- Aug 20, 2000
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My first thought when I heard of the leaked audio of Mr. Trump and the fallout was, really, this is the last straw? Not the invective against Mexicans, or Muslims, or blacks? Not against promoting war crimes and for constitutionally illegal actions? I should have realized that all Republicans care for at this point is votes, and now that the white female vote is endangered, it's time to actually say something.
Salon - The Horror Is Everything the GOP Could Tolerate About Trump, and Why
Salon - The Horror Is Everything the GOP Could Tolerate About Trump, and Why
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Republicans didn’t say anything because Trump wasn’t attacking Republicans. The ground didn’t shift for the GOP nominee until he did. His “grab them by the pussy” comments don’t just threaten his own bid at the White House; they threaten the whole Republican political apparatus. They undermine party enthusiasm. They give millions of Republican-voting women a reason to stay home. And what happens if they do? Suddenly, the House and Senate are at risk. Suddenly, Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell are leaders of a minority party.
But of course the GOP could tolerate his place at the top of the ticket so long as he restricted his threats to groups outside the party. President Trump, after all, would nominate their judges, sign their tax cuts, and affirm their plans to gut the social safety net. Ryan, the House speaker, said as much in his endorsement. “For me, it’s a question of how to move ahead on the ideas that I—and my House colleagues—have invested so much in through the years,” he wrote in June. “It’s not just a choice of two people, but of two visions for America. And House Republicans are helping shape that Republican vision by offering a bold policy agenda, by offering a better way ahead. Donald Trump can help us make it a reality.” For him and many Republicans, Trump’s frank advocacy of racial repression is a small price to pay for their expansive reversal of liberal social policy. It’s hardly even a price.
In fact, we now have a list of all the things the Republican will tolerate solely for the sake of the White House and a continued congressional majority. It’s a long list.
The Republican Party will tolerate racist condemnation of Mexican immigrants, and Latino Americans at large. It will tolerate the same racist condemnation of Muslims, even as both attacks feed an atmosphere of paranoia, distrust, and violence.
It will tolerate a policy platform that treats these groups—and Syrian refugees to the United States—as a dangerous fifth column. In Trump’s vision of America, Latino immigrants, when they aren’t “stealing jobs,” are the vector for crime and disorder, plunging towns and cities into lawlessness. It’s why Trump wants to root them out with a new “deportation force,” home by home, person by person. And it’s why he wants a wall on the Mexican border—a concrete prophylactic to keep those dark-skinned migrants from reaching our borders.
It will tolerate the same racist policies for Muslim Americans. In Trump’s world, Muslims are a “Trojan Horse,” a foreign intrusion that threatens American security. It’s why he wants to ban their entry to the country, why he wants new surveillance of Muslim communities, why he wants to reject refugees, and why he’s accused Muslim Americans of condoning terrorist violence. “They know what’s going on,” Trump saidafter a shooter killed 49 people at a nightclub in Orlando. “They know that he was bad. They knew the people in San Bernardino were bad. But you know what? They didn’t turn them in. And you know what? We had death, and destruction.”
The Republican Party and its leaders—Reince Priebus, Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnell, and hundreds of federal and state office holders—will tolerate attacks on veterans and prisoners of war. It will tolerate blatant racism toward a federal judge and a Gold Star family, whose son died fighting for this country. It will tolerate Trump’s call for war crimes (“take their oil”), his zeal for torture, and his support for renewed nuclear proliferation.
It will tolerate his rhetoric toward black Americans, treating them as helpless brutes leading disordered, degenerate lives. It will even tolerate his drive to make the Republican Party a more comfortable home for white nationalists, a vehicle for ethno-nationalism and herrenvolk democracy. Paul Ryan, praised for his principle and integrity, said nothing when Trump hired Steve Bannon to coordinate his campaign, despite Bannon’s ties to white nationalists through his website Breitbart. He said nothing when Trump promised to deport American citizens whose parents came to the country illegally, a violation of the 14th Amendment. And even when Ryan condemned Trump—as in the case of Trump’s attacks on Judge Gonzalo Curiel and the Khan family—he still backed him for president of the United States.
For more than a year, Trump has preached state repression of nonwhites. And for more than a year, Republican leaders have tip-toed around him, even praised him. They’ve defended him, rallied behind him, and touted him as the right man to lead the country. “Donald Trump is committed to cut taxes, curb spending, and get our national debt under control,” said Florida Sen. Marco Rubio in his video endorsement of Trump at the Republican National Convention in July. “Unlike Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump takes seriously the threats from Islamic radicals and is committed to rebuilding our military.” Rubio joined the recent chorus against Trump, even as he continues to back the real estate mogul’s bid for the White House.
There’s a logic here, and it’s not hard to see. When it comes to voting, it doesn’t matter to Republicans that Trump is anathema to nonwhites and religious minorities. Neither black Americans nor Latinos nor Muslim Americans are going to vote for the GOP in significant numbers, and the party as a result is unresponsive to those communities, if not openly contemptuous of their concerns. Few Republicans, for example, want to restore the Voting Rights Act, and even fewer have challenged the drive to restrict and disenfranchise voters. We can see this dynamic in real time.
...
