Choose Your Friends Wisely

Let's start with an assumption, supported by my personal experience, that many Republicans claim to belong to the party for their economic ideology and not for its social positions. In other words, they are good and decent people who believe in capitalism and free market enterprise, and they vote Republican out of economic self-interest and the belief that growing the pie will improve everyone's life (I'll deal with the cognitive dissonance embedded in there later). They are not racist, they are not ignorant, and they have a political opinion that is as valid and morally solid as any other. Like I said, let's assume that is true.

But let's look at the Republican Party. Not Conservatives. Not those who might vote Republican. Let's look at the card-carrying folks and the positions of the Party itself. First off, Republicans are pretty much white. Depending on the poll, 40-50% of Republicans believe President Obama is Muslim. That's racist. About 20% of Republicans believe inter-racial dating is wrong. Racist. Voter ID laws, gerrymandering, religious liberty protections - all based on bigotry and prejudice (bible-based discrimination is still discrimination). Voting Donald Trump your candidate for President - well, that puts all the hatred for anything 'other' right out in the open. The policies, principles, and rhetoric of the Republican Party is racist.

Once again, that doesn't mean that every member is racist. But very clearly a large percentage of Republicans are. A significant amount of their platform is based on ideas that discriminate or unequally disadvantage minorities. The very fact they claim this is not so, that they blame the first black President of being the cause of divisiveness, that they ignore the racial disparity that exists in our society and our criminal justice system in particular, all only proves their racism.

So I can accept that you are a non-racist Republican. That you don't feel cutting aid programs that disproportionately help minorities is wrong. That you don't buy into the false narrative that immigrants are more likely to be criminals and that black people would be better off in 'slower-track' schools. Maybe that's not you. But I question the priorities and moral judgment of anyone who chooses to be part of an organization that is so clearly bigoted and prejudiced. If you claim the name Republican, you claim it's racist underpinnings. That I cannot respect.