Columbia,SC — Gov. Nikki Haley’s appointment of Tim Scott to the U.S. Senate is as ridiculous as her schmoozing up to the Romney campaign for a post in a Romney administration.

Again her self-interest outweighs her state constitutional responsibilities. Mr. Scott’s only qualification is as a pawn in the rabid red-meat politics of the tea party and the Republican Party.

After losing the Civil War, Southern states passed Jim Crow laws, which were in effect until the civil rights laws of the 1960s, which also prompted white Southern Democrats to became white Southern Republicans with the same abysmal record of excluding African-Americans as well as blaming them for all societal ills.

So today in South Carolina we have a governor who disavowed her religious and cultural upbringing to be elected as a Republican and a congressman with minimal qualifications at best. Both espouse policies exclusive of everyone except the rich and predominantly white. Their positions in the Republican Party are token at best.

One day in the distant future, if the United States still exists, the Republican Party — with its minority membership and minimal intellectual progress worthy of an inclusive society — will either go the way of the Whigs or miraculously transform itself into a worthy opponent.

David Pittman

Cayce