Progress Michigan
News from Progress Michigan
August 14, 2017
Contact: Hugh Madden, 734-250-2070, hugh@progressmichigan.org
Progress Michigan Response to GOP Chair Ronna Romney McDaniel: You Can’t Run from Your Party
LANSING – The following is a statement in response to National Republican Party Chair Ronna Romney McDaniel’s statements earlier today in response to the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Va. that killed one woman and two Virginia state troopers. It can be attributed to Executive Director Lonnie Scott.
“While we’re pleased to see Ronna Romney McDaniel take the stand on the white supremacy and neo Nazism her party’s president refused to for 48-hours on the events that transpired in Charlottesville over the weekend, it’s hard to believe it is sincere. Republican leadership in Michigan – which she led prior to becoming President Donald Trump’s damage control team – has done nothing in the way of embracing diversity or taking a stand against bigotry,” said Lonnie Scott, executive director for Progress Michigan. “If diversity and inclusion were so important to the GOP, they wouldn’t have taken over multiple majority black-and-brown cities and school systems with the dictator-like control of an emergency manager; they wouldn’t have let thousands of people drink tainted water in Flint for years before taking action; they would have found a way to remove bigot Dave Agema from an RNC leadership post; and we wouldn’t still have a state constitution that prohibits same-sex marriage despite the U.S. Supreme Court saying it’s unconstitutional.”
“The fact of the matter is that the GOP has never been a party of all the people. It has been the party of wealthy, corporate donors who tell predominately white elected officials to jump and they in turn ask how high,” Scott said. “I look forward to President Trump and McDaniel’s plan to actually make institutional racism and bigotry in Michigan and nationally a priority, but until they do, their actions will continue to speak louder than their hollow words.”