Republican Party of Palm Beach County
An important message from the Chairman – an answer to the baseless slander of racism against Republicans.
“How Dare You Call Us Racists: to the Palm Beach Post and Leftists in General…”
In the past, we in Palm Beach County’s conservative movement have taken issue with the Palm Beach Post’s obvious prejudice against us. We have felt that way for the longest time, but their latest cartoon, depicting a “Trump Train” with a whites-only passenger car, unforgivably crosses the line between thinly veiled bias to open hostility. By publishing this cartoon, the Post has cast a pall of racism upon the Republican Party one time too many. We will not let this outrage us go unanswered. People need to know who Republicans really are.
WE are Republicans. Republicans have a long history of fighting for the freedoms of all Americans, first among them being black Americans. The Republican Party formed with the purpose of freeing black Americans held down in the chains of slavery. America warred with herself –Radical Republicans against the Old South slave holding Democrats; 360,000 Americans died to free our countrymen from bondage. Later, Republicans affirmed Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. After the war, Republicans abolished slavery with passage of the 13 Amendment to the Constitution. Decades later, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, both Republicans, drafted the text of the 19th Amendment, protecting a woman’s right to vote. Republicans in Congress and President Coolidge granted citizenship to Native Americans. Republicans can also claim the very first woman member of the House of Representatives and the first Hispanic United States senator. Dwight Eisenhower, a Republican, sent in the 82nd Airborne to desegregate Little Rock’s public schools, with much resistance from Democrat Governor Forbus. Republican president George W. Bush appointed the first black Secretaries of State, and another Republican president is currently presiding over the lowest unemployment for blacks and Hispanics of any period in American history. This Donald Trump is the same man who purchased the Mar-a-Lago property on Palm Beach, which was previously closed to Jews and Blacks, and opened the club to everyone.
The history of the Republican Party has been about empowering blacks and minorities. Today we fight enslavement of the mind as we once fought slavery of chains. Republicans embrace what Democrats and their allies in the media fear most – a well-educated, independent-thinking citizenry. Our Republican goal is true economic opportunity and political independence for people of all colors. Dependence on the state and upon the Democratic Party is the goal of those who desperately cling to power. Republicans provide a different way of thinking – we trust in the innate desire of every man and woman to excel in life through hard work with reliance on faith, family, and self, and not upon a cradle-to-grave, all-powerful nanny state.
Now let’s talk local Republicans – no one can credibly claim that the Palm Beach County GOP supports bigotry and racism. Democrats say Republicans fear strong women? Three out of the four Palm Beach County GOP elected officers for the past 5 years have been strong Republican women. Republicans fear blacks? Our current chair, yours truly, a black man, has led the Palm Beach County GOP since December 2014. The Republican Party is the party of old white men? We have not had a White Anglo-Saxon Protestant male chair our executive committee since the end of the last century!
We are Republicans! We are black, Hispanic, Asian, white, male, female, Jewish, Christian, Muslim, gay, and straight… we are thoughtful, independent minded, educated, and we don’t necessarily think the way you want us to. We are proud of President Trump and lovers of our country. We reject the soft (and now overt) bigotry of the left and the divisive agenda of the fake news media. The more you attack us for wearing MAGA hats, or call us racists, or slander us on social media, the more people of color you will cause to “walk away” and join our ranks.
So please keep it up; we will vote in big numbers next year. And WE will win, again.
Michael Barnett, Chairman
Palm Beach County GOP