I'm sorry the Founders were white, but there is nothing I can do about it.

There's an old saying that goes, "Keep your friends close and your enemies closer." In that idiom's spirit, I have been following a few different democratic blogs from folks in Georgia. While I'm only (partly) joking about the "enemies" thing, I do think it is wise to view what the other side is saying - especially the grassroots activists and bloggers like me (and probably you, too, judging by my readership). There is a Tumblr blog called "Bluestate Georgia" that I would highly recommend following. I do not personally know the author, but I think he does a great job articulating his views and does not do so in a way that is extremely off-putting to the other side. That's not to say I agree with the things posted, though - thus this post is born.

Bluestate Georgia recently penned a post titled Why is the GOP willing to Advance Such a Clearly Racist Scheme? I agreed with many of the points the author made, until he tried to tie it all together with this last line:

The GOP is advancing a racist plan to undermine and destabilize democracy in a desperate move to cling to power.

Republicans and Tea Party members alike have been accused of racism for years, it seems. Even with folks like Marco Rubio, Mia Love, or Herman Cain making headlines while advancing Republican principles, the label still sticks. So in the words of Neal Boortz, somebody's gotta say it: It's not our fault that the Founders of our Nation were white. If the original signers of our Constitution were multi-colored, that would be super cool - but is the GOP to be punished for and labeled as racists simply by circumstance? Why is fighting for a return to our founding principles a racist plan?

Personally, I am not a "Tea Party" member, but I do see validity in many of their efforts (i.e.: fighting for ethics in government, lower taxes, and a return to our founding principles). Does that mean there aren't racists in the Tea Party? Of course not, and it would be incredibly naive to believe so. Does the Tea Party having some racist members mean that the Democrats are, by default, more racially sensitive and lack racists in their ranks? Of course not!

My point here is that no one group is void of racists. Individuals make up groups, and individuals are flawed. To paint an entire party as racists (or any other trait) is the worst crime of collectivist thinking that an intellect can commit. Bluestate Georgia makes a great point when he says that Republicans need to be branching out to minorites. They do. And in many cases they have tried, but the left paints non-white republicans as nothing more than a decoy for the Republican racial agenda. And the continued media attacks stating that Republicans disagreeing with Obama's liberal policies or less-than-stellar leadership are because of racism are getting real old, real quick.

Racism is real and present. Stop undermining racial issues by throwing the term around frivolously and stop sullying the name of good people because of a few bad apples.