Spreading Stain of Reprehensible Conduct

Bob Herbert directly and cogently addressed the topic of racism in American politics in his September 19 New York Times op-ed column: “Republicans have been openly feeding off of race hatred since the days of Dick Nixon.

Today’s conservative activists are carrying that banner proudly. What does anybody think is going on when, as Anderson Cooper pointed out on CNN, one of the leaders of the so-called tea party movement, Mark Williams, refers to the president of the United States as an Indonesian Muslim turned welfare thug, and a racist in chief.

After all these years of race-baiting and stirring the pot of hatred for political gain, it’s too much to ask the leaders of the Republican Party to step forward and denounce this spreading stain of reprehensible conduct. Republican are trying to ride that dependable steed of bigotry back to power.

But it’s time for other Americans, of whatever persuasion, to take a stand, to say that we are better than this. They should do it because it’s right. But also because we’ve seen so many times what can happen when this garbage gets out of control.” Amen!