C’mon, Missouri! Today you’re just making it too easy.

From the same news source as this post, here’s reporter Kylie Cheung at jezebel.com’s article on more mental instability Made In Missouri…

On Tuesday afternoon, Valentina Gomez shared a video of herself taking a flame-thrower and burning the books Queer: The Ultimate LGBTQ Guide for Teens and Naked: Not Your Average Sex Encyclopedia. “This is what I will do to the grooming books when I become secretary of state,” Gomez says in the video, set to upbeat hip-hop music. “These books come from a Missouri public library. When I’m in office, they will burn.” The clip ends with a glamour shot of Gomez posing with a large gun.

Gomez[…]seems to think the role would give her the power to ban (torch…?) books and push an extremist anti-LGBTQ agenda in schools and libraries. Her website lists “protecting children against the transgender agenda” and “protecting sports—there’s only 2 genders” as top priorities. But other than actively trying to rig elections in favor of anti-LGBTQ lawmakers, it’s not really clear what authority she’d have as secretary of state to mandate trans-exclusionary team sports policies at Missouri schools or make a statewide book bonfire.

Gomez’s flamethrower ad comes as Republicans are escalating attacks on books across the country. […] Gomez is clearly trying to capitalize on her party’s ongoing, heightened embrace of censorship and fascism in the name of anti-LGBTQ bigotry. And the sad thing is, whether or not she’s actually able to deliver on her campaign promise to incinerate all books that reference queer identity, her utterly insane stunts might just appeal to enough voters anyway.

Regardless on where you stand on the subject, is this the quality of administration you’d want for the fine State of Missouri? As Cheung notes, “What does that have to do with being secretary of state?”