Isn't it Time for Republican Leaders to Challenge the Grand Old Bigots in their Party?

[babylonsister]

http://www.thenation.com/blog/154885/isnt-it-time-republican-leaders-challenge-grand-old-bigots-their-party

Isn't it Time for Republican Leaders to Challenge the Grand Old Bigots in their Party?
John Nichols
September 19, 2010


Back in the 1950s, Democratic National Committee chairman Paul Butler fought a long and difficult battle with southern and border-state Democratic parties that supported segregation.

Butler’s stance was decried by Democrats in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi and South Carolina – and even key congressional leaders such as House Speaker Sam Rayburn, D-Texas. Many key Democrats called for his ouster. But the chairman, who served from 1955 to 1960 did not back off. When southern Democrats selected delegations that might walk out of the 1960s convention in protest of a strong pro-civil rights stance, Butler invited “loyal” Democrats in those states to send alternative delegations. He enlisted the most prominent supporters of civil rights in the party, led by former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, to chair platform committees. And when state Democratic parties promoted bigotry, he denounced them.

Electoral results in 1958, 1960, 1962 and 1964 – a period of remarkable growth for the party in northern and western states -- vindicated Butler’s position, as would history.

Now, Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele, Republican Senatorial Committee chairman John Cornyn and other top leaders of the Grand Old Party face a similar challenge.

News reports that the Montana Republican Party maintains a platform plank calling for the outlawing of homosexuality – and, by extension, the arrest and incarceration of law abiding citizens whose only “crime” is their sexuality – highlights persistent bigotry among state-level Republican parties toward gays and lesbians. This continues to be the case, despite the fact that a number of openly gay and lesbian officials have been elected to public office as Republicans – and that Steele’s predecessor, former RNC chair Ken Mehlman, has opened up about his homosexuality and embraced the work of the American Foundation for Equal Rights (AFER), the group that is mounting legal challenges to laws barring same-sex marriage.

On September 22, Texas Senator Cornyn is scheduled to address the national dinner of the Log Cabin Republicans, appearing before one of the largest gatherings of politically-active gays, lesbians and bisexuals in the country.

Cornyn’s appearance offers a great opening for a national Republican leader to condemn open bigotry within the GOP. He can and should denounce the Montana Republican platform.

But Michael Steele ought not wait that long.

The chairman of the Republican National Committee should challenge bigotry within his party as aggressively as did Paul Butler within the Democratic Party of the 1950s and early 1960s.

[The Magistrate]

1. If They Did That, Ma'am, They Would Get About Ten Percent Of The Vote In National Elections

Bigots are the Republican party; there is nothing else left....

[babylonsister]

2. What a sad commentary, but I suspect you're right. nt

[terrya]

3. It sure is.

I specifically think of the Montana GOP. Which wrote the desire to make homosexuality illegal into their party platform:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/09/18/montana-gop-policy-make-h_n_722073.html?show_comment_id=60906345

Michael Steele SHOULD HAVE denonunced this nauseating bigotry. But when you have 4 of your party's potential Presidential nominees speaking at a "values summit" sponsored by the virulently anti-gay Family Research Council...well, you realize that the GOP isn't going to purge their party of these purveyors of hate anytime soon.

[AlinPA]

4. Leaders? They are the bigots themselves. Their leaders are not Steele, Coryn, McConnell, Boehner

and Pence; the leaders are Palin, Beck, Limbaugh, Hannity and the rest of Fox "news".

[Andy823]

5. Yes, and that's the problem!

These "clowns" are promoting racism on a daily basis, and they have drawn in the bigots from all over! I would think that someone in the republican part would stand up and put a stop to this, but it doesn't look like any of them has what it takes to stand up to the likes of Limbaugh, Beck and Fox news! They have sank so low they have to cater to the bigots in order to try and win votes, and that's really pathetic!

[COLGATE4]

6. The Republicans of yore took their advice from the infamous

Lee Atwater (may he burn in Hell) and George Wallace and figured out that if you murmured rather than shouted "Nigger" you had a whole bunch of votes guaranteed to come your way, and they never looked back. Willie Horton validated for once and for all the success of that technique. Now that the anti-black sentiment is not as red hot as it once was, it's time to find other people to blame for all the problems - women, gays, Latinos, and, of course, let's not forget Nixon's personal favorites, the Jews (although they still whisper about that group). They are personally bigots to the core and professionally hard-nosed and unscrupulous pragmatists who will say or do anything necessary to gain an electoral advantage. Despicable group.