I find it amazing to hear Republican presidential candidates pontificate how bad Donald Trump is when all he’s done is speak for what Republicans really believe — if you don’t think so then why is Trump leading the race and the likely nominee?

Republican “leadership” fully supported birthers to the point that our president had to go on national television to show his long-form birth certificate, and obviously this had nothing to do with the color of his skin.

Nothing has changed since Goldwater and Nixon’s “Southern Strategy,” or Lee Atwater’s new messaging on racism to Ronald Reagan speaking about state rights in Philadelphia, Mississippi, except now it is truly in plain sight, lead by Trump’s line about “Make America Great Again.” And if you don’t think that doesn’t resonate with racists they you haven’t been paying attention.

It is not Democrats or Socialists or even Communists that are making degrading and racist statements; it’s the new leader of your Republican Party, Donald Trump. All the Republicans presidential candidates have taken pledges to vote for their party’s nominee. That tells me what I already knew to be true about Republicans.

By the way do you really believe all this hate will go away if Trump is defeated?

Michael Grove

Monmouth