Not even trying to hide it anymore.

I guess we shouldn’t be surprised anymore when Republican officials follow Drumpf’s lead and tell us how they really feel. Still, it was jarring to see the Barron County (WI) Republican Party —populated and funded largely by “upstanding,” “Christian,” Chamber-of-Commerce types— bust out a full-blown racial slur… Even more so when contrasted with the image they tried to project just this past weekend when they were cheerfully passing out candy to children at a parade with Congressman Sean Duffy in Rice Lake.

From the Eau Claire Leader-Telegram:

Barron County Republican Party officials apologized Thursday for a post about undocumented immigrants on its official Facebook page that included what is widely considered to be a racist slur. [Diarist’s note: “widely considered?” WTF?] ... Under the banner “Blue Wave Kit,” it referred to “illegal voter drop-ins” and suggested the recipe for Democratic gains was to “register millions of corpses and illegals to vote Democratic.” Printed on the toilet disc images were the words “corpses” and [a slur that rhymes with "metbacks”]. ... [Democratic Party of WI Chair Martha Laning] called on Republican Gov. Scott Walker, U.S. Rep. Sean Duffy of Wausau, state Rep. Romaine Quinn of Barron and state Senate candidate James Bolen of Cable to “condemn this disturbing post in the strongest terms possible.”

[Click here to view an uncensored screenshot of this since-deleted post. I elected not to include it in the diary itself because I don’t want to give hate speech a wider platform here, but still thought it was important to make sure it was documented.]

Lest you buy the claim that this was just a one-off case of a volunteer going rogue, check out some of these other AltRight chestnuts from the same county party here, here, here, here, and here.

Sean Duffy proudly marching with the racist Barron County Republicans, 6/10/2018

Northwest Wisconsin is a weird place. As you might assume, there are lots of racists (both of the overt and Lake Wobegon-varieties). But there are also a lot of committed, active progressives fighting for justice and equality. They hit the doors hard in January to elect Democrat Patty Schachtner in neighboring SD-10, and they haven’t let up since. (For those interested in the electoral history of Barron County in particular, Obama won it in 2008, then lost by just a few hundred votes in 2012… and we’re not gonna talk about 2016, but it’s definitely a place that could eek into the blue column again this November.)

Want to help hold THE RACIST REPUBLICANS OF northwest WI accountable?

Consider making a donation to their arch-nemesis, the Barron County Democrats.

There are also a couple of really great, progressive women running to represent this area in the state legislature — Assembly candidate Ali Holzman and State Senator Janet Bewley.

Barron County Republicans, smiling racists