December 04, 2017 12:20 PM UTC

Judy Reyher's Collateral Damage Piles Up

• 5 Comments
• by: Colorado Pols

Michael Harriot of nationally prominent African-American publication The Root introduced his substantial audience to the newest member of the Colorado General Assembly, Judy Reyher, on Friday–and from what you already know about Rep.-designate Reyher, you can imagine that it went really well!

A Colorado woman whose Facebook page insinuated that former President Barack Obama faked his birth certificate, said that author Toni Morrison hated white people, wondered why Muslims come to “our country,” and called Michelle Obama “evil personified” and “one of the biggest racist ever to live” was recently punished for her views by … wait for it … receiving an appointment to represent the citizens of her state in the Colorado Legislature…

Despite dubious evidence like an actual birth certificate and newspaper archives, Becky with the crows’ feet was one of the many people who believed that Barack Obama wasn’t born in the United States: “It’s never been proven that he was born in the United States,” Reyher said. “Six months later, they conjure up a birth certificate, and we’re all supposed to fall for it. It would take me five minutes to come up with mine.”

I agree with Reyher’s stance because, until I see her birth certificate, I am inclined to believe that she was spawned from the particularly wrinkled left side of Satan’s scrotum. I am, however, disinclined to trust her opinion of black people in general. [Pols emphasis]

Ouch. Meanwhile, the Pueblo Chieftain’s managing editor Steve Henson has apparently realized that Reyher is bad for the Arkansas Valley’s reputation, hitting Reyher hard in a column this weekend unusually strong for a Republican-leaning paper:

Sorry, but this isn’t about left and right, Democrat or Republican, and it isn’t some “Saul Alinsky playbook” conspiracy. This is about human decency and respect for all people. Racism is racism and has nothing to do with political leanings or party affiliation…

It obviously was naive to think such a thing, but it’s clear we were wrong to think, to hope, that racism had gone away in the 50-some years since the Civil Rights Movement.

No, in 2017, racism is very much alive. And it’s alive in our backyard. [Pols emphasis]

As word of the controversy over Reyher’s appointment to the Colorado legislature spreads, the so-far refusal of Colorado Republican leadership–either legislative leaders like Minority Leader Patrick Neville or state party chairman Jeff Hays–to intervene on behalf of the Republican brand going into an election year risks doing electoral damage well beyond the confines of House District 47. Hays’ toothless expression of “disagreement and displeasure” through a party spokesperson is nowhere near adequate, and Reyher’s unrepentant presence in the headlines is helping saddle the local Republican Party with the national party’s distasteful post-Trump reputation with each passing day.

At some point, we may just have to conclude they deserve it.