Ya got your work cut out for you, Reince
The big problem Republicans face in trying to rebrand their party as more tolerant and inclusive is, of course,
all the damn Republicans:
A Michigan member of the Republican National Committee said Thursday he will not resign after posting an article critical of gay people on his Facebook page, despite calls from members of his own party that he step down.
Dave Agema, who served as a state representative from 2007 until December posted an excerpt from an article titled "Everyone Should Know These Statistics On Homosexuals" on his Facebook page Wednesday. A group of 21 Michigan Republicans, including local precinct delegates and members of the University of Michigan College Republicans, has called it "deplorable."
The so-called article was in fact just a
particularly vile and hateful screed, claiming things like "part of the homosexual agenda is to get the public to affirm their filthy lifestyle," that gay Americans are obsessed with "recruiting children" and so forth. This also is a good representation of how the party base operates, which is to base all of their deep policy decisions on "obviously insane stuff they read on Facebook." Anyway, the Michigan party chair and Republican National Committee chair Reince Priebus both had to come out with new statements about treating people with dignity and respect and so on, though I'm almost positive they just have a form letter for that by now.
How many of these stories have we had, just in the last few days? Priebus brags about a new effort to spend $10 million for outreach in minority communities, a number which probably is going to need to be doubled after Don Young's foul "wetbacks" comments on Thursday. He might get more bang for the buck if he spends that kind of money on Shutting Your Damn Trap lessons for all current members of the Republican hierarchy. Or not; it's not clear it's a lesson any of them could learn, no matter how much effort you put into it.
