Republicans refuse to come clean about racist tendencies

Nikki Haley was among the speakers at the Republican National Convention to charge that Democrats, including Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, the party’s presidential and vice presidential nominees, are socialists.

The problem is, Democrats who are socialists will admit it and neither Biden nor Harris have.

The same cannot be said of Republicans. They are hard-pressed to defend President Donald Trump — and ultimately themselves — against the racist charge.

They made Trump their presidential candidate in 2016 despite his history of racist behavior going back to the 1970s that clearly distinguished him from the other candidates in the large Republican primary field. Trump continued his racist behavior, which Republicans largely have refused to condemn, once in office. A Yahoo News/yougov poll conducted July 1114 found that 50% of Americans believed that Trump is racist and 13% were not sure.

Yet, Haley proclaimed in her speech that ”America is not a racist country.” Clearly, Haley was right in that it’s reasonable to conclude that 63% of Americans are not racist.

Haley’s proclamation is a clear example of Republican propaganda, an attempt to twist an issue in a way that does not tell the real story, which is that the jury is still out on 37% of Americans — the vast majority of whom surely are Republicans — who refuse to admit that Trump’s behavior, or their own, is racist and to condemn it.

Mike Shields, a CNN political commentator, said last week that a visit to the South made him aware of racist sentiments of which he was not previously aware. But Shields insisted he still isn’t ready to buy into the BLM movement because he claimed the group is socialist.

Shields surely is among the first Republicans to admit that racism exists. But his admission came with the usual twist. Shields used the admission to launch yet another dubious charge of “socialism.”

John Reinier Sr., Columbus

GOP ignores oath of office, throws support to president

That Donald Trump and Republicans, including Ohio's GOP, are working so very hard to deny voters safe access to cast their ballots, whether by mail/absentee ballot or in person, tells me something fundamental about the GOP. They have abandoned even the pretense of honoring their oaths of office.

Our GOP congressional representatives either ignore or actively enable Trump's excesses and violence to the Constitution and rule of law. At the state level, Secretary of State Frank Larose is refusing to allow county boards of election to provide more than a single dropbox per county for mail-in/absentee ballots.

The breadth and depth of Republican moral and intellectual bankruptcy as they try feverishly to stack the electoral deck in favor of Donald Trump is without precedent in American history. They have forsworn their oaths of office in support of a narcissistic con man.

Mark Schrider, Columbus

President seeks reelection so he can clean up his mess

I find it ironic (and disturbing and disgusting) that President Donald Trump is calling on America to reelect him so that he can protect us from the America that he has created.

Charles Summers, Pataskala