I have warned my two kids that if they ever contemplated divorcing their spouse, I was keeping the one they brought. My son-in-law is a retired public schoolteacher with a PhD, a coach and was named Georgia’s Teacher of the Year. He can build anything, including the house they have occupied for the past 35 years. He is kind and thoughtful and smart as a whip.
My daughter-in-law is a nurse who spent most of her career in hospital nursing and retired as a hospice care nurse, one of the toughest jobs I can imagine. As I have stated on previous occasions, she is credited with having saved my life (that, according to the doctors) when she saw how pale I looked one evening and got me to an emergency clinic and then into the hospital. It was sepsis. She remains my go-to regarding matters of my health.
It’s a shame I’m not running for the U.S. Senate in Georgia. I could talk about the real issues facing our nation and not have to worry about dealing with the next harangue coming from an in-law. I’m afraid that is not the case for Republican candidate, Cong. Mike Collins. His race-ranting, antisemitic, misogynistic son-in-law doesn’t seem to have an off-switch or much interest in helping his father-in-law focus on the issues instead of having to talk about him.
David Alan Scheer II is identified as a social media influencer which is said to be “someone who uses their trust and credibility online to shape attitudes, behaviors and decisions.”
According to various sources, Scheer has some 1.5 million followers on TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, Telegram and other channels. His misbegotten efforts to shape attitudes, behaviors and decisions are only serving to make his father-in-law’s campaign a lot more difficult than it already is where polls show him running behind incumbent Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff.
On his Telegram channel, Scheer wrote, “We’re going to retake America for Christian White men!” I have a feeling God is going to zap whatever brains this guy may have (which can’t be a lot) when the time comes and will hopefully give the privilege of pulling the switch to Ray Charles Robinson, of Albany, Georgia, and Moses. In the meantime, I would suggest Scheer spend more time reading the Sermon on the Mount and less time on Telegram. He might learn what Christianity is really all about.
Scheer has called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a “Satanic warmongering, Zionist piece of garbage” and in 2025 displayed a German Nazi Party propaganda poster from the 1930s with the text “I want to make babies, Not die for Israel.” Ask the Nazis how that turned out for them. He has also asserted that Jews have “captured American politics,” and that “Gen-Z doesn’t hate Hitler.” (Gen-Zer’s are defined as 14 to 29 years of age. What do they know about Hitler? Ask them instead about Taylor Swift or love bombing.)
As for women, Scheer has stated, “(R)epeal the 19th amendment and a lot of issues will resolve themselves.” The 19th Amendment guarantees women the right to vote. I’m going to assume the women in the Collins household have no problem with being thought of as unworthy to vote. The women in the Yarbrough household would punch his sexist lights out. That would resolve a lot of issues, too.
I don’t know Mike Collins. I did know his daddy, the late Cong. Mack Collins, quite well. He was very helpful to us in the runup to the 1996 Centennial Olympic Games. And a good guy. His son may be a good guy, too, but if he can’t manage his family how can he manage the affairs of state?
Mike Collins either can’t or won’t get Scheer to shut his trap. How all of this can be a positive in his campaign is a mystery to me. He had to abort a press conference in Monroe County recently because reporters kept asking him to address the claims of his son-in-law’s ties to antisemitism and white nationalism, instead of letting him discuss his health care initiatives, which was the purpose of the press conference. You can bet it won’t be the last time this happens.
Watching this guy spew his verbal garbage on the Internet reminds me to say thank you to Ted and to Jackie. You two may not be social influencers but you are great in-laws who have never embarrassed me or the family Maybe I should have run for the Senate.
You can reach Dick Yarbrough at dick@dickyarbrough.com or at P.O. Box 725373, Atlanta, Georgia 31139