Rep. Allen West (R-Florida) must be truly driven by a higher calling to serve in Congress, because he sure seems to think very little about the environment in which he works. In an Daily Caller interview with Ginni Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, West opined about what surprises him most about Washington, attacks on his character and the double standard applied to Black conservatives.

According to the Florida Republican, Washington is nothing like the military, where “character, honor and integrity are the cornerstone of who we are.” Cross the Potomac River, he said, and the truth suddenly becomes subjective.

“I’ve never seen people that are so comfortable with lying in my life, and that leads me to understand why our country is in such a disastrous state,” West said, adding that congressional lawmakers appear to have no priorities and are kind of “stuck on stupid.”

He also thinks that liberals and African-Americans dislike and fear people like him and Justice Thomas because of their conservative principles and the fact that they’ve escaped “the 21st century plantation” where everyone thinks alike. West thinks that liberals are not very civil unless you agree with them, and if he were to switch sides, he’d be their hero and champion. That will never happen though, he says, and he’s okay with that. In fact, West welcomes the haters.

“When you stand up against them, it makes them apoplectic,” he said. “And I’m the kind of guy that if I know I’m getting under your skin, I’m just going to turn up the heat.”