Republicans Have a Problem

One is tempted to diagnose it as a 'loose lips sink candidacies' sort of problem, but that's not really it. It seems that there are (Gasp!) actual racists amongst the GOP ranks.

Via 365Gay:

(Salt Lake City, Utah) A state senator responsible for some of Utah's most anti-gay legislation is under fire for saying that the landmark court case that ended state-sanctioned segregation is wrong.

During an interview on KVNU radio this week Chris Buttars (R) was asked about a bill he has authored that would give the Senate the right to overturn the election of judges and to remove judges from office if senators disagreed with their rulings.

Buttars, who authored Utah's constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, prepared the bill after a ruling this spring that the city of Salt Lake did not violate the state's constitutional ban on same-sex marriage by offering benefits to the same-sex partners of municipal workers. (story)

During the radio interview host Tom Grover noted that courts historically have been used by minority groups "to ensure [their] rights are protected."

"I don't know of an example where the minority is being jeopardized by legislative action," Buttars replied.

Grover then brought up the Kansas desegregation case that resulted in the busing of black students to white schools and vice versa.

"I think Brown v. Board of Education is wrong to begin with," Buttars shot back.

Wow.

There are very few things that a politician can say today, in the year 2006, that are as unbelievable as 'I disagree with Brown v. Board of Education.' Hell, you can actually get away with saying things like 'I think Evolution is only a theory' and still get elected.

By itself, this would just be the ramblings of some old white guy in Utah who happened to be a politician. Add in Sen. George Allen's use of the 'M' word, Sen. Conrad Burns' remarks about his house painter and Tramm Hudson's musings on the swimming ability of African Americans and this really starts to look like a tendency.

Throw in some 'Muslims should get special screening at the airport' bullshit by the House Homeland Security Chairman Peter King and anti-Latino immigrant blusterings by nearly every Republican in a border state (and beyond) and you have a trend.

Top it off with Pat Robertson's racist diatribes in his new book and things are pretty damning for the GOP.

Oh, and there was that whole Katrina thing too.

The sad thing is, in some circles, this will not only be permitted, but encouraged. I hope, I hope, that there are enough suburban moderates out there to counter-act the rising racist bent in the Republican Party. I will say one thing: If Bush had started to make inroads into traditionally Democratic leaning minority groups by appointing non-WASPs to key positions, he forgot to tell the rest of his party that for the strategy to work, they have to at least stop acting like racists. It seems that expecting them to actually stop being racists is still a little to much to ask...

Republicans Racism George Allen Conrad Burns Chris Buttars Tramm Hudson Peter King Pat Robertson