For the past few years, the Mercury has enthusiastically recommended the annual St. Paul Fourth of July Parade, as it's been a reliably fun, sweet example of a small town parade celebrating its community. However, during last Thursday's July 4 edition—and maybe this was inevitable, considering America's current toxic political environment—the St. Paul parade included participants representing the far right wing. Meanwhile, members of the Latinx community, who in years past have marched in traditional garb, were nowhere to be seen.

While those running for office often use parades to increase their visibility, this year's St. Paul parade was particularly one-sided, featuring, to our eyes, only far right wing candidates and ideology. Here are three prominent examples that participated in the parade:

• Joey Nations is running for Congress and has been affiliated with the extreme right wing Patriot Prayer movement. Nations was documented in 2018 wildly swinging at an anti-Patriot Prayer demonstrator during a Portland protest. He's a "unborn lives matter" candidate, and in the St. Paul parade, was proudly brandishing a presumably loaded gun. Here are some photos of Nations packing heat at the event:

Nations also takes a hard line on immigration, as evidenced by this Facebook post in which he accuses "an illegal alien with no drivers license or insurance" of backing into his truck, without providing any proof of his claim.

• Angela Roman is also running for Congress and is a reported member of the extremist anti-government militia, the Three Percenters. She's in favor of "build the wall" immigration rules, wants to end sanctuary cities, and is a staunch gun rights advocate. Roman has also been jailed for supplying a gun to a felon and has a criminal record that includes "driving without a license or insurance, criminal mistreatment and endangering the welfare of a minor."

• The “Flush Down Kate Brown” recall campaign was also prominently featured in the parade, and their entry included a pickup truck that had a toilet in the back with a picture of Oregon's governor inside of it. According to their website, they are against mandatory vaccinations, and claim that Gov. Brown is "totally out of control" and must be stopped "before MORE children, mentally ill, and our wonderful senior citizens are VICTIMIZED, EUTHANIZED, STARVED OR SEXUALLY ASSAULTED!" They claim to be non-partisan.

Interestingly, the Flush Down Kate Brown float garnered the most cheers from the crowd (other than the person who shovels up horse poop along the parade route). Nations, who was packing a sidearm, yelled incoherently over a poor PA system and didn't get much of a reaction.

The Mercury contacted the St. Paul parade committee chair via email last week to ask for clarification on how they choose who will participate in the parade, and have yet to receive any reply—we'll update this post if they choose to respond. Here are a few of the questions we asked:

1) Is the inclusion of partisan political parade entries something the St. Paul parade committee encourages? Are the parade participants vetted in any way? Would your committee allow a participant to march carrying art that depicted President Trump in a toilet?

2) Are there any rules about parade participants carrying presumably loaded firearms, as in the case of Joey Nations? Does the parade have an action plan to protect parade-goers from people (especially those with a violent past) that carry loaded firearms?

3) Unlike recent years, there didn’t appear to be any non-white participants in the parade. Were people of color discouraged in any way from participating in the parade by your organization? Did your organization reach out to these communities to encourage their continued participation?

Again, we'll update this post if we receive any comment. And this probably goes without saying, but the Mercury will no longer be recommending the St. Paul Fourth of July parade.