Republican Party’s demise

He engaged in similar conduct while running for the party’s nomination, but was able to bully his way to the nomination with flip-flops, misinformation and a hefty war chest.

Romney represents the party’s dirty laundry and he is confirming the suspicion that many minorities have had for decades regarding the Republicans. With all its rich history, the Republican Party has now deteriorated to nominating truth-challenged Romney as its standard bearer and that’s a shame.

The party was formed in 1854 on a moral mandate to abolish slavery and it eventually did. Through the years the party has advocated for and spearheaded some of this nation’s greatest milestones in race relations and civil rights.

Examples include President Abraham Lincoln, who won the Civil War, signed into law the Emancipation Proclamation Act abolishing slavery and implemented the Reconstruction era.

HAD TO LIKE IKE

President Dwight Eisenhower was also a general during World War II. As president he completed integration of the military, desegregated Washington, D.C. and federal agencies. He also sent troops into Arkansas to oversee the integration of public schools there.

It was Eisenhower who signed into law the Civil Rights Acts of 1957 and 1960, which were the precursors to the landmark 1964 Civil Rights Act. He provided assistance to unemployed workers, expanded Social Security and other New Deal programs, and formed the Department of Health, Education and Welfare to assist the poor. He also proposed and began construction of this country’s Interstate Highway system.

It was President Richard Nixon, a Republican, who implemented Affirmative Action programs, and formed the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to enforce safety regulations in the workplace.

The Republican Party of today hardly resembles the one Presidents Lincoln, Eisenhower and Nixon represented.  It has deteriorated into a party of indifference, indignation, intolerance and disrespectful Mitt Romney.

Among its leaders are the likes of South Carolina Congressman Joseph Wilson and Republican National Committee Chairman Rience Prebus, who have made a habit of making derogatory comments about this president.

HATING OBAMA

This deterioration in the Republican Party began years ago, but it intensified with the historic election of Obama as the nation’s first black president in 2008.

Leaders of the party held meetings where they vowed to oppose and obstruct anything he did or attempted to get done.

Is it any coincidence that their vendetta came at around the same time of the rise in Tea Party organizations, and their racist rhetoric about President Obama?

Republican Party candidates urged them on and with their support won control of the House of Representatives in the 2010 midterm elections.

Republicans used their controlling majority in the House to block And stall legislation in hopes that the economy would collapse.

Their rhetoric was intended to gin up suspicions about the president’s place of birth, his faith and even his commitment to America.

On Sept. 9, 2009, Barack Obama was addressing a joint session of Congress to unveil his Affordable Healthcare Act. Congressman Wilson interrupted the president and called him a liar twice. Unprecedented.

Chairman Preibus of the RNC is regularly seen on television disrespecting the president. During one appearance on the Face the Nation program, he compared President Obama to the captain of the Costa Concordia cruiseliner, which ran aground resulting in the deaths 17 people. Disgusting.

These despicable, bottom-of-the-barrel tactics are intended to incite the fears of the uninformed, ignorant and paranoid.

I’ve never seen Romney campaigning in a black neighborhood and wonder if he has ever had a black person in his home; and not to perform yard work or clean off his table scraps, I mean as a dinner guest.

NEVER AGAIN

With the nomination of Romney, the Republican Party has confirmed the suspicions of many blacks.

As an Independent, I don’t hold any allegiance to either the Democratic or Republican parties, but I know hatred and indifference when I see it. Sorry Mr. Lincoln, but I doubt if I will ever vote for any Republican again.

*Elgin Jones is a reporter and columnist with the South Florida Times.

**Pictured above is Republican Presidential Nominee Mitt Romney, left, and columnist Elgin Jones, right.