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babylonsister

(171,066 posts)
Mon Aug 21, 2017, 07:37 AM Aug 2017

Leonard Pitts Jr: Republicans have courted racists for years. Why are they cringing now?

http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/leonard-pitts-jr/article168097357.html


Leonard Pitts Jr
Republicans have courted racists for years. Why are they cringing now?

BY LEONARD PITTS, JR.

August 18, 2017 7:55 PM


snip//

But without question, the most repugnant contribution to this new dawn of white supremacy comes from the Republican Party. It has called to these people, invited these people, for decades. It has done so overtly, with laws and statements demonizing LGBTQ people, Muslims, and immigrants. Republicans have also employed so-called “dog whistle” politics, coded words, policies and imagery that preserve deniability while speaking with implicit clarity to white racial and cultural fears. From the Willie Horton ad that helped George H.W. Bush become president to the suggestive white woman ad that helped sink a black candidate’s Senate bid in Tennessee, from photo ID voter suppression to birther conspiracies, from Newt Gingrich condemning a “food stamp president” to Paul Ryan’s complaining about “a tailspin of culture in our inner cities,” the GOP has seldom missed a chance to lay out the welcome mat for white supremacists.

Maybe it was just political strategy. Maybe it was true belief. Doesn’t really matter.

Its machinations have delivered to the GOP the presidency and both houses of Congress. Yet seldom has a party controlled so much and looked so bad doing it. Republicans find themselves saddled with an incompetent president elected on an implicit promise to make America white again. Under him, they are able to accomplish exactly nothing. They cringe as he suggests moral equivalence between bigots and those who protest them. As if all that were not bad enough, a newly revived hate movement now arrives, looking to cash in its chits.

You think it’s unfair to lay all this on the “party of Lincoln?” How many Hillary Clinton voters do you really think were out there rallying for racism? Indeed, whose name did those bigots chant?

“Hail Trump!” they cried. “Hail Trump!”

No, Republicans may denounce what happened in Charlottesville to their heart’s content. This mess is on them. And while they may rush to condemn this ugliness, the more moral thing would be to