More GOP Racism

The person in the picture above is Charlie Webster, the chairman of the state Republican Party in Maine. He is known for making unfounded allegations of voter fraud. In June of 2011, he claimed that unions were busing people into the state of Maine to commit voter fraud. No evidence was ever found of that. Only a month later, July of 2011, he claimed that out-of-state college students were illegally voting in Maine. Again, Maine's Secretary of State could find no evidence to back up that charge.

This time he's gone over the line and revealed his inner racism. After the recent election, he told the Bangor Daily News, "In some parts of the state, there were dozens of black people who came in to vote. Nobody in town knew them." In speaking to a Portland newspaper, he later upped that "dozens" to "hundreds". What a load of crap!

While Maine is a very white state, it does have some African-Americans in it population. They make up about 1.1% of the population of about 1,321,504. That means about 14,536 people in Maine are of African-American heritage. Does he really think he and his few GOP friends should know all of those people? Frankly, if I lived in Maine, I doubt he and his GOP friends would know me either -- since he really doesn't sound like the kind of person I would want to know.

Webster has now realized his stupid statement could be taken as racist (which it obviously is), and he is trying to backpedal a bit. He says he is not racist because he plays basketball with a black man on Sundays. Personally, I doubt that, but even if it's true, playing basketball with a black man once in a while doesn't prove you are not a racist. However, making unfounded allegations against African-Americans just because they had the temerity to vote does look racist as hell.

Republicans all over this country just can't seem to understand why they did so badly in the 2012 election. I think one of the major reasons is because they put racists like Charlie Webster into positions of power in their party -- and then actually let these ignorant racists speak to the media. Teabaggers like Webster have branded the party as a whole -- and not in a good way. Decent people (of all races and colors) just cannot abide this kind of nensense -- and it is far too common in the Republican Party these days. It even extends to their highest leadership -- remember Willard Mitt Romney's 47% remark (and his remark's in the last few days about how young people, African-Americans, and Hispanics voted for Obama because he gave them "gifts").

I know it angers some of my Republican friends when I accuse the party of being racist (and yes, I do have some Republican friends). But you are known by the company you keep, and far too many Republicans are revealing themselves to be racist these days. There's a lot of truth in the old saying -- if you lie down with dogs, you get up with fleas. Until the GOP runs those flea-bitten racists out of their party (or at least out of the party leadership), they will continue to define the party.