Republicans Being Tone-Deaf Again

The Republican Party continues to have a problem with its members being politically tone-deaf.

From Yahoo! News: “Speeches by far-right commentator Milo Yiannopoulos (yuh-NAH’-poh-lihs) and former pharmaceutical executive Martin Shkreli were canceled Friday night after heated protests erupted at the University of California, Davis. University police put up barricades as protesters shouting “shut it down” grew increasingly rowdy in the hours leading up to the talks. The UC Davis College Republicans, who sponsored the event, chose to cancel about a half-hour before the event began.”

ABC7News.com quotes the leader of the UC Davis College Republicans as saying, “We came here to have an event that would promote free speech, and we didn’t get to have any speech.”

The UC Davis College Republicans sure do have a strange way of promoting free speech.

Milo Yiannopoulos and Martin Shkreli? Seriously?

If the UC Davis College Republicans simply want to promote free speech, then why didn’t they get David Duke to be a guest speaker? After all, he is a U.S. citizen and a Republican, unlike Milo Yiannopoulos.

What? David Duke doesn’t represent GOP values? Are the UC Davis College Republicans implying that Milo Yiannopoulos and Martin Shkreli do represent GOP values?

Whether or not they meant to do so, that is just what the UC Davis College Republicans have done.

From USA Today: “UC Davis Interim Chancellor Ralph J. Hexter, who had staunchly defended allowing the event, said he was “deeply disappointed” by the protests and cancellation.”

I agree on principle that the event should not have been shut down. Nevertheless, it wasn’t necessary for the UC Davis College Republicans to have selected Milo Yiannopoulos and Martin Shkreli as speakers. Why choose them in the first place? Was it too costly to get anyone else?

Republicans would do well to refrain from picking unnecessary fights. Republicans do themselves no favors by living in a political bubble – one that prevents them from realizing just how tone deaf they appear to be to the rest of the nation.