Well, frumps, today is the day that we’ve all been waiting for – the day that all eyes turn toward Indianapolis to see if the Republican Party puts the final nail in its coffin. Today, in the heartland, the right-thinking youth of America will convene to choose the next National Chairperson of the Young Republicans. In case you’re not all that familiar with this outfit, here’s how they describe themselves:
“Through recruiting, training and mobilizing people, the YRNF (Young Republican National Federation) presents an opportunity for ordinary people to do extraordinary things. Through community involvement in political issues, charitable projects and participation in political campaigns, YRs (Young Republicans) work to improve the world in which we live.”
Fair enough.
Enter the front-runner for the National Chair position, one Audra Shay from Louisiana. Her name might possibly ring a bell because last weekend, in a fit of Fourth of July exuberance, Audra Shay and her Facebook friends decided to get all racist. And I’m not talking about the subtle kind of “did he/she really say what I think” racism. This was all out, Jim Crow, bare-your-ugly-prejudices race bashing. This was Racism so inescapably sociopathic that a few brave souls called Audra and company out on it. Shay’s response was to “un-friend” her critics.
Evidently, though, this flap caught the attention of one of the Grown-up Republicans, possibly Bobby Jindal, who had endorsed Shay for chairperson. Next thing you know, the Internet has been pretty well scrubbed clean of Audra Shay. Point of Interest: if you visit the Young Republican National website, you will find that YR didn’t consider this whole Audra Shay business newsworthy.
Now, I’m going to remind you that this is the same Audra Shay that has risen through the ranks of the YR organization and is in Indianapolis, today, fully expecting to rise to the organization’s highest office – National Chairperson. How is that possible? you ask. Well, because Audra said “I’m sorry.” Sort of . . . She gave what is becoming recognizable as “The Republican Apology.” The Republican Apology goes something like this: “I’m ever so sorry but ___________. You can fill in the blank with any of the following:
• God has forgiven me and so should you.
• This is a big misunderstanding, look at my record . . .
• This country is going to hell in a hand-basket and if you’d all “wake up and smell the coffee” you’d have done exactly what I did
• This is just a liberal smear campaign to make conservatives look bad
I won’t go further into the mechanics and sordid details of this latest neocon travesty. John Avlon, of The Daily Beast, has already done an exemplary, balanced investigative job in his article: The GOP’s Young Hatemonger.
What I will do is frump some about the broader implications that, frankly, scare the bejeebers out of me. Audra Shay is not a teenager. At 38, it’s almost time for her to graduate to the Grown-up Republicans. So this episode can’t be chalked up to “kid stuff.”
There is a power vacuum in the Republican Party right now. When a political party’s approval rating drops to 27% of all Americans it has become marginalized and fairly impotent. Intelligent moderates will defect or lie low and work quietly at repairing what’s broken. And fools will rush in . . .
For a while now, Republicans have been trying to beef up their crumbling base which, for them, means having to reach out to zealots, radicals and outright nut jobs on the farthest fringes of the conservative population.
These folks are only too ready to rush in and grab some media attention unfortunately they are not very well-schooled on how to “make friends and influence people.” They arrive in the mainstream after honing their political skills on frightening websites, blogs and forums that advocate some pretty extreme agendas and mostly don’t get noticed much by the real world.
They don’t get called on their crap so they get comfortable that it’s OK. They are firm believers in the First Amendment because they want to be able to say all of the hateful stuff that is kicking around in their heads, without censure.
The interesting thing about most of what I’ve seen on radical-right websites is that, after a while, you get a sense that these people don’t really care overmuch about issues: abortion, religion, government, fiscal responsibility, the Constitution, immigration or race or any of the other things they rant about. What they really want is an enemy to hate, and they want to frighten people into backing them up. They are grown-up schoolyard bullies and they are actually quite pathetic, which galls me, because then I wind up having to feel sorry for them. I mean really, can anyone take a person seriously who rants about how misconstrued the U.S. Constitution is when that person can’t spell the word “constitution.”
The Republican Party has not, to date, asked for my advice on rebuilding their party. But I’m going to give it, anyway, because I believe that it’s important to maintain a two-party system to represent the citizens of our country. I don’t expect to agree with everything that either party comes up with, but that’s life. However, I do feel that, how ever many parties exist, they really ought to have the welfare and well-being of all Americans as their mission.
As promised, here are my pointers for rebuilding the GOP:
- Since today’s Republicans seem to be fond of a “getting back to basics” approach, it shouldn’t be that much of a stretch to get back to the basics of being a political party in a representative democracy, i.e., leave the religious crusades to the clergy and focus on politics.
- Teach your people, young and old, how to use the Internet machine; by the same token, teach them that other people, who might not be so sympathetic, already know how to use it quite well and therefore they might want to stick to the facts rather than making stuff up.
- This is the 21st century not the Jim Crow era, or pre-WW II Germany. The majority of Americans are mighty glad that all of that is behind us. So round up the skinheads, Minute Men and Aryan Brothers who are aligning themselves with you, sit them on the sidelines and get a very public divorce.
- Last but not least: make it some kind of rule that if you are an adulterer, a cheat, a liar, or a fraud keep your big mouth shut about other people doing such things.
There. Now I feel better. I think it’s time for me to get back to coverage of what’s going on in Indianapolis today.
Republican Party GOP conservative neoconservative neocon radical right racism
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Sanity. Good on ya.
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Well thank you, my dear, I'm not often accused of sanity – feels rather nice.
I'm curious: how are such matters handled on your side of the pond? We need help, here (as you can see).
Best, F.