For all the press they attract, however, their condemnations don’t hide the facts of the matter. Those are still plain to see. For the last year, through Donald Trump, Republicans have shown what they can live with. And what they can live with is a nominee whose chief appeal is his overt, unapologetic racism, and whose plans would remake America into a whites-only country, with suspicion and hostility for those on the other side of the color divide.
Republicans didn’t say anything because Trump wasn’t attacking Republicans. The ground didn’t shift for the GOP nominee until he did. His “grab them by the pussy” comments don’t just threaten his own bid at the White House; they threaten the whole Republican political apparatus. They undermine party enthusiasm. They give millions of Republican-voting women a reason to stay home. And what happens if they do? Suddenly, the House and Senate are at risk. Suddenly, Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell are leaders of a minority party.
But of course the GOP could tolerate his place at the top of the ticket so long as he restricted his threats to groups outside the party. President Trump, after all, would nominate their judges, sign their tax cuts, and affirm their plans to gut the social safety net. Ryan, the House speaker, said as much in his endorsement. “For me, it’s a question of how to move ahead on the ideas that I—and my House colleagues—have invested so much in through the years,” he wrote in June. “It’s not just a choice of two people, but of two visions for America. And House Republicans are helping shape that Republican vision by offering a bold policy agenda, by offering a better way ahead. Donald Trump can help us make it a reality.” For him and many Republicans, Trump’s frank advocacy of racial repression is a small price to pay for their expansive reversal of liberal social policy. It’s hardly even a price.
In fact, we now have a list of all the things the Republican will tolerate solely for the sake of the White House and a continued congressional majority. It’s a long list.
The Republican Party will tolerate racist condemnation of Mexican immigrants, and Latino Americans at large. It will tolerate the same racist condemnation of Muslims, even as both attacks feed an atmosphere of paranoia, distrust, and violence.
It will tolerate a policy platform that treats these groups—and Syrian refugees to the United States—as a dangerous fifth column. In Trump’s vision of America, Latino immigrants, when they aren’t “stealing jobs,” are the vector for crime and disorder, plunging towns and cities into lawlessness. It’s why Trump wants to root them out with a new “deportation force,” home by home, person by person. And it’s why he wants a wall on the Mexican border—a concrete prophylactic to keep those dark-skinned migrants from reaching our borders.
It will tolerate the same racist policies for Muslim Americans. In Trump’s world, Muslims are a “Trojan Horse,” a foreign intrusion that threatens American security. It’s why he wants to ban their entry to the country, why he wants new surveillance of Muslim communities, why he wants to reject refugees, and why he’s accused Muslim Americans of condoning terrorist violence. “They know what’s going on,” Trump saidafter a shooter killed 49 people at a nightclub in Orlando. “They know that he was bad. They knew the people in San Bernardino were bad. But you know what? They didn’t turn them in. And you know what? We had death, and destruction.”
The Republican Party and its leaders—Reince Priebus, Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnell, and hundreds of federal and state office holders—will tolerate attacks on veterans and prisoners of war. It will tolerate blatant racism toward a federal judge and a Gold Star family, whose son died fighting for this country. It will tolerate Trump’s call for war crimes (“take their oil”), his zeal for torture, and his support for renewed nuclear proliferation.
It will tolerate his rhetoric toward black Americans, treating them as helpless brutes leading disordered, degenerate lives. It will even tolerate his drive to make the Republican Party a more comfortable home for white nationalists, a vehicle for ethno-nationalism and herrenvolk democracy. Paul Ryan, praised for his principle and integrity, said nothing when Trump hired Steve Bannon to coordinate his campaign, despite Bannon’s ties to white nationalists through his website Breitbart. He said nothing when Trump promised to deport American citizens whose parents came to the country illegally, a violation of the 14th Amendment. And even when Ryan condemned Trump—as in the case of Trump’s attacks on Judge Gonzalo Curiel and the Khan family—he still backed him for president of the United States.
For more than a year, Trump has preached state repression of nonwhites. And for more than a year, Republican leaders have tip-toed around him, even praised him. They’ve defended him, rallied behind him, and touted him as the right man to lead the country. “Donald Trump is committed to cut taxes, curb spending, and get our national debt under control,” said Florida Sen. Marco Rubio in his video endorsement of Trump at the Republican National Convention in July. “Unlike Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump takes seriously the threats from Islamic radicals and is committed to rebuilding our military.” Rubio joined the recent chorus against Trump, even as he continues to back the real estate mogul’s bid for the White House.
There’s a logic here, and it’s not hard to see. When it comes to voting, it doesn’t matter to Republicans that Trump is anathema to nonwhites and religious minorities. Neither black Americans nor Latinos nor Muslim Americans are going to vote for the GOP in significant numbers, and the party as a result is unresponsive to those communities, if not openly contemptuous of their concerns. Few Republicans, for example, want to restore the Voting Rights Act, and even fewer have challenged the drive to restrict and disenfranchise voters. We can see this dynamic in real time.
...
For all the press they attract, however, their condemnations don’t hide the facts of the matter. Those are still plain to see. For the last year, through Donald Trump, Republicans have shown what they can live with. And what they can live with is a nominee whose chief appeal is his overt, unapologetic racism, and whose plans would remake America into a whites-only country, with suspicion and hostility for those on the other side of the color divide.
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