Proud Boys are a hate group, Miami-Dade GOP. Why have you welcomed them with open arms? | Editorial

The minimum political parties operating in a democracy should do is denounce anti-democratic activity. But in the party of law and order, affiliation with the far-right group that helped stage the Jan. 6 insurrection is treated as a matter of diversity of points of view.

The Proud Boys’ infiltration into the leadership ranks of the Miami-Dade County Republican Party, as reported by the New York Times recently, isn’t surprising. As the first hearing of the Jan. 6 committee outlined Thursday, the group’s ties run deep in Florida. Miami’s Enrique Tarrio, former Proud Boys national chairman, was one of the people calling the shots in the hours leading up to the attack on the U.S. Capitol.

According to the Times, at least a half-dozen current and former Proud Boys have secured seats on the Miami-Dade Republican Executive Committee. Among them are two people facing criminal charges for participating in the attack.

The party’s response to the Times’ reporting was a big shrug — the type of blasé reaction more fitting to membership in a bridge club.

“Yes, we have different points of view in our party. That’s how we are. And my job as Republican chairman is to protect everyone’s First Amendment right, however wrong they may be,” Party Chair Rene Garcia told the Times.

The Herald Editorial Board couldn’t reach Garcia for comment. Neither could Herald columnist Fabiola Santiago last week. So we will let Garcia’s statement speak for itself.

We didn’t expect a manic scrambling by political leaders to react to a news article that highlights a stain on the largest local Republican Party in Florida. Neither did we expect Garcia and his fellow GOP leaders to have emergency meetings to discuss how to deal with this affiliation within their ranks with a hate group, as the Southern Poverty Law Center designates the Proud Boys.

At a minimum, Garcia should walk back his previous comment and issue a new statement disavowing the hate group, especially in light of the information presented in last week’s congressional hearing.

Racism, white supremacy and the attempt to stop the certification of a fair election aren’t just another “point of view.” We can only imagine the uproar if the shoe were on the other foot and Miami-Dade Democrats accepted Antifa among their ranks.

A political party that stands for democracy should weed out the Proud Boys. The Miami-Dade Republican Party’s governing document requires a vote by two-thirds of the County Executive Committee for the removal of a member or party officer. That might be a high bar to meet. Fealty to Donald Trump has become synonymous with being a conservative, and many Republicans would rather depict Jan. 6 as a walk in the park.

Where are the Republicans who see right through their party’s cozying up to extremists who are not bound by conservative values, but by a desire to be disruptive thugs?

In theory, Garcia should be one of them. The county commissioner and former state senator is a known moderate who’s worked across the aisle. He led the commission, for example, to require more frequent building inspections after the Surfside collapse. He voted against the expansion of the county’s Urban Development Boundary for a misguided industrial complex on the edge of Biscayne Bay.

“The nice people — the decent people, the people that are real Republicans — are leaving,” Miami-Dade GOP state committeewoman Liliana Ros told The New York Times.

The Proud Boys don’t represent the party of Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Reagan — at least, we don’t think it does. But if the “nice people” leave and the ones left are forced to rationalize the group’s abhorrent beliefs and actions — or remain silent — then, yes, the Proud Boys will represent the GOP. It’s in party leaders’ best interest to eradicate this element of hate from its ranks.

Otherwise, they are complicit.