The Republican party cannot, in good faith, agree that they are still the  Party of Lincoln,  because as President Lincoln worked tirelessly to end slavery and reunite the nation, our modern-day GOP seeks to divide and is openly racist.In yet another example of how modern-day Republicans are nothing like that of Lincoln, Senator Mike Rounds (R-SD) has now said that he would back Donald Trump even if his comments regarding the Ku Klux Klan were intentional. He s openly admitting that he would back a KKK-loving presidential candidate over any Democrat.Here are his comments in full regarding what Trump had to say about the KKK: I think it s an unfortunate response. A very unfortunate response. Like I say, I ve met Mr. Trump once. It was a businesslike discussion and I walked away thinking he s been doing a great job as a showman out here and he s brought a lot of people into this thing. There was a side of him that I did not see when I visited with him personally.My choice would still be   honestly, I m still leaning to Marco Rubio, as I suspect there are others [who] are. But nonetheless, our critical issue is fixing things in the United States, and you can t do that if you ve got Bernie or Hillary, because they have a differing point of view about what s right and what s wrong with this country.And there are some things wrong with this country: [The Congressional Budget Office] is very clear within 10 years   the 250th birthday of our country, 2026   99 percent of all the revenues we collect will go to two categories: interest on the federal debt and mandatory payments on entitlements. You can t fix that unless you ve got a team in here agreed that you re focused on it. And I just don t think Democrats are going to do that. I think it has to be a Republican.Even if you re disappointed with the way he s responding to things, even if you re mad at him, you disagree with him, if he did it intentionally   I don t think he did, I think he just made a mistake   even if he did, they re still going to do a better job with him there than if you had Hillary or Bernie in his place. Rounds told reporter Todd Zwillich that Trump would boost voter turnout and at the end of the day  if he is the nominee, then will he bring more people out or won t he? You can call it transactional, but it s factual. Trying to mend fences, because he is one of the few people in a position to do so, Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) condemned Trump s remarks. He said: When I see something that runs counter to who we are as a party and as a country, I will speak up, so today I want to be very clear about something. If a person wants to be the nominee of the Republican Party, there can be no evasion and no games. They must reject any group or cause that is built on bigotry. This party does not prey on people s prejudices. We appeal to their highest ideals. This is the party of Lincoln. This is fundamental. And if someone wants to be our nominee, they must understand this. I hope this is the last time I need to speak out on this race. It seems Ryan is in deep denial of not only his own party, but of the base of voters that continuously votes Republican. As much as he wants to say the GOP is still the  Party of Lincoln,  they re not. That s been evident since the big party shift of the early 20th century when the South slowly went from Democrats to Dixiecrats to Republicans, and the Northern states went from Republican to Democrat. If Lincoln were around today, he d denounce the modern-day GOP and unquestionably back the Democratic nominee. That s a fact.Featured image: Wikimedia Commons