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The majority of the power brokers of the GOP are not racists, not really anyway. Classists to be sure, but not racists. Of course being classist means that certain races do get the shaft because most people in the right class are white. But is that really racism? I don't think so, and painting it as such misses the point of the real dangers in the GOP's attitudes.
There are some very racist GOPers however. Of course, there are some racist Dems too. However, it is the classism in the GOP that allows the racists to pretty strongly pursue their ends under the cover of the classist agenda of the party at large. Things like massive tax breaks for the richest elites coupled with declining access to vital services for the poorest Americans is of course going to be disproportionately beneficial to whites, and negative to blacks, just based on the simple statistical reality of demographics. So the majority of the GOP big wigs who only care about one color--Green--provide the real momentum for this agenda to line their own pockets, and the actual racists back them up because it cements the economic weakness of minorities.
Thus I sympathise with folks like Host that see the racism inherent in GOP policies, I just don't think it means that Republicans can be assumed to be racist.
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