Audra Shay and The New Ice Age of the Young Republicans
The election of 38-year old Audra Shay of Louisiana to the chairmanship of the Young Republican National Federation on Saturday in Indianapolis might have gone practically unnoticed, had it not been for revelations by John Avlon, writing in The Daily Beast, that Shay had tacitly endorsed a virulently racist post about U.S. President Barack Obama on her Facebook page.
In response to one of her Facebook friends, Eric S. Piker asserting
"Obama Bin Lauden [sic] is the new terrorist...Muslim is on there [side]...need to take this country back from all these mad coons...and illegals,"Shay posted back,
"You tell em Eric! lol."
When two of her other friends--including Sean L. Conner, chairman of the D.C. Young Republicans--complained about the racist language on Shay's Facebook thread, Shay responded, not by unfriending the author of the "mad coon" comment, but by unfriending the two who complained.
In his two articles, Avlon reveals a disturbing pattern of similar viewpoints expressed by Shay in previous Facebook posts, larded with misspellings, and with syntax that would embarrass a marginally-educated 16-year old, including one from October 2008 where she employs a lynching motif, suggesting "Obama in a noose" as a Halloween decoration, defending it as "freedome [sic] of speech," and that "no one in Atlanta would mind."
In spite of Shay's attempts to sanitize the 2009 "mad coon" exchange by deleting the posts and issuing a statement to the effect that racist slurs did not represent her position as a candidate for the chairmanship of the Young Republicans--and would not be tolerated on her Facebook wall--screenshots had already been taken of the post, and of her response, Avlon reported.
A final post from Piker stated his position quite clearly--the position Shay appeared to endorse with her You tell em Eric lol! response to Piker's previous post (that is, before she claimed she didn't endorse it)--
"...this is still America...freedom of speech and thought is allowed...for now any ways...and the last time i checked I was still a good ole southern boy...and if yur ass is black don't let the sun set on it in a southern town..."
Recasting herself as the victim of character assassination (and sounding disconcertingly like a low-rent road-company franchise of the Sarah Palin Circus Of Flying Media Martyrs) Shay issued a pious, melodramatic statement, complete with a reference from Psalm 23.
"It is a disgrace that these types of political attacks are taking place and once again," read the statement. "[It] proves that my opponents will stoop to the lowest levels to steal this election from the jaws of victory."
In an apparent attempt to keep the aforementioned "jaws of victory" well-lubricated, Shay deleted her Facebook account, prompting Gary Coats of The Conservativist to note on July 9th that "it appears that there is more to this story if she is not leaving her profile open to the public anymore."
Be that as it may, apparently it worked: the voting body of the Young Republican National Federation was of a similar mindset, and on Saturday they elected Audra Shay--and her values--to represent them.
Ignorance and bigotry loves a vacuum, and the cultural vacuum left in the wake of Barack Obama's historical ascension to the presidency is a significant cultural gulf.
Decades from now, social historians may be able to pinpoint the exact moment, during the lead-up to the 2008 election, that the sheer weight of historical potential tipped the scale of restraint to the breaking point, shattering the fragile veneer of the post-Civil Rights-era façade of civility. That rupture, for its part, is leaking public, social and racial bile in a way that has not been acceptable since the 1960s.
In the months following Obama's win, the Southern Poverty Law Center has reported more than 200 hate-related incidents referencing race. In Madison County, Idaho, a school superintendent found it necessary to respond to a complaint from parents that children on one school bus were chanting "assassinate Obama," while in North Carolina, the Statesville Record newspaper apologized for running a leader column asking, "What's more scary, a bleak economy or a black president?" In December of 2008, Chip Saltzman mailed out a CD of "Barack the Magic Negro," the racist parody of "Puff the Magic Dragon," as a Christmas gift to his nearest and dearest.
