RPA Chair Knows What It’s Like to be Black or Brown

Today, I attended the Little Rock Political Animals Club monthly meeting at the Governor’s Mansion.  The program featured a debate between Democratic Party of Arkansas Chair Will Bond and Republic Party of Arkansas Chair Doyle Webb.

Both chairs presented their arguments of why they believed their respective parties will control the State Legislature next year.  We’ve all heard repeatedly their talking points, so I don’t see the need to repeat them here.

It was a couple of comments from RPA Chairman Doyle Webb that seemed to stun the crowd.

Doyle Webb told a story of his aunt who worked on Winthrop Rockefeller’s 1966 campaign and that someone poured battery acid on her new car.  If that is true, I am sorry to hear that because, regardless of someone’s political beliefs, no one deserves that.  Those type of acts must always be condemned.

However, Webb made a ridiculous leap of logic and history when he made the following statement while telling the story about his aunt’s car:
“Not unlike having a cross burned in your yard, because she [Webb’s aunt] stood for a new Arkansas, she stood for something different.  So my family and I understand what it is to be brown, black or minority, in this state.

What?!

Doyle Webb, a white male, knows what it’s like to be “black or brown”?  They used to burn crosses on the lawns of Republicans?  Were there separate bathrooms for Republicans back in the day?  Jim Crow laws for Republicans?

That is one of the wildest statements I’ve ever heard from a Republic Party Chairman and I half-expected Webb to quote a line from the movie “The Jerk”:  “I was born a poor black child.”

Webb praised former Governor Winthrop Rockefeller, but the Republic Party of Arkansas has gone so far to the right, that Rockefeller, or a Republican like him, could never get that party’s nomination.

But the crazy talk didn’t stop there.

While arguing that Republicans would win control of Arkansas this year, Webb  made the following outlandish statement:
“You know, it’s hard for a donkey to stop an elephant stampede.  And that elephant stampede has started because of that donkey and his policies in the White House.”

I heard whispers in the audience, “Did he just call the President a donkey?”

Yes, I know, the donkey is the mascot for the Democrats,  but Webb went too far when calling the President of the United States a “donkey.”   Some would argue that Webb’s comment had a sinister undertone, but I’ll let you be the judge of Webb’s true meaning.

Webb’s outlandish comments show that his party is out of touch and have gone over to the extreme far right-wing.