Earlier this year, after five years working for Republicans in the Tennessee legislature, Scott Alan Buss became a research analyst for House Speaker Glen Casada. The position came with a $53,000 taxpayer-funded salary which would allow Buss to influence legislation in the GOP-dominated state.

But now that Casada is involved in a scandal of his own making — involving “misogynistic texts traded with his former chief of staff Cade Cothren” — his whole staff is getting the kind of scrutiny typically reserved for elected officials, and Buss is a special kind of batshit crazy.

According to reporter Phil Williams of WTVF:

Scott Alan Buss thinks public education is a satanic plot, that the Pope and Donald Trump are both anti-Christs and that concerns over the spread of measles is nothing but government propaganda. … A YouTube video discovered by NewsChannel 5 Investigates shows Buss arguing that public schools are a satanic plot. “A system built on that foundation cannot be repaired,” Buss said. “It is irreparable. It can’t be fixed. It can’t be saved. It has to be torn down.” … Christians, he argues, should not teach in public schools, saying when they do they are “modeling a satanic approach to the pursuit of knowledge.” Public school parents are exposing their kids to evil, he claims, and feeding them “to the big gay beast.” Buss also says there is a “homo-jihad” to get to children. … Other posts from Casada’s research analyst portray the kids who survived the Parkland school shooting as “government programmed drones.”

That guy, the one whose research skills take him to right-wing conspiracy websites and literally nowhere else, got hired by one of the most powerful Republicans in Tennessee. Though let’s be honest — that’s pretty much on-brand for the GOP. It would’ve been far more shocking if they hired someone competent.

Side note: The article says the news station “discovered” the YouTube video where Buss says schools are a Satanic plot. That’s an exaggeration. I typed Buss’ name directly into YouTube’s search bar and the video was one of the first ones to pop up.

It won’t surprise you to learn that a guy who falls for crazy conspiracy theories is also a conservative Christian who thinks the government should “outlaw Islam” for the good of the nation and who wrote a book awkwardly titled There is no ‘God-given right’ to worship false gods.

Buss is also the Tennessee state director for Capitol Ministries, whose radical founder Ralph Drollinger has plenty of influence with Republicans in Congress and the Trump administration.

The best-case scenario here is that a man who spreads insanity in his private life was influencing legislation in his public life. The worst case scenario is that the two worlds had plenty of overlap and he was able to use his political power to advance his conspiracies. Some of the posts were published when he was supposed to be working for the state, though it’s possible he scheduled those in advance.

(Thanks to Brian for the link)