The line between what is acceptable and what is not appears, inexplicably, to be blurring even further. In June of this year, prominent GOP activist Rusty DePass apologized for "joking" about Michelle Obama being a descendant of apes. In short order, it came to light that Sherri Goforth, an administrative assistant to Tennessee State Sen. Diane Black (R-Gallatin) had sent out a profoundly racist email, a composite of portraits of 43 U.S. presidents, with Obama's portrait a set of white cartoon pop-eyes, jumping out of a field of black in the Al Jolson "blackface" style.
"I am calling on Sen. Black to reject this racist smear and fire this staffer who, on state government time, on state government computers, using a state government e-mail account, launched this bigoted attack on our president,"Democratic Party Chairman Chip Forrester said in a statement posted on the party's website.
"Keeping her on the staff would send the message that this type of behavior is condoned by the Senate Republican Caucus."
This was apparently not of particular concern to Senator Black, who replied that Ms. Goforth was "reprimanded," but not fired, citing Goforth's "stellar record," which apparently trumps any collegial concerns for the dignity of the Tennessee Senate, the State, the Republican Party, or the personal or professional moral and ethical integrity of Senator Black herself.
In a pathetic sort of way, Senator Black, better than anyone else in the entirety of this sordid tale, appears to have best articulated the unspoken policy of an exhausted and confused Republican Party as it flails about like a cranky old man who can't find a comfortable spot in his own bed. To wit, don't risk alienating "the base," however ugly it gets.
As the GOP "teabags" America, attempting to "rebrand" itself, with all the enthusiasm of a slovenly housewife in a failing marriage armed with a Jenny Craig membership and a gift certificate to Glamour Shots, no one is watching the door to the back alley.
Having long relied on the so-called Republican "base" (and still reeling from the stinging November defeat) the GOP appears to be unable--or unwilling--to put the genie of religion-based social intolerance, and racism, back in the bottle by calling it out, and distancing themselves from it in unambiguous terms once and for all.
Instead, the smell issuing from the GOP's lack of leadership and direction is attracting the subterranean element of the "base" like blowflies to a carcass by the side of the highway.
If the Republican Party is serious about "rebranding," it might begin by joining the 21st century. It's ironic that one of the only young Republican voices exhorting this change is not even an elected official, but the daughter of one--Meghan McCain, who wondered out loud how a 38-year old "Young Republican" who thought racial epithets were funny could possibly move the Party forward in the service of a generation of genuinely young Republicans who are, even as you read this, wondering what the hell is going on with their Party, and why the titular organization of its younger members is moving, not forward, but backward into a new Ice Age of political irrelevancy.
Coming as Audra Shay's election did, at the end of a week over the course of which the American public was presented with the sickening sight of a crowd of devastated black schoolchildren forced to evacuate a Philadelphia swimming pool full of white children on a blistering summer day lest they "change [the pool's] complexion," the question of how much lower the bar can be moved, before something breaks, is begged.
For better or for worse, the Young Republican National Federation is now headed by a 38-year old, spelling-challenged "event planner" who finds references to America's 44th (and first African American) president as a "mad coon" to be an occasion for great merriment.
It would be comforting to believe that Audra Shay, endorsed by Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal, is not the racist her Facebook shenanigans suggest, but merely a tactless, not-very-bright woman with no sense of judgment--one whose first instinct upon seeing a wall-post of untrammeled racism from her friend Eric was not to repudiate that racism, delete his post, and unfriend him, but instead to "LOL" and encourage him in it.
On the other hand, Shay might also be an astute, saturnine politician, one who accurately gauged the climate of resentment towards Obama roiling beneath the surface of the organization, and knew the electorate would forgive a spoor of racial prejudice on the part of its leader, and might even celebrate it as "mavericky."
Furthermore, that it might not even care if the Young Republican National Federation becomes tainted, in the minds of the public, as being led by middle-aged chairwoman who laughs at "coon" jokes on Facebook.
Or, as Shay would doubtless express it, "LOL@that!"
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Can we really call this an Ice Age? Remember, these people believe the earth to be only 6,000 years old.
