Neal Tapio’s march towards a new campaign of refugees, racial profiling, and islamophobia. Is anyone really looking to hear it all over again?

Pat Powers

In February of 2009, writing on his blogspot website, Neal Tapio offered his following thoughts on racial profiling:

If you are a Middle Eastern man in your middle teens to late 40’s, you have the same look as a terrorist. You should be mad as hell the people that look like you are willing to blow up planes in the name of Allah, not at the rest of us who recognize the look of a terrorist.

Deal with it.

Read that here.

In 2009 Neal Tapio declared that if you looked like you have “Middle Eastern” ancestry, “you have the same look as a terrorist” and that they can just “deal with it.”  And “for the people who believe profiling is wrong, you have blood on your hands.”

And a decade later that rhetoric has not changed.

In 2018, after expressing his intention to get into the race for US Congress, Tapio found himself in front of an interfaith group at the capitol in Pierre who prayed for tolerance and religious acceptance:

Members of the group invited Tapio to join them for a group photo. Tapio, looking uncomfortable, stood with them as cameras clicked and flashed.

Then he turned his back to the cameras and began yelling at those around him, “I don’t like being called a racist.”

The former state director for President Donald Trump then launched into a speech he’s frequently made before. He stressed the need to ban travel to the United States by Muslim individuals, particularly from Muslim-majority countries where groups have supported Sharia law.

Read that here.

I can’t imagine why he might think they consider him racist.  Nor can I see that there’s a groundswell to hear it all over again.

Last election, the rhetoric included Tapio going so far as to intimate that an Islamic terrorist attack prior to the June South Dakota primary would “assist his candidacy.”  In a recording, he said, “And then all that has to happen is that there will be one more terrorist attack between now and then and I will be the, just by the Trump effect, I will be the candidate. That’s the way I look at it.”

While there wasn’t an attack, raising the specter of Islamic terrorism didn’t propel his campaign forward either.

After the 2018 Republican Congressional Primary had Tapio coming in third, defeated about 2-1 by now incumbent Congressman Dusty Johnson, it seemed that we might be done with Tapio’s apparent war with people who might worship God differently or look differently than he does.

But after a year where we didn’t hear much about it, Neal came out of the woodwork, and expressed he may get into the race.   He even put Republicans on notice that he may skip the primary.   In recent weeks Tapio has engaged the services of a person doing exploratory work for him.

And as opposed to trying something new, he appears to be preparing his entry into the race with a near-constant stream of anti-foreigner rhetoric, via facebook.

It’s like deja-vu all over again.  The same rhetoric Neal ran unsuccessfully on in 2018 when there was an open seat is being recycled for a new campaign against the now incumbent who cleaned his clock in the primary.  An incumbent popular with state residents, I might add.

I’m not sure why Neal thinks that a new campaign based on his same tired platform of refugees, racial profiling, and islamophobia will create a groundswell that’s going to carry him over Dusty Johnson in June or November.   Is this the kind of thing that South Dakotans want to hear after it was rejected once already? I find that highly doubtful.

The Tapio campaign is already recycling the same-old rhetoric in the same narcissistic manner, where the campaign isn’t about what South Dakotans need, or what state residents want.  It’s all about the things that Neal has been talking about for more than a decade.

His campaign against those following a different religion didn’t work in 2018.  And I really doubt it’s going to get any farther now in 2020.

32 thoughts on “Neal Tapio’s march towards a new campaign of refugees, racial profiling, and islamophobia. Is anyone really looking to hear it all over again?”

  2. Tapioca is full of hate. He won’t get my vote and he surely does not represent the concerns and values of the vast majority of Republicans in South Dakota.

  4. You’re funny, Volesky. Trump won the same way Geo W won. By lying to the gullible, fundamentalist Christians. Tapio was raised in that world but went rogue.

    1. Rich from a guy that hides behind a fake name and then talks about how others lie and acts in a sexist manner towards women

  6. I think there is a difference between ‘America First’ (how I view Trumps immigration philosophy) and ‘White Christians Only’ (how I view Tapios immigration philosophy). I only believe one of them is racist.

    1. Tapio is a phony. He is hiding behind Trump to make his racist accusations. Trump would have nothing to do with Tapio. it’s obvious by the fact that Tapio had never recieved any support from Trump.

      Trump is damaged by hangers on and misleaders like Tapio.

  7. Islam is a religion, not a race, and it’s incompatible with American laws and customs. The same can be said of the FLDS. At least the Mormons aren’t trying to recruit young men for holy wars; when the FLDS compound has a surplus of young men they just kick them out.
    Perhaps Neal could get some traction by suggesting that Muslim immigrants be resettled in Pringle so they could learn some things.

  8. Whether you like him or not, Trump is a once in a lifetime talent. He says things no one else ever could.

    Neal Tapio has 1/10 the natural talent of Donald Trump.

    1. Tara, no one knows who he is. He is not even running. He will fail to have adequate time to run a campaign. He is a moron who craves attention and wants to be somebody.

      He should focus his time on living a more Christian and principled life before he points fingers at everyone else.

    2. It’s a matter of numbers and Tapio knows it.

      Today Muslims make up about 1% of US residents, by 2050 their population here will double.

