As the head of a religious organization with members who may consider themselves witches, and someone who often refers to themselves as a witch, I was dismayed and disgusted to hear that the chair of the Michigan Republican party, while in our area for an event this week, felt the need to not only call other elected officials in our state (including our governor) witches, but to state that they should be burned at the stake, and then to suggest that others in his own party could only be removed from office by assassination or by voting them out.

Our elected officials should be representing all of their constituents. Not just the ones they like. And this sort of statement, while masquerading as a joke, is deadly serious, given recent actions spurred on by elected officials, including threats against the governor. It's sexist, misogynistic, and religiously bigoted at best.