Letter: Give no credit for Republican hypocrisy

How strange that Republicans receive praise for taking actions they should have taken days, months or years earlier. They stonewall on issues, fail to step forward and lead, and then when insurmountable pressure and political survival comes to the fore they make a decision that they were essentially forced to make.

Gov. Nikki Haley received praise for deciding to remove the Confederate flag from the Statehouse grounds, but only after murders occurred and public pressure was so strong she had no choice. A real leader would have taken this action years ago because it was the right thing to do. She should receive no credit for taking action for political survival.

Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal should not be praised for deciding to veto the bill that was outrageously biased against selected groups of citizens. He took days to make this decision and only made it because corporations threatened to leave the state. A real leader would have told the legislature that he would veto the bill if they passed it because it is the right thing to do. He should receive no credit for vetoing the bill since he only did it because of intense corporate pressure.

This is the trend for Republican leaders: give tacit support to all kinds of bigotry and bias and only make the right decision when political survival is on the line or public sentiment is too strong. Then they want to be praised for their gallant decision. What hypocrites.

This story was originally published April 20, 2016 at 5:14 PM with the headline "Letter: Give no credit for Republican hypocrisy."