A reply to a post of mine today: “The Tea Party ... did not take over the GOP but excreted from the GOP what we all call RINOS.” This equated non-tea baggers to manure, displayed ignorance of the GOP’s history and, inadvertently, made a point.

The GOP progressive roots were pro-abolition, grew by “busting trusts” in the 1890s and saw greater percentages of Congressional Republicans vote for civil rights legislation. President Nixon signed into law legislation to protect the environment and start the EPA.

The point this person (does not realize he) makes, though, is that people who hate have taken over one of the two major political parties. This country has been plagued by racism throughout our history. Through the mid-1960s both parties had progressive wings.

Once the GOP began to pursue the “Southern strategy” and court what had been the solid, racist votes the Democratic Party held from the Civil War. Racists are a minority. They control one of the two major political parties.

This iteration of the GOP was jacked in about 2010. It was far easier to take over a major party political party than it would have been to start a “third” party. The people who hate are the “Republicans in Name Only.”

We have seen forces of hatred marginalized. Unfortunately, those forces have gamed our system via gerrymandering and voter suppression, to name two means, to have inordinate control with a minority of voices.

To oppose this iteration of the GOP is one necessary step to fight hatred. Another is for people to take back the GOP from the people who jacked the GOP a decade ago. There is no GOP platform. You can make it as progressive as you want.