The Republican governor of Tennessee signed a proclamation honoring an early member of the Ku Klux Klan. The Republican president of the United States unleashed a blatantly racist attack on four congresswomen who are not white. The Republican senator from South Carolina piled on, insinuating that not being white and being in Congress makes one a “communist.”

The Republican Party seems intent on labeling itself as the party of pure, unbridled racism. It seems really obtuse when island Republicans leaders shake their head and wonder why they are deeply and semi-permanently in the minority.

Those folks who vociferously complain about “one-party rule,” and the letter writers who say how happy they are that Donald Trump is president, stick their heads in our island sand and simply ignore reality. Here is a news flash: As long as the Republican Party proudly wears its badge of racism, multi-ethnic, multicultural and largely tolerant Hawaii will have as little to do with it as possible.

Sid Goldstein

Kalihi

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