      Muslim women are outproducing non-muslims big time. Muslims will surpass Christians by the second half of the century. Between 2010 and 2015, 30 percent of babies born in the world were Muslim.

      Bury your heads if you want, but the religion of Islam is the biggest threat to the world today.

  10. Nobody is even paying any attention to future races. I am all for competition. I think it is good for SD to have more than 1 or 2 choices. Personally, I would love to see a Libertarian like Ron Paul run.

  15. I guarantee you if Tapio primaries Johnson, especially if the Democratic presidential primary’s looking settled, there will be a surge of Democrats and independents who reregister as Republicans to vote for Johnson in the primary. I’m pretty sure it happened in 2018, and the only thing that coukd keep it from hapoening in 2020 is if the outcime in South Dakota could actually impact the Democratic primary for President.

    1. Why dont democrats run the attorney who lost to Curd last cycle? If she had a few hundred grand I think she could do well for them. Not win but 40%+ casey olivier I believe is who ran against Curd.

  16. I love how Tara consistently tries to tie Tapio to Trump as her method of arguing for the guy.

    TRUMP EATS FOOD AND SO DOES NEAL, U GAIZ!!!!
    THEY BOTH HAVE EYEBROWS!!!

    PRITTY MUCH THE SAME PERSON!!!!!!!!

    1. TRUMP EATS FOOD AND SO DOES NEAL, U GAIZ!!!!
      THEY BOTH HAVE EYEBROWS!!!

      PRITTY MUCH THE SAME PERSON!!!!!!!!

      –Funniest comment ever produced on this site. I wish you would have put a name to it so we could credit you. 🙂

    1. Mr. Tapio is apoplectic regarding the Refugee Resettlement Program. President Trump issued Executive Order #13888 of 9/26/2019 which continues the Refugee Resettlement Program with enhanced vetting and mandates local authorization prior to any resettlement. President Trump did not abolish, pause or obstruct the Refugee Resettlement Program. Do you see a difference between Mr. Tapio’s and President Trump’s immigration policies? I do. That’s how.

  18. Posting from proxy servers isn’t allowed.

    And it’s a little ironic that someone is complaining about immigration through a server located in Canada.

  19. Anybody else have a problem with military-age men seeking refugee status?
    It’s one thing to grant temporary protective status to mothers and their children, but the men? Adult women who don’t have kids?
    During WWII, many British children were evacuated to the US and Canada. But their parents stayed behind, to defend their country. After the war, the kids went home.
    This is how TPS is supposed to work. The settlement here is supposed to be temporary. When the situation is resolved in their country of origin, they are supposed to go home. But as refugees they are entitled to the full smorgasbord of public entitlements, so the living is easy.

    And what LSS does is just a form of human trafficking; they take the money the government gives them to resettle them, then cut them loose in the community without any assistance at all. The taxpayers pick up the tab by paying for all the public assistance they qualify for.
    It’s foolish to close your eyes to the fact there is a problem; the schools are dealing with it, with the large numbers of students who don’t speak English, law enforcement is dealing with it, with the large numbers of people who don’t understand our laws and don’t understand why they are charged with breaking them.
    While LSS is making a lot of money off of refugee resettlement, the cost is adding up for everybody else.

    1. I have no problem with men, women or children suffering under religious or ethnic extreme persecution seeking refugee status. And, as a father, I’d be disposed to stay with my family than be separated from them. I need no more example than the fathers who voluntarily entered concentration camps which contained their family members and fathers who jumped from moving trains when their family didn’t board the train with them.

      Question: Why in the predominantly Lutheran WWII German nation are there so few Lutheran ministers who were annihilated in the concentration camps and so many Catholic Priests? The Lutheran ministers where also fathers with families (I’m not criticizing the Lutheran ministers or praising the Catholic Priests). My point is a father who abandons his family in the face of danger is neither a good father or a patriot. When our service men and women are deployed, they leave their families in safety. And, to that point, I understand why people who have only seen a government which kills its citizens will not leave their family no matter how great they have been promised it will be someplace else.

      Your British example is not apples to oranges- It wasn’t the British government which was endangering their children but external forces.

      Final comment: LSS did their job in helping the Burmese refugees get to Sioux Falls and initially settled. I thank them for that. As most of them are Catholic, my parish (mostly a dedicated team of volunteers) has taken on the responsibility to help them get acclimated. We help them get housing, we get them furniture, we find them insurance agents, we help them find jobs, and transportation etc. Now after ten years, they are becoming US citizens and more than carrying their own weight.

  20. The problem is not Muslims. The problem is the Muslim Brotherhood. The movement has set up shop in Sioux Falls and Lutheran Social Services is making money bringing their potential recruits into this state. How many more shootings on military bases have to occur before we wake up and understand who the real enemy is…and it is not Neal Tapio. But posts like this only make it easier for our enemies to go unnoticed.

  21. I can only imagine how Mr. Neal Tapio turned his verbal firepower loose on LSS at the refugee meeting in SF today. He’s been hyping this, hopefully someone has video. All the crime in SF and all the facebook rants probably came to a head, it had to be spectacular. Please someone post the video.

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