With no opposition, Manatee Republican Party runs amok

I grew up in Minneapolis, a one-party town for the Democrats, so I came to an early appreciation of the limitations and liabilities of not having a strong opposition party in local politics. And I can't help but notice that, in an era of a GOP that columnist Leonard Pitts, Jr. claims has “flat-out lost its mind” (column, July 9, 2017), some Florida GOP organizations, especially in regions where they don’t face strong competition, are, sadly, showing their colors.

Recently, the Manatee County Republican Party shared a story on its official Facebook page that floats the conspiracy theory that global warming is a hoax from Soviet-era Russia. Does anyone in the Manatee Republican Party care about how the local party organization is shaping public discourse on this issue?

This story was originally published July 13, 2017 at 4:07 PM with the headline "With no opposition, Manatee Republican Party runs amok."