{"id":36558,"date":"2017-09-11T08:47:25","date_gmt":"2017-09-11T12:47:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=36558"},"modified":"2017-09-12T10:00:18","modified_gmt":"2017-09-12T14:00:18","slug":"letter-faults-gop-officials-for-failing-to-call-out-racist-groups","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=36558","title":{"rendered":"Letter: Faults GOP officials for failing to call out racist groups"},"content":{"rendered":"

To The Editor,<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The silence has been deafening.<\/p>\n

We are now at the events of Charlottesville + 1 month.\u00a0 I am represented by 4 Republicans \u2013 Representative Barrar and Senator Killion at the state level, and Congressman Smucker and Senator Toomey at the federal level.<\/p>\n

I get regular e-mail newsletters from all. Only one, Senator Toomey, has spoken out about Charlottesville.\u00a0 It took him 11 days to do so.\u00a0 Not 11 minutes, not 11 hours, but 11 days to find his moral compass.\u00a0 Barrar, Killion and Smucker are without a compass and still lost in a moral wilderness. That leaves the rest of us facing the true terrorist threat in this country \u2013 white right-wing terrorism.<\/p>\n

Even though Toomey eventually did speak out against the supposed moral equivalence of the fascists, racists, neo-Nazis, white supremacists, white nationalists and those who protest against them, his response remains too little, too late.<\/p>\n

He took no responsibility, either personally or for his Party, and offered no course of action to reduce the right-wing threat.<\/p>\n

Toomey failed to call out his President Trump whose language, actions (or lack thereof), and appointments have encouraged, and validated, these fascists, racists, neo-Nazis, white supremacists, white nationalists.\u00a0 Of course, we should expect this, because they are part of the deplorables in his and Trump\u2019s base.<\/p>\n

In fact, PA is a hot-bed of hate groups, 40 to be exact, according the SPLC (Southern Poverty Law Center).\u00a0 Virginia with 42, Texas with 55, and Florida with 63 are the only former Confederate slave states that have more than PA.<\/p>\n

Therefore, we need PA politicians to speak out strongly, unequivocally, and often against these hate mongers.\u00a0 We do not need dead silence from them.<\/p>\n

The Republican Party is now fully out of the closet. It is the home of systemic, institutionalized racism in this country, and all the fellow travelers \u2013 fascists, neo-Nazis, white supremacists, white nationalists.<\/p>\n

The Republican Party has pursued extremism (including treasonous acts by their last five Presidents) and racism as a path to power since the 1960s, starting with their presidential candidate Barry Goldwater and their Southern Strategy.\u00a0 The Republican racist Southern Strategy has been obvious since Nixon and Reagan, and the likes of Jessie Helms and Strom Thurmond.<\/p>\n

The Republican racist hatred of everything Obama was, and is, patently obvious.\u00a0 Their anger and loathing at having an African American (Democrat) in the supposedly \u201cWhite\u201d House was obvious. Now they have successfully put a dangerous racist, white nationalist in the \u201cWhite\u201d House.<\/p>\n

This racist, white nationalist in the \u201cWhite\u201d House has just pardoned a racist, white nationalist sheriff in Maricopa County, AZ. \u00a0This sheriff racially-profiled Hispanics and ran a jail more aptly called a concentration camp. \u00a0So much for the rule of law. \u00a0The President and the Sheriff were also the leaders of the racist \u2018Birther Campaign\u2019 against Obama.<\/p>\n

The Republican Party continues to use non-existent \u2018voter fraud\u2019 as cover to commit \u2018election fraud\u2019 by disenfranchising people of color (and seniors and young people). \u00a0That\u2019s what Trump\u2019s Voter Fraud Panel is all about \u2013 committing election fraud via racist voter suppression.<\/p>\n

We now know that \u2018Make America Great Again\u2019 is just Republican rhetorical cover for \u2018Make America White Again.\u2019<\/p>\n

These Republican values are not my family values.<\/p>\n

Dr. B. Gerard Bricks<\/strong><\/p>\n

Kennett Township<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Editor’s Note:<\/strong> Rep. Lloyd Smucker (R-16) did offer immediate comment (as published on Aug. 16 in The Times) repudiating Trump’s comments: \u201cThose who march under Nazi flags or with KKK-affiliated groups are not \u2018fine people.\u2019 \u201c\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To The Editor, The silence has been deafening. We are now at the events of Charlottesville + 1 month.\u00a0 I am represented by 4 Republicans \u2013 Representative Barrar and Senator Killion at the state level, and Congressman Smucker and Senator Toomey at the federal level. I get regular e-mail newsletters from all. Only one, Senator […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":36560,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[10228,8683,6859,9135,2528,7871],"class_list":["post-36558","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-commentary","tag-charlottesville","tag-lloyd-smucker","tag-pat-toomey","tag-racism","tag-steve-barrar","tag-tom-killion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36558","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=36558"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36558\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36578,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36558\/revisions\/36578"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/36560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=36558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=36558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=36558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}