The Sound of Silence: GOP Allows White-Nationalism to Reverberate...
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Donald Trump, who will tell you that he’s the leader of the Republican party, had dinner with the nation’s most prominent and virulent anti-Semite, then flipped his hand when met with rage, something about not knowing the guy, and moved on. And with him goes the GOP, similarly flipping their hand.
Stunning. Dangerous.
It is even worse than we would tend to think.
Because while Trump was busy telling us that he didn’t know Nick Fuentes and was just trying to help the other anti-Semite, Kanye, Trump did not even say, “Oh, and everyone knows I have no tolerance for this kind of hate… “ Think about it for a moment. Did you expect Trump to make clear that he can’t tolerate white nationalism? No, probably not, because “everyone knows” that Trump has a high tolerance for white nationalism as the basement of the base. “There were good people, on both sides…”
But that’s just Trump, and Trump is Trump. What about the GOP? Coming off of three Trump losses in a row.
I wrote last week that this would force the GOP to distance themselves from Trump, and it will, a bit. Later. And I gave them a little too much credit.
There is no general election in two weeks, something that would force the Republicans to address the matter before “the people” and not just the “white nationalist-tolerant GOP” voter. So why stir the brew? Why call it out as wrong and make oneself the focus of Trump’s attention? Is standing up against hatred of Jews and racism really worth being spit at by Trump?
It is. But not to the GOP, which is sickening and fcking terrifying. The GOP has gone radio silent, and it’s deafening. According to Axios:
Driving the news: Spokespeople for nearly two dozen House and Senate Republicans — including party leaders, co-chairs of caucuses and task forces focused on Judaism or antisemitism and sponsors of legislation to combat antisemitic hate crimes — did not respond to requests for comment.
Regarding Axios’s findings?
The only conclusion? Despite three straight losses, Trump still holds so much control over the GOP that the average GOP Joe feels more comfortable tolerating white nationalists than crossing Trump… at least for now. Again, the dynamic will change some as election season goes “general,” but for now, better to be seen as tolerating a “little” white nationalist than the focus of Trump hatred.
Speaking of “Joes,” Scarborough tore into the GOP this morning, putting it in language simple enough for the GOP to understand, “This is why you keep losing!”
McConnell couldn’t even stand up for Trump’s racist remarks about his wife.
Yes, they will continue to lose elections, but it’s also why the GOP is increasingly hostile to elections. I have written about the “fog” of November 10th, 2024, when the increasingly autocratic GOP, the one that feels “owed” a win in the presidential election because they believe they won last time, stretches its legs again in the face of possible defeat.
And, on December 7, Pearl Harbor Day, we might see a sneak attack on democracy, bombing the SCOTUS with the Moore case from North Carolina, putting presidential elections under the sole control of state legislatures. NO COURT REVIEW. Arizona’s very GOP legislature could just “decide” that the election was fraudulent and send its own electors, and there’s fck all a court could do about it.
I mention the GOP’s penchant for autocracy (again) because if history teaches anything, it is that an autocratic party with a strong tolerance for white nationalist populism is perhaps the most dangerous recipe for transforming from democracy to fascism. Once that happens? God only knows the limits from there.
From Business Insider:
"I don't think this fight over elemental democracy is over, by any means," Piven told The Guardian. "The United States was well on the road to becoming a fascist country – and it still can become a fascist country."
Watch the GOP’s continued servitude toward Trump, watch Trump’s extremism increase in intensity, and watch the SCOTUS’s decision on the 12th Amendment. If the three come together, a dictatorship seems more likely than not.
They just don’t want to advertise it. Silence about blatant anti-Semitism and racism is a far safer position to your average Republican.
Try concentrating on that for a moment but not while eating or talking to your kids.
But do think about it. Our silence is just as intolerable.
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