A month ago, the racist-tinged Facebook posts of a Republican member of the Groton Board of Education shook a school system, and a community, which was focused on promoting an environment in which diversity was respected.

The posts fixated on the isolated violence, rather than the largely peaceful demonstrations, associated with the Black Lives Matter movement, bewailing the “many lives…lost over people acting like uneducated savages.”

The board member had shared and commiserated in her comments with posts from the Uncle Sam’s Misguided Children Facebook page, categorized by the Media Bias/Fact check website as an extreme-right source filled with false information, propaganda and conspiracies. The board member’s posts were filled with allusions to white grievances and the suggestion she might sleep better if “Trump were a dictator. Then this chaos may be done and over.”

The Republican Town Committee Executive Committee did the right thing, joining others in calling for the board member’s resignation, which subsequently took place.

So, we can understand their indignation when a Democratic town councilor, Aundré Bumgardner, who is Black, posted on Twitter and Facebook that “(Trump) is a racist, and he doesn’t even care to hide it. If you vote for him, so are you.”

Certainly, there are members of the town committee who plan on voting for the president’s re-election and take umbrage at the suggestion that makes them racists.

Pointing to what he characterized as the “divisive and highly offensive” statements, Republican Town Committee Chairman John Scott issued a declaration “demanding an apology and (Bumgardner’s) resignation” from the council.

Bumgardner’s comments probably stung more because he was once one of them. A rising star in the Republican universe, he was just 20 when elected in 2014 to the state House of Representatives from Groton. Another Groton Republican was elected to the House that year and would serve with Bumgardner — John Scott.

In 2016, both lost re-election bids. By the end of 2017, Bumgardner had left the party, disgusted by what he saw as Trump’s racist and xenophobic behavior. Trump’s reference to “good people on both sides,” after counter-protestors confronted a white supremacists’ rally in Charlottesville, Va., led Bumgardner to conclude he could no longer be a Republican.

And that’s the point. Bumgardner has not just talked the talk, he’s walked the walk.

Those recent Facebook and Twitter posts by Bumgardner came after Trump, at his debate with Joe Biden, was given ample opportunity by the moderator to flatly reject white supremacy and did not. Instead, Trump issued the chilling comment to the far-right, gun-toting white supremacist group Proud Boys, “Stand back and stand by.”

At some point, Bumgardner believes, you cannot separate your support for a candidate from his racist behavior.

“If you vote for him, so are you.”

That is an opinion. An opinion from someone who decided he could no longer remain a Republican given the president’s actions. One may disagree with that opinion — perhaps strongly disagree — but Bumgardner owes no apology for holding it and it is certainly not grounds for him to resign.

Bumgardner took a strong position. He offered Republicans, members of a party to which he once belonged, something to think about.

“If you vote for him, so are you.”

Speaking to The Day, Lauren Gauthier, town committee vice chair, offered a different opinion. Calling someone a racist because they support Trump is “completely discounting any other concern that an individual might have about an upcoming election,” she said.

Concerns such as the role of government, appointments to the federal courts, foreign policy, the economy, and so on. 

These are all the considerations voters must take into account, part of the soul searching that is taking place among many Republicans, we suspect.

Bumgardner searched his own soul and made a choice. There is no reason to condemn him for urging others to do likewise.

The Day editorial board meets with political, business and community leaders to formulate editorial viewpoints. It is composed of President and Publisher Timothy Dwyer, Executive Editor Izaskun E. Larraneta, Owen Poole, copy editor, and Lisa McGinley, retired deputy managing editor. The board operates independently from The Day newsroom.