It's pay attention time when Betsy DeVos of Grand Rapids blasts her party for tolerating hate speech by Dave Agema, a Republican National Committee member from Michigan.
That grabs Nolan Finley's attention.
Betsy DeVos tells Nolan Finley: "We are driving people away who might otherwise support what we stand for.”
"She is a classic conservative, and fairly or not has sometimes been linked to the religious right," the opinion editor writes in his weekly Detroit News column.
But she recognizes that intolerance and exclusion are bad for Republicans and bad for America. . . .What’s driving the former Republican National Committeewoman and state party chair to speak up are the serial outbursts of Dave Agema, who has drawn fire for his hateful rants against gays and Muslim Americans.
“I couldn’t stand by and hold my tongue,” says DeVos, whose husband, Dick, ran unsuccessfully for governor in 2006.
Agema is one of two current GOP national committee members from Michigan and, like DeVos, is from the Grand Rapids area. DeVos says she left messages with Agema this week “to encourage him to do the right thing. He should resign his position as national committeeman.” . . .
“He has damaged his position and his party. He reflects badly on Republicans and on Michigan.”
This is about more than a sharp rift between two West Michigan Republicans, Finley notes.
She is clearly frustrated by the inability or unwillingness of GOP leaders to reclaim the party from those motivated by hate and prejudice. . . .If more of the people who write the checks that keep the GOP in business stand beside her, the Republican Party will have to change course or dwindle away.
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