By BARBARA HOWARD

The violence in Virginia had a ripple effect that has long-term consequences.

Several of the CEOs of Trump’s Manufacturing Council resigned because they didn’t want to be associated with a president being called a racist. They know that being called racist can have long-term negative financial consequences for their businesses.

It also doesn’t help that Republican Congressmen like Lindsey Graham, Jeff Flake or John McCain rushed at the chance to throw Trump under the bus. I think they hate him more than the Democrats do. He doesn’t fit the mold of a Harvard elite or Washington smooth-talking career politician and he doesn’t come from a long line of politicians, like the Bush boys.

But he broke the mold by winning the Republican primary over 17 other candidates. For me, the carnage and resulting aftermath of Virginia reminded me why I and so many other Republicans of all races were glad that Trump won.

Quite frankly, I was tired of watching Republicans get demeaned as racists without them fighting back. While Trump is getting bombarded with hateful rhetoric, he is not the first.

I remember when Jeb Bush was running for re-election as Governor of Florida. Black Democratic politicians were telling their constituents that if Jeb was re-elected, he would “take away our civil rights.” One Congresswoman tried to embarrass me at a private function because I was a Republican working on Jeb’s campaign.

Needless to say, Jeb was re-elected and years later, even after he changed “Affirmative Action” into “One Florida,” we still have all of our civil rights. In fact, the State of Florida spent three times the amount of money with Black and other minority vendors under Jeb Bush than it had under all the Democratic governors combined.

When George W. Bush became POTUS 43, the Democrats threw so much ugly rhetoric at him and the liberal mainstream media (MSM) had him as the most racist POTUS to ever serve, that the term “Bush Derangement Syndrome” was born.

“Bush 43” was demeaned daily as a racist, murderer, Hitler, etc. Ironically, while the Bush brothers, father George H.W. Bush – “Bush 41”, and mother – Barbara Bush, were being defined as the most racist family in the country, one of the brothers, Neil Bush, had been serving for about 15 years on the Board of Directors of the United Negro College Fund (UNCF) and had helped raise more money for black kids to go to college than anybody else and all of the Democrats combined.

support POTUS “Bush 41” kicked off UNCF’s “Campaign 2000” at a reception at the White House in 1990. It became UNCF’s most successful fundraising effort ever, resulting in over $280 million. So much for the racist Bush boys.

Yet very few of us publicly supported the Bushes against racism charges. Let us not make that same mistake with Trump.

Those who call Trump a racist obviously have forgotten his campaign speeches where he reached out to Blacks and said, “What the hell do you have to lose?” for voting for him. Racists don’t reach out to black folk.

But radical Leftists don’t care about the truth. They make up their own narrative and rewrite history, which is what they’re trying to do now with the removal of all the Confederate statues and flags.

Most Democrats don’t know their party has been taken over by Anarchists, Socialists, Communists and other radicals. They also don’t know the history of the Democratic Party.

Ironically the Confederate statues honor men who were Democrats, NOT Republicans. And the KKK, the Neo-Nazis and white nationalists were ALL Liberals. If they vote at all, don’t most still vote Democrat, even though some voted for Trump?

When did all the racists change parties? Liberal revisionist history says racists moved to the Republican Party in the 60s. Did that really happen or is it another Liberal LIE?

Where is the proof? Trump said there were hateful, violent people on both sides in Charlottesville. He was right. Who were in the group marching against the white nationalists? Answer: Anarchists, Socialists, Communists, Black Lives Matter and members of the Antifa movement – ALL Democrats – the Alt-Left.

The Urban Dictionary defines Antifa, short for Anti-fascists, as middle-class champagne socialist/communist/anarchist white boys who don’t like nationalists or fascists. Mostly teenagers and university students, they rebel against the establishment, hold ultra-politically correct views, dislike only white racists, are afraid of anti-white or black racists, and are the most violent domestic terrorist group around.

People need to watch the video of the AltLeft disrupting and taking over the most recent Charlottesville City Council meeting; creating chaos, standing on the Council dais and shouting “Blood on your hands.” The same people started the violence in Charlottesville. While the Nazis and KKK are hateful people, so is Antifa, socialists, communists, anarchists and BLM. They’re all racists.

Knowing this, Republicans need to rethink their reaction to Trump’s response to Charlottesville and support their president. He was right.