By Howard Packowitz
BLOOMINGTON – Illinois Republicans, including the leader of the McLean County Republican Party, are denouncing a now-deleted social media post referring to four Democratic Congresswomen as the “Jihad Squad.”
Friday night’s posting was on the Illinois Republican County Chairmen’s Association Facebook page. It showed images of the four lawmakers, all women of color, on a poster that said: “Political jihad is their game,” and “if you don’t agree with their socialist ideology, you’re a racist.”
Jihad is a struggle or fight against enemies of Islam.
President Donald Trump has sent out several tweets, claiming the four women hate America and should leave if they don’t like it here.
In a Facebook post, McLean County Republican Chair Connie Beard praised state GOP leaders for quickly condemning the post, which she described as demeaning.
According to Beard, it’s the party’s policy to allow free and open discussion on social media, yet keep posts civil and respectful.
“It is important to keep the focus on the issues of policy,” said Beard on the county GOP’s Facebook page.
The president of the GOP County Chairmen’s Association, Mark Shaw, said he did not authorize the posting, and added the organization has a multi-stage approval process for all social media posts. Shaw said the Chairmen’s Association is re-evaluating its internal review process to make sure future posts represent the “big-tent” nature of the party.
“This unauthorized posting is an unfortunate distraction from the serious debate surrounding the policies advocated by these four socialist members of the United States House of Representatives of which I strongly disagree,” said Shaw.
“Republican opposition to their proposed “Green New Deal”, elimination of all private health insurance, open borders, and anti-Semitic posturing have nothing to do with these representatives’ races or religion,” Shaw also said.
Illinois Republican Party Chair Tim Schneider said he strongly condemns evoking race and religion as the basis for political disagreement.
“Bigoted rhetoric greatly distracts from legitimate and important policy debates and further divides our nation,” said Schneider.
“My intense disagreement with the socialist policies and anti-Semitic language of these four congresswomen has absolutely nothing to do with their race or religion. I urge everyone who also opposes them to keep the rhetoric focused on policy and political ideology,” Schneider said.
McLean County Democratic Party Chair Erik Rankin issued a news release Sunday saying the posting was “inappropriate, bigoted, and sickening.”
“Our state and our country are better than this. Graphics supporting the President’s racist tweets and policies should have no place in our politics. We call on the McLean County Republican Chair to denounce this image,” said Rankin in the news release.
Howard Packowitz can be reached at [email protected]
