TheIndependent American Party of Nevada (IAPN) is a totalitarian, theocratic party that seeks to base the laws of the land on Biblical law. IAPN is, in otherwords, pretty wicked and extreme, and is, in fact, an official affiliate of theovertly theocraticConstitution Party.The IAPN was founded by Daniel Hansen as part of an effort to get AlabamaGovernorGeorge Wallace on the ballot in Nevada for the 1968 presidential election, and remains (ofcourse) a fringe party; it does, however, have a membership of over 70,000, includingcelebrities likeCliven Bundy.Sharron Angle used to be a member in the 90s until she realized that she wouldn’t really begoing anywhere careerwise by representing the IAPN and switched partyaffiliations (there is evidence that she didn’t much change opinions onpolitical matters).

The IAPN’s perennial candidates for political office tend tobe the family of Daniel Hansen, including his sister Janine “Cliven Bundy is my hero” Hansen, the party’s executive director, and sons Joel and Christopher. JanineHansen is also the leader of Nevada’sEagle Forum and the Constitutional Issues Chairman ofPhyllis Schlafly’s organization, as well as the founder, publisher, and editor of the NevadaFamilies Voter Guides (yeah, avoid that one). The Hansens have been staunch opponents ofwomen’s rights and marriage equality, and were behind organizing for instance theSTOP ERA [Equal Rights Amendment] movement in the Western states (Daniel Hansenclaimed that homosexuals are “termites of civilization [who] have brazenlyoozed out of their closet to proclaim that they have a right to maim, molestand embarrass society”).

Ira Hansen, however, is, as far as I can tell, JanineHansen’s son, but a Republicn who ostensibly does not want any part of theIAPN. He stillheartily deserves coverage:Ira Hansen used to be speaker-elect of the Nevada Assembly buthad to step down in 2014 followingnational publicity over a report on his racist and misogynistic columns in a local newspaper, which includedlabeling black people as “simple minded darkies”, using the word “negro” todescribe Obama, and lamenting the “lack of gratitude and the deliberateignoring of white history in relation to eliminating slavery,” which Hansenthinks “is a disgrace that Negro leaders should own up to.” He claimed, ofcourse, that the report was an “orchestrated attack” on his character and thatthe quotes were 20 years old and taken out of context (which is not entirelytrue). Ira Hansen also wrote a letter in 2013 (on official state letterhead)claiming that homosexuality is a choice of sexual behavior like adultery,pedophilia and bestiality, and that gays “are not a ‘minority’ any more thanadulterers are a minority.” Indeed, Hanseninsists on claiming that gay people tend to be responsible for child molestations (gayswere also somehow to blame for the Catholic priest sexual molestation scandal).Real research suggests the opposite, but Hansen rejects that research because “I’vebeen keeping a rough tally on homosexual/heterosexual molesters as reportedlocally, and roughly half of all molestations involve homosexual men preying onboys.” Needless to say, he did not publish the list or give any details of themethodology used to determine the sexuality of the alleged molesters. He has alsosuggested that the Oklahoma City bombing was a conspiracy orchestrated by theClinton administration to gain public sympathy for the government.