Augustus Invictus Returns, This Time in the California GOP

A lot has happened, to say the least, since I last wrote about former US Senate candidate Augustus Invictus (if you’re unfamiliar with him, see my previous article).

This includes his participation and scheduled speaking spot in the Charlottesville “Unite the Right” rally that began with the now-infamous tiki torch march through the University of Virginia in which many chanted “Jews will not replace us” and culminated in alt-righter James Fields murdering Heather Heyer with his car, his Unabomber fandom, his appearance on a small, openly anti-Semitic show called “Goy Talk” alongside Richard Spencer, his website publishing an article about the “Jewish question”, and his criticism of those who denounced political violence the morning after a white nationalist murdered dozens of Muslims at mosques in New Zealand, among other craziness.

But in terms of electoral politics, Invictus has generally been quiet since he abandoned his short-lived GOP Senate run in 2017 (he had previously lost decisively in the Libertarian Party’s primary when he ran for Senate in the 2016 election). A little digging, however, reveals a different story.

Invictus was recently appointed by California Republican Party Delegate Anthony Macias to fill a vacancy in the GOP as an Associate Delegate; the pair are running for re-election in 2020. In addition, Macias is seeking a spot on the California Republican Party Platform Committee, in which case Invictus would be his alternate. Macias is also running for the California State Assembly. Macias had said that if he were to win the primary for the Assembly seat, he would resign from his delegate spot and appoint Invictus in his place.

While the positions of power described above that Invictus is currently in or could eventually fill are relatively low on the totem pole, it is nonetheless alarming that someone as open about his repugnant views as Invictus has been able to insert himself into a leadership position while remaining relatively undetected and free of relevant media attention. There also remains the strong possibility that Invictus could again choose to seek some sort of higher office if his current tenure is successful.

What makes this situation even more odd is that Macias seems to be trying to appeal to Jewish Republican voters for support; he recently attended the San Jose State University Purim Carnival, writing on Facebook that he will “always… oppose antisemitic hate, wherever it rears its ugly head.”

Besides the fact that Invictus has closely allied himself with people like Richard Spencer and David Duke who generally like to blame Jews for all of the world’s problems (including what they view as a plot to demographically replace the white race, ridiculously referred to as “white genocide), even writing the first draft of the “Charlottesville Statement” for the rally mentioned in the second paragraph, Invictus also dabbled in Holocaust denial in a 2017 interview, saying “Do I believe that 6 million Jews were killed by evil Hitler? Is that what you’re asking me? Okay, then I am still waiting to see those facts.”

From my research, it’s been difficult to tell whether Macias is sincere in his statement against anti-semitism, and is simply deluded and wholly ignorant of Invictus’s views, or if this pandering to the Jewish community is all some kind of a sick joke.

Regardless, it remains imperative that people like Invictus, who represent an ideology that deserves to be relegated as a footnote to the dark corners of history, are kept from any position that aids them in making their sick dreams a reality.