The GOP's Young Hatemonger

[babylonsister]

The GOP's Young Hatemonger

by John Avlon

Audra Shay, accused of endorsing racism on Facebook, is favored to become the head of the Young Republicans tomorrow. John Avlon uncovers new details about her disturbing online comments.


Thirty-eight year old Audra Shay’s campaign to become the next chairman of the Young Republicans went from obscure to infamous over the past week, after The Daily Beast revealed details of posts of her Facebook account. Specifically, a thread where one of her friends posts that ““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,” and Shay responds eight minutes later with: “You tell em Eric! lol.”

Following those revelations, several Young Republican colleagues urged Shay to remove herself from tomorrow’s election at the group’s convention in Indianapolis—a request Shay, the favorite going in to the vote, has pointedly refused. Instead, she said that she was responding to an earlier post from her friend, and labeled criticism against her “political attacks” which “proves that my opponents will stoop to the lowest levels to steal this election from the jaws of victory.”

Now the Daily Beast has obtained more troubling details about her online musings—despite clear attempts by Shay to scrub her social networking pages clean. Specifically:

* 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.”

Collectively her comments are products of an increasingly common GOP mindset I call Obama Derangement Syndrome, the right-wingers’ version of a virulent strain of obsessive presidential hatred that many liberals exhibited during the Bush years. Symptoms include comparing the President to Hitler and ascribing to him every evil and unconstitutional intention imaginable. It is accompanied by the belief that such a partisan fever is patriotic.

more...

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-07-10/the-gops-young-hatemonger/full/

[Voltaire]

1. Uggh

They're going to be here in Indianapolis this weekend eh? I promise to leave my foot off the brake should I see them crossing the road.

[ellie]

2. She sounds charming

[Lautremont]

3. If there's an upside to this story, it's that thirty-eight (my age) is considered "young."

Or maybe it's just that she sounds like a particularly stupid ten year-old.

[LuvNewcastle]

6. That's what I was thinking.

I thought "Young Republicans" are a college group. I'm thirty-nine and I wouldn't feel right running for President of the "Young Democrats." Hell, I'm old enough to be President.

[YOY]

9. For a Republican it is...their wrinkled ass reps aside...have you seen the tea party protestors?

Sure there are some vapid younger faces there...along with a few "creepy/freepy guy from my office" types/ but mostly it could substitute their protest for a free prune juice givaway and the demographic would stay the same.

[rurallib]

4. Nice last line by that writer

Maybe I am wrong, but liberals hated Bush not for who he was but what he did. I would say that is not a 'derangement syndrome' but being a patriotic citizen.
OTOH, the extreme hate exhibited toward Obama is based pretty much totally on lies.
Nice job of dragging those RW talking points in there John Avalon.

[babylonsister]

7. ??

I don't get your gripe. I think he's right, the rethug party needs to move on and find some new blood, but not with the likes of this racist. Last para.:

Shay’s most recent post on her Facebook quotes the 23rd Psalm (“Yea, though I walk through the shadow of death, I will fear no evil…”)—she’s apparently in full victim/martyr mode, a far cry from the jaunty confidence she just displayed a few days ago in the face of the “coons” controversy (“amazed at all the fuss so here is what you need to know. The 6th song on the new Billy Currington CD is the most awesome song!”). Tomorrow’s vote will resonate beyond its usual dimensions. At a time when the GOP is increasingly old and regionally isolated, it is up to young Republicans to modernize the party. This requires confronting the mistakes of the past—and turning the page.

[rurallib]

10. My complaint was his equaling of the insane hatred exhibited

by right wingers now to Obama to the what I felt was justifiable hatred of the Bushco policies. maybe I read it wrong, but this sure seems like he makes these equal:

"the right-wingers’ version of a virulent strain of obsessive presidential hatred that many liberals exhibited during the Bush years"

[kimmylavin]

13. I agree.

Granted, I DID hate * for who he was, but I hated his policies and their outcomes more.
Specifically, I hated what he was doing to my country and my fellow citizens.

These people just hate President Obama because he is black.

[midnight]

5. It sounds like the Repub. found in Audra Shay another

spokesperson to continue the fear campaign. Nothing rallies the people like fear. They "the gop" proved that via 9-11!

[YOY]

8. 38 is young? Well for a Republican I guess it is.

n.t.

[Berry Cool]

11. I say, dump her for one much simpler reason

She can't spell for anything.

[blackbooks]

12. That's why I want her to stay

"The head of the Young Republicans is a 39 year old illiterate racist? Maybe I'll check out what that other party's doing." - Random undecided college-age voter