Anyway, these quasi-cavepeople are pretty much assuring Obama's reelection.
The most ludicrous aspect of this whole thing is that these aging Republicans don't see anything odd about a 38-year-old self-styling herself as "young"!
This one reason why anyone who is in fact young regards the GOP with a mixture of incredulity and derision.
~WolfLady~
Still waiting for Faux Newz to identifiy Ms Shay as the newly elected Chairwoman of the Young Democrats....
(An honest mistake that anyone could make, to be sure!)
"In fact, I believe the words Republican and conservative will soon be synonymous with old, racist, stupid, ignorant, Southern, white-male, uneducated, undereducated, oblivious,......."
I would like to believe that, but I have heard that being said for years. It is both fortunate and unfortunate at the same time that there are enough rational people in the Republican party to keep breathing life into it. I just wish they could take over.
Liberals openly talk about their sexual preferences and practices, so what's wrong with discussing one's racial preferences and practices?
just in case you haven't figured out the meaning of 'liberal' yet.
It means freedom-loving.
And it is not compatible with people imposing their preferences and practices on others. That's the meaning of freedom.
Wanna bet?
The thing you apparently don't yet is that talking is not the same thing as 'imposing'. Which basically means you do not know the meaning of the word 'power', certainly not of the word 'power abuse'.
Just in case you are still challenged: what exactly is your take on slavery? It's not like this is some kind of Ph.D. exam. It's more like what you ought to know before you vote.
Errrrrrrrrrr ummmmmmmmmmmmm . . . "liberals talk about their sexual preferences and practices"????????
In reality, "liberals" spend very little time talking and much more time practicing. The ones that seem to talk and talk and talk about what "liberals" do in the sack are the self-proclaimed bastions of morality . . . necons. I would swear you people obsess over everyone elses sex life to the point where I wonder if this isn't some sort of sick foreplay to satisfy your own lusts.
A man may openly declare he is gay, for example . . . a simple sentence . . . takes all of about 15 seconds to say. People like you hear it and spend years pondering every minute detail of what you imagine to be his sexual practices, inventing every depravity you can think of to attach to it. You march. You protest. You try to pass your stupid laws, and I wonder when you have time to have good old fashioned neocon approved sex.
Does it excite you to talk about "liberal sex"?
Watching people like you I have to wonder.
When I think "republican female", Audra Shay is the image that appears. They are always blond, tone-deaf and intimidated by principled debate, yet simultaneously overconfident. This woman is just a sad example what the GOP is really about, without the message control.
So why is a 38 year old woman running for the leadership of the "Young Republicans"? Shouldn't that post be held by a 18 year old? Real young people aren't going to relate to a 38 year old.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Whatever.
I'm still trying to figure out how a 38-year-old qualifies as a YOUNG Republican...
Given the demographics of that party she's practically an embryo.
In that case they REALLY need to rethink their stance of abortion rights... ;)
I have nothing against minorities joining the majority but I do strongly oppose the multi-cultural clap-trap we hear. The German minority in America accepted majority status. General and President Dwight David Eisenhower was always considered an American and not a German-American or a "Nordic" or an "Aryan". So why do Black Americans continue to call themselves "African-Americans" or Americans of Spanish origin call themselves "Hispanic"?
Because WHITE American decided to put labels on us during the census and unlike any other nation in the world continues to use these labels to describe us, so we've taken them and used them to empower ourselves in unity. By the way Americans of Spanish, Brazilian, and (some) Haitian decent call themselves Latino, those who speak Spanish are Hispanic. Get it right.
And what exactly do you mean by "joining the majority?"
Are you suggesting people of a different skin pigment go through a Michael Jackson just to fit in? All a German or Irish or Italian or French person has to do is kill the accent and they get welcomed . . . they are already white!
Hard to hide where you come from when the largest organ in your body speaks it loud and clear. You, sir, will never welcome these people no matter how "white" they act. You, sir, are why we have terms like hispanic or African American . . . beats the heck out of some of the other words more commonly used. You, sir, just can't just call them people, which automatically makes them part of the all inclusive majority . . . the human race. They, like us "whites", belong to that group by default, but you sir just can't accept that.
Ugly and stupid is no way to go through life Miss Shay.
And there's no bull guiding the young democrats as they tear down the forest. Go a head there's a whole generation behind you waiting to add their new voices. Funny what four years can do. And you will just be old.
Yeah. Sometimes I get drunk, too.
Or was this supposed to actually mean something?
This is the numero uno benefit to Obama as Pres...drags these types kicking and screaming into the spotlight.
"Shay posted back, ..."
It looked on the whole screenshot http://www.tdbimg.com/files/2009/07/05/img-article---avlon-audra-shay-facebook-03_233200859004.jpg as though she probably didn't post back to "take the country back from these mad ____", but rather to Piker's previous spew, "its [sic] the government making us commies". Facebook isn't IRC, after all, nor does it have "new postings you haven't seen" warnings when you reply. If she didn't refresh in between, she wouldn't have seen the intervening post.
Of course, she still didn't unfriend Piker and did unfriend the person who complained.
Of course, she didn't call her friend out on being a racist.
Friends don't let friends post such hate....
Looks like the circular firing squad continues to work. Sheesh, can't Mary Matalin talk any sense into these idiots?
At the very least, what all of this means is that another Watergate is a real threat to those internet-challenged folks like McCain or Shay.
This gives a whole new meaning to 'age', doesn't it?
honey, the face of the republican party is social and racial intolerance - the only reason they want to put it back in the bottle is to expand their voting base and win elections - i have many contacts with young southern republicans, some in positions of prominence in their party, and they are working for a resurgence of the pre civil rights values - sarah palin is their heroine - they are self-righteous, intolerant, hard-drinking, ambitious, power-hungry - they will be the willing tools of the oligarchs and corporate heads who maintain their preferred tax and financial edge through political connections and cash - check out the face book pages of young staffers of the gop winners in the last senate and house races - they are limbaugh with designer clothes, dimples and mega-watt smiles -
Must give thumbs-up to this post. Keep 'em coming. You got it, winchestereast.
just how far North is Bachman again?
So what's Michael Steele have to say about this woman?
He's waiting on Rush to vet his comments for him, I'm sure.
On the November 6 broadcast of The War Room with Quinn & Rose, Quinn compared "slave[s] in the Old South" to welfare recipients today, stating that the "difference" is that "[t]he slave had to work for" the benefits they received. Quinn said: "You know, if you were a slave in the old South, what did you get as a slave? You got free room and board, you got free money, and you got rewarded for having children because that was just, you know, tomorrow's slave. So, you got a free house, you got free money, and you got rewarded for having children. Can I ask a question? How's that different from welfare? You get a free house, you get free food, and you get rewarded for having children. Oh, wait a minute, hold on a second. There is a difference: The slave had to work for it."
"[W]hen you think about it, the slave had more personal nobility than the welfare recipient, because he or she had no say in their station in life. The welfare recipient actually volunteers for it. It is the liberal plantation."
The really big difference is that most welfare recipients are WHITE.
"You know, if you were a slave in the old South, what did you get as a slave? You got free room and board, you got free money, and you got rewarded for having children"
Free money? What a joke. Who comes up with this stuff? Oh yeah, racists. And how about those rewards for having children...like the slave owner selling them right out from under their parents as soon as they get to cotton picking age.
And some of those children were sired by the slave owner. What a wonderful group of people. JEEZ! It's amazing to watch them crawl from under their rocks now for all to see.
Perhaps she was elected because, at 38, she was the youngest republican they could locate in the country.
That's sound logic!
Megan McCain and the other young Republicans who aren't racist homophobes should just start their own party. The GOP is dying, both literally and figuratively.
In a sense, one could still hope that the american right decides that the question of just how racist they wanna be shouldn't really determine their future.
Just because it would be a losing game.
But who knows.
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