No Reform for Young Republicans

Watching the GOP try to deal with issues of race is like watching a football coach and a calculus professor trade places. GOP clumsiness with race is apparent from the Sotomayor hearings, but the problem is endemic even down to the Young Republican level:

The above Facebook comments did not prevent 38-year-old (!!) Audra Shay from being elected the next Chair of the Young Republicans over the weekend. At least it was a contentious Young Republicans convention by many accounts.

If you can believe it, Meghan McCain even had some strong words about the Audra Shay election.

I believe that today’s GOP has a serious problem on its hands: what to do with the racist/bigot wing of the Party? The Democrats had this problem in the 1960s, and the solution was that (most of) the bigots left and became Republicans. (They can stay there as far as I’m concerned.) Most Republicans are not racists, but it’s clear to me that tolerating those who are intolerant is a problem at all levels of the GOP, from activists to lobbyists to syndicated radio hosts to Party leaders (who are also occasionally syndicated radio talk show hosts).

Apparently the next generation of GOP leaders is not ready to ditch appeals to racism and bigotry.