Is the Republican party a racist party?

[Darthpi – Anti-Florida Activist]

Interesting to see that many who have the biggest problem with Donald Trump saying something like "all Mexican's are criminals", these are the same people who have no problem saying "all Republicans are racist". News flash: both statements are indefensible, and downright dumb.

Who exactly has said that "all republicans are racist"? A majority are voting for a racist candidate though.

Well, you tell me: what does it mean for a party to be racist? Does it mean that anyone who registers as a Republican is a racist? Does it mean that anyone who votes for a Republican is a racist? Please clarify what is meant by the question...

Well political scientists have traditionally considered a "political party" to be composed of three components: (1) the party in the electorate (the voters), (2) the party in government (the party's elected officials), and (3) the party as an organization (the officials making up the national committee, the officials of the various state party organizations, your precinct chairs, etc.).  So "the Republican party" is definitely more than the collection of voters who identify as or vote Republican. 

With that understanding, I do not read this question as "Are a majority of Republicans racists?" and I don't think any reasonable person in this thread has read it that way either. I read the question as something to the effect of "Do the actions of the Republican party apparatus , taken as a whole, tend to constitute a driving force of racism in our country?" 

For what it's worth, I don't think a majority of people identifying as Republicans in the country are racists. That being said, it is clear that there are a troubling number of racists in the Republican party. What is even more alarming though is that none of the "leaders" of the Republican party seem at all interested in doing anything to rectify that situation. Republican party elites tend to at best tacitly condone the racist elements of their party and at worst push policies intentionally designed to stoke racial tensions in order to bolster electoral success. That's racist.

To put it another way: