Mike Brown, chairman of the Kansas Republican Party, does not view his Democratic rivals as human beings.

Don’t take my word for it. Take his.

On Wednesday – as much of America was talking about Donald Trump’s racist attacks on Kamala Harris – Brown sent an email on behalf of the party asking for donations to Trump’s presidential campaign.

“The Democrats’ policies have destroyed our beloved America – open borders, inflation, chaos and crime,” he wrote. And if that sounds exaggerated, well, that’s politics, I guess.

What he wrote next, however, went beyond the usual exaggeration.

It was honestly scary.

“As Chairman of the KSGOP, it is my job to elect Republicans and keep Biden and his left-wing cronies and agents out of our great state,” Brown wrote. “Early next year, in my second term, as Chairman of the KSGOP, I will begin the hard work of removing the Democratic infestation from the Kansas Governor’s Mansion.”

“Democratic infestation.”

To describe Governor Laura Kelly – the rightful winner of two consecutive gubernatorial elections in Kansas.

Quality.

“Infestation” is not the kind of word you use to describe mere political opponents. It is not even the kind of word you use to describe other people you consider to be actual People.

This word would be used to describe an infestation of lice, cockroaches or rats.

You know, something that needs to be eradicated.

Perhaps it would be easy to dismiss Brown’s comments sent to Republicans across the state as a one-off event or accidental exaggeration, but in using this chilling language, he clearly seems to be following Trump’s lead.

“We promise you that we will stamp out the communists, Marxists, fascists and radical left thugs who live like vermin within the borders of our country,” Trump told a crowd in New Hampshire in November.

“Vermin.” Not people.

This is not the language of democratic politics. It is the language of violent authoritarianism.

Joe Biden doll smashed in Johnson County

Republicans in Kansas have been claiming for years that Kelly is not quite a legitimate governor. She never won a majority of the vote in either of her campaigns – both times she defeated the Republican candidates with a little help from third-party candidates who divided the electorate among themselves.

“Her presence in the governor’s office is a tragic coincidence of timing,” said Ty Masterson, now president of the Kansas Senate, in 2019.

That’s just the speech of a sore loser. Brown’s “infestation” speech, like the “vermin” speech, is a bit more threatening.

Because we have seen this before. Some of the worst regimes in human history have justified their crimes against despised minorities and ideological groups by defining them as something other as human.

“When you dehumanize an opponent, you deprive him of his constitutional right to safely participate in a democracy because you say he is not human,” Timothy Naftali of Columbia University told the Washington Post after Trump’s comments in November. “That’s what dictators do.”

Indeed. And it seems that the more extreme elements of the Republican Party in Kansas are doing so as well.

This is not the first surprising incident this year, after all. In March, a Republican gala event in Johnson County featured a puppet of President Joe Biden that attendees were allowed to kick, punch and violently attack. It became a national story, further evidence of Republican excesses in an era of never-ending excesses.

Many Republican leaders in Kansas distanced themselves from the incident, saying the doll was the work of an “outside exhibitor” who went too far in his attempt to generate excitement among gala attendees.

There’s nothing to see here, is there?

However, Brown’s comments about the “infestation” policy will not be so easy to refute. After all, he is the party leader and communicates on its behalf.

But here’s the thing: I don’t think most rank-and-file Republicans in Kansas – the people who live in our communities and who may not live and breathe politics every day, but who go to the polls and dutifully cast their votes for Republican candidates – look at their Democratic neighbors with such rude, disdainful eyes.

Disagree? Yes. Do you see them as a “nuisance”? No.

So I suspect that Brown’s language is too extreme for the party he leads. I sincerely hope so. It is certainly too extreme for Kansas.

Joel Mathis is a regular correspondent for the Kansas City Star and the Wichita Eagle Opinion. He was previously a writer and editor for Kansas newspapers and worked as a columnist for nine years.