Letters: GOP is the party that needs soul-searching

Democrats are still reeling from the shocking presidential election, with an emotional mix of disbelief, demoralization and angry defiance. Polls showed Hillary Clinton with a persistent lead, yet Trump inexplicably pulled out upsets in several key states, giving him the majority of Electoral College votes. Hillary won the popular vote by at least 2.5 million.

Now many are saying Democrats need a self-autopsy to determine where they went wrong. (Remember the Republican autopsy after President Obama’s reelection? Note the Trump campaign defied recommendations from that autopsy, yet somehow managed to win.)

We may never know why this happened, but my top theories are 1) backlash from the white majority to eight years of a progressive African-American presidency, 2) FBI Director James Comey’s comments on the Clinton emails or 3) some combination of voter suppression and election interference/tampering/hacking.

It is my belief that the Clinton campaign is not to blame and coped with the bizarre pile-on of unfair attacks pretty well. The Democratic Party is not fatally flawed. It is the Republicans who need to do the soul-searching: Winning by every dirty tactic imaginable doesn’t make you right.