. Do they align with yours?
We hope that Campbell has truly turned his back on a group that has come to stand for violence against the U.S. government. We hope he understands that President Biden won a free, fair and incontestable victory over his opponent. We hope he believes that our city and country are stronger because of the diversity of races, ethnicities, genders, sexual identities, religious beliefs and backgrounds of its people.
If you’re running to represent folks, you have to be ready to represent all of them.
— Topeka Capital-Journal
