Before the Young Republicans elected a woman on Saturday who has compared President Obama to a terrorist and appears to have laughed at a comment calling blacks “coons,” Meghan McCain tried to stage an intervention.
I woke up this morning in Las Vegas (tonight I’m playing roulette and betting on red) with a slew of emails about the likely election of Audra Shay as the new head of the Young Republicans on Saturday. You can probably guess how I feel about a woman who thinks comparing President Obama to a terrorist and referring to blacks as “mad coons” is funny.
The definition of insanity is repeating the same actions over and over again and expecting different results.
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The definition of insanity is repeating the same actions over and over again and expecting different results. What exactly do the Young Republicans expect to achieve by electing a 38-year-old woman who thinks racial epithets are acceptable? Also, did I mention that she’s 38? And she’s going to be the leader of an organization with the word “young” in the title? Is it so implausible that people in their 20s (or even early 30s) could join the Republican Party—or have we just completely given up on their vote? Are we expecting “young” people in the Republican Party to soon be entering their 40s?
I understand that my place within the Young Republicans and the Republican Party is a controversial one, which is something I am still trying to get comfortable with. I am criticized almost daily for not being “conservative enough.” But the Republican Party needs to reach out to all kinds of voters. The last time I checked, most conservatives are already Republicans. It’s the independents that we need to sway. We need to make them believe we really do practice what we preached about less government, less spending, national security, etc, and we aren’t recruiting leaders who are old and out of touch. I am not saying I am that face, but Audra Shay certainly isn’t. She represents the same old stereotypes about “young Republicans”—apparently racist and more middle-aged than youthful. In short, disconnected from the real youth of this country.
As someone who has met and travelled with a lot of Republican groups, I can tell you they are a lot more edgy and interesting than the media and the people electing Shay would have you believe. I know there are young cool Republicans out there—I’ve met them—but many of them are too scared to come out of the closet.
What Young Republicans need is a revolution. We need someone who will inspire us, bring us together, and lead us into the 21st century. We need to look forward, not backward. I for one chose a different path as a young Republican because at the end of the day I know that many young Republicans are starving for a new image that is so many times stereotyped within the media, so I ask: Why are we feeding everyone the same old same old?
Meghan McCain is a columnist for The Daily Beast. Originally from Phoenix, she graduated from Columbia University in 2007. She is a New York Times bestselling children's author, previously wrote for Newsweek magazine, and created the website mccainblogette.com.
