GOP: A Party of Racists?

When President Lyndon B. Johnson helped pass Civil Rights Act in 1964 he commented that, "Well, there goes the South." He meant, of course, that now the South, which was traditionally a Democrat stronghold, would become Republican as they now saw the Democrats as the party standing up for the blacks. What has followed since then is a 4-decade addiction to race-baiting by the Republicans. As you can imagine, the election of the country’s first black president has only made matters worse. Some recent examples:

• A GOP activist in South Carolina compared Michelle Obama to a gorilla.
• A staffer for a Tennessee state senator e-mailed this composite picture of the country’s 44 presidents, which represents President Obama with only a set of eyes.
• Another Republican activist in SC posted this gem on Twitter: “Just heard Obama is going to impose a 40% tax on aspirin because it’s white and it works.“
• Chip Saltsman, a candidate for national Republican Party chairman, distributed a holiday CD with the parody song “Barack the Magic Negro.”
• When Obama was running for president, a Republican congressman referred to Obama by using the derogatory term “boy“.
• A Republican newsletter in California showed candidate Obama surrounded by fried chicken, watermelon, and ribs on a food stamp.
• A Washington Republican group was found to be selling “$3 bills” that showed Obama in Arab dress and a camel.
• At the Texas Republican convention, many attendees wore the button shown the pic.

Some would argue that these are the statements and acts of individuals and it is unfair to paint the entire GOP with such a broad brush. I'm not so sure. When a growing swath of elected officials and party officers hold these views and feel confident enough that their peers share these views that they aren’t afraid to share their racist views with them, it's a problem. It also begs a few questions. Why is the nearly all-white Republican party (there hasn't been an African-American member of Congress since J.C. Watts retired in 2002) a home for racists? When will national Republican leaders denounce this series of racist attacks against the President of the United States?

He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it.

Martin Luther King, Jr.