Republican County Official Called Protesting NFL Players “Baboons”

If you’re surprised by this, you haven’t been paying attention to politics lately, huh? The election of Donald Trump was a formal declaration by the Republican Party that they are the party of white supremacy, and we have seen a litany of local officials follow Trump’s lead and speak their bigoted minds. Per the Beaver County Times in Pennsylvania:

The Republican Committee of Beaver County’s secretary made racist Facebook posts last year about black NFL players kneeling during the national anthem, repeatedly referring to them as “baboons.”

Carla Maloney, a Hopewell Township resident, made the comments on her personal Facebook page, which can no longer be found, under the name Carla Belich Fueller. Screen grabs of the page show Maloney and her friends commenting on the anthem issue.

If you’re at all familiar with old, stodgy Republican thinking, you probably have a good idea of what Maloney wrote. It’s fairly standard ignorant racist garbage.

“Tired of these over paid ignorant blacks telling me what I should believe in. I will tell you what I believe in and that is our Flag the National Anthem and America period end of story,” she wrote. “You don’t like it here go to Africa see how you like it there. We are all Americans not African American not Hispanic American. WE ARE ALL AMERICAN.”

“Steelers are now just as bad as the rest of the over paid baboons. You respect your flag, country and our national anthem. How many men and women have lost limbs or died to protect this country and you baboons want respect,” she wrote. “If you want respect you need to earn it and so far you haven’t. Stop watching, or going to a game and paying for over priced food, water and tickets. Let’s see how the baboons get paid when white people stop paying their salaries.”

Chip Kosher, chairman of the Republican Committee of Beaver County, said “Those comments do not reflect the opinions of the Republican Party as a whole.” It’s such a laughable assertion that I am unable to form a complete thought through fits of pissed off hysteria, and I am only able to express my feelings in gif form.

via GIPHY

via GIPHY

The Republican Party is a racist institution built by racists, for racists. If you disagree, then please explain to me how this PRRI/The Atlantic 2018 Voter Engagement Survey doesn’t reflect outright racist feelings amongst a clear majority of Republicans:

As you may know, U.S. Census projections show that by 2043, African-Americans, Latinos, Asians, and other mixed racial and ethnic groups will together be the majority of the population. Do you think the likely impact of this coming demographic change will be mostly positive or mostly negative?

All Americans

Mostly Positive: 64%

Mostly Negative: 31%

Democrats

Mostly Positive: 85%

Mostly Negative: 13%

Republicans

Mostly Positive: 43%

Mostly Negative: 50%

Those GOP figures which split from the rest of America only make sense in a world where these people believe that African Americans are “baboons,” or that Latinos are “murderers and rapists.” Donald Trump embodies everything the Republican Party holds dear, and racist instances like this are actually quite helpful in reminding everyone that the rot in the GOP is not just at the very top, but it goes all the way down to the local level. Donald Trump is the Republican Party and the Republican Party is Donald Trump. There is no difference between the two.

Jacob Weindling is a staff writer for Paste politics. Follow him on Twitter at @Jakeweindling.