The Young Republicans, and by young they mean pushing 40, have elected Audra Shay, 38, as their leader according The Daily Beast. No more dog whistling. In the era of Palin and Joe the 'Plumber', they are going for out-and-out bigots for their leadership.
More after the fold.
Meghan McCain, emerging as one of the few sane voices on the right, said it better than I can in her July 10th article in the The Daily Beast titled Do NOT Elect a Racist:
The definition of insanity is repeating the same actions over and over again and expecting different results. What exactly do the Young Republicans expect to achieve by electing a 38-year-old woman who thinks racial epithets are acceptable? Also, did I mention that she’s 38? And she’s going to be the leader of an organization with the word "young" in the title? Is it so implausible that people in their 20s (or even early 30s) could join the Republican Party—or have we just completely given up on their vote? Are we expecting "young" people in the Republican Party to soon be entering their 40s?
Poor Meghan. She's fighting an uphill battle if I ever saw one. Doesn't she know that Republicans are headed for the Ice Age? Assuming we give her credit for fighting the good fight, why on earth would she level the charge that someone is a racist?
Who is Audra Shay? Nobody really. She is distinguished for the job of leading "young" republicans by being a suburban Louisiana mom. Nothing else of note, except that she served in uniform. John Avlon has done some excellent reporting about her Facebook page which will tell you everything you need to know. I feel no need to double report, but this scenario should give you some basic insight into how she thinks:
On Wednesday, Shay—a 38-year-old Army veteran, mother, and event planner from Louisiana who has been endorsed by her governor, Bobby Jindal—was holding court on her Facebook page, initiating a political conversation by posting that "WalMart just signed a death warrant" by "endorsing Obama’s healthcare plan." At 1:52, a friend named listed as Eric S. Piker, but whose personal page says his actual name is Eric Pike, wrote "It’s the government making us commies... can’t even smoke in my damn car... whats next they going to issue toilet paper once a month... tell us how to wipe our asses..."
Two minutes later, Piker posted again saying "Obama Bin Lauden [sic] is the new terrorist... Muslim is on there side [sic]... need to take this country back from all of these mad coons... and illegals."
Eight minutes after that, at 2:02, Shay weighed in on Piker’s comments: "You tell em Eric! lol."
Shay now claims that she was only responding to Piker’s first comments, not having noticed the second. The eight-minute gap between the second post and her response strains the credibility of this defense.
It didn’t take long for other posters on Shay’s page to do the math. First, Derek Moss wrote "What’s disheartening is the use of the word 'coon' in 2009. Wow... I’m usually outnumbered about 500-to-1 on Audra’s threads so go ahead, lemme have it, I deserve it." He apparently expected to be criticized as among this crowd for calling out the racist comment.
Cassie Wallender, a national committeewoman from the Washington Young Republican Federation, then wrote: "Someone please help a naïve Seattle girl out, is Eric’s comment a racist slur?" She answered her own question one minute later: "Okay, why is this okay? I just looked it up. ‘It comes from a term baracoons (a cage) where they used to place Africans who were waiting to be sent to America to be slaves.’ THIS IS NOT OKAY AND IT’S NOT FUNNY."
This was followed soon after by the chairman of the D.C. Young Republicans, Sean L. Conner, who wrote "I’m really saddened that you would support this type of racial language. ..wow! Thanks Cassie for standing up..."
Shay was silent on this exchange, but soon word started spreading throughout the Young Republican circuit, open to GOP members under 40. Significantly, Shay then "de-friended" Wallender and Conner—in the world of Facebook, that means cutting off relations—after calling her out, but kept Piker as a "friend" (subsequently, it appears their profiles are no longer linked).
And she did more than that:
* In October 2008, in the wake of news that an effigy of Sarah Palin was being hung outside an affluent Hollywood home as an offensive Halloween decoration, Shay replied, returning to the "LOL" style that she employed after the "coons" comment: "What no ‘Obama in a noose? Come on now, its just freedome [sic] of speech, no one in Atlanta would take that wrong! Lol."
She picked up the thread again the next morning with a clarification and a new insight. "Apparently I could not spell last night. I am wondering if the guys with the Palin noose would care if we had a bunch of homosexuals in a noose."
* Posting and endorsing a conspiracy-theory video that attempts to prove that Obama believes he can only "ensure his own salvation" and "fate" if he helps African Americans above whites, complete with Barnum-esque captions ("LISTEN AS HE ATTACKS WHITE PEOPLE").
* Numerous posts in which Shay says that President Obama is "anti-American" and has "disdain of this country."
You'd think someone like this would be out of bounds in modern American politics, but not in today's "young" Republican Party! But no, she won, and the message that has been sent is clear: We are the party of White Supremacy. No dog whistle needed.
I wonder how this jibes with Micheal Steele's efforts to create a more hippity-hoppity GOP? Here is how the founder of HipHopRepublican.com called the election:
"They just took a vote that may have set the party back 30 years," said the co-founder of HipHopRepublican.com, Lenny McAllister, speaking from the floor of the Hyatt convention hall. "They just voted for a candidate who has a demonstrated tolerance for racial intolerance. She has joked about lynching and then claimed to be a victim. As a black man, I still don’t see what’s funny about that."
Try a hundered years my man! You should quit fooling yourself Lenny. Get out while youre still alive bro.
Shay's opponent in the race, Rachel Hoff, 24, and someone who actually has some experience in Republican politics, was defeated for one big reason: she isn't anti-gay enough. From the flyer circulated at the convention:
Unfortunately, it doesn't end there with Hoff: As one of only a very few Young Republicans nationwide in favor of Civil Unions, Rachel Hoff attempted to convince the YRNF in 2007 to adopt a stance IN FAVOR OF CIVIL UNIONS. Although Rachel was not wearing a dress like her female counterparts, but her typical suite (sic), her attempt was met with ridicule and frustration. It was overwhelmingly shot down and left the idea in many delegates minds of: Why would Rachel Hoff support Civil Unions?
...
In the end, Shay, dressed in a sundress, trumped Hoff, who was dressed in a business suit. Calls for party unity were announced and ignored as many of Hoff’s slate then resigned their races rather than lose along factional lines or serve alongside Shay. Already there are talks of reformers, in protest, breaking off to form a new branch of the Young Republicans dedicated to restoring the GOP’s long-lost reputation as the Party of Lincoln.
I can imagine the floor debate:
"Only liberal women wear business suits!"
"She doesn't even have any kids!"
"She probably want's to be all accomplished like Hillary Clinton!"
"We like our women sundressed and frequently pregnant!"
Welcome to the modern Republican Party, where even people that would make Lee Atwater recoil in disgust are now considered the only ones fit for leadership. You'd think a fellow Republican who leads an article with the words DO NOT ELECT A RACIST would give them some pause. Wishful thinking Meghan. I hope Meghan McCain gets an answer to her question:
What Young Republicans need is a revolution. We need someone who will inspire us, bring us together, and lead us into the 21st century. We need to look forward, not backward. I for one chose a different path as a young Republican because at the end of the day I know that many young Republicans are starving for a new image that is so many times stereotyped within the media, so I ask: Why are we feeding everyone the same old same old?