WAPO OP ED: Trump's push to amplify racism unnerves Republicans who have long enabled him

[lindysalsagal]

Trump’s push to amplify racism unnerves Republicans who have long enabled him

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-racism-white-nationalism-republicans/2020/07/04/2b0aebe6-bbaf-11ea-80b9-40ece9a701dc_story.html

By Robert Costa and Philip Rucker July 4, 2020 at 12:24 p.m. EDT


On Capitol Hill, some Republicans fret — mostly privately to avoid his wrath — that Trump’s fixation on racial and other cultural issues leaves their party running against the currents of change. Coupled with the coronavirus pandemic and related economic crisis, these Republicans fear he is not only seriously impairing his reelection chances, but also jeopardizing the GOP Senate majority and its strength in the House.

“The Senate incumbent candidates are not taking the bait and are staying as far away from this as they can,” said Scott Reed, a veteran Republican operative and chief strategist at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which has invested heavily in keeping GOP control of the Senate. “The problem is this is no longer just Trump’s Twitter feed. It’s expanded to the podium, and that makes it more and more difficult for these campaigns.

Senate Republicans looking to hold onto the party’s 53-seat majority are trying to balance their political alliance with Trump with their attempt to win over more moderate voters amid the reckoning over race. For instance, Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) recently co-sponsored a bill with Cornyn — both are up for reelection in November — and others to make Juneteenth, which celebrates the end of slavery, a federal holiday.

“Without white resentment, there is no rationale for Donald Trump,” Belcher said. “Without that, what reason do his supporters you have to be with Donald Trump if he’s not going to be your tribal strong man? He started there and will end there.”

[kimbutgar]

1. I'd love to see his enablers Jordan, Nunez, McCarthy, Gohmert etc voted out in a blowout

[Bernardo de La Paz]

2. The deplorables voted for tRump because he hates the same people they hate. . . nt

[lindysalsagal]

4. and he dresses it up in false faith and patriotism. He makes ugly smell a little better.

[BComplex]

3. The entire republican party OWNS this problem. They had a chance to do the right thing a million

times, and they just kept enabling him. Now they need to be absolutely BURIED in the coming election. In fact, we shouldn't elect another republican for 30 or 40 years for ANY office after this. It should destroy the republican and libertarian parties forever.

The VERY FIRST THING Biden needs to do is pass election protections that are hard and fast and carry prison terms for ANYONE disenfranchising voters.

The SECOND thing Biden and a House and Senate need to do is reinstate the Fairness Doctrine, and make laws about "news" stations and propaganda & lies.

[lindysalsagal]

5. Election Reform: Get the money out.

Amen.

[BComplex]

6. Amen to that.

Get the money out.

THIS is why I want so badly for Elizabeth Warren to be the VP. She has a strong handle on all of these issues, and is ready on day one.

[sop]

7. The Republican party fully supports Trump's racist ideas and policies, they just pretend not to.

From a 1981 interview with Lee Atwater, in The Nation: "The late, legendarily brutal campaign consultant Lee Atwater explains how Republicans can win the vote of racists without sounding racist themselves."

Atwater: "You start out in 1954 by saying, 'N-word, N-word, N-word.' By 1968 you can’t say 'N-word" - that hurts you, backfires. So you say stuff like, uh, forced busing, states’ rights, and all that stuff, and you’re getting so abstract. Now, you’re talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you’re talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is, blacks get hurt worse than whites.… "We want to cut this,' is much more abstract than even the busing thing, uh, and a hell of a lot more abstract than 'N-word, N-word.'" (Atwater used the actual term in the recorded interview.)

https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/exclusive-lee-atwaters-infamous-1981-interview-southern-strategy/

This has been going on long before Trump ever thought of getting into politics. Trump just brought it more out into the open, and it's hurting the GOP.

[crickets]

8. Wow. Great find - thanks for that link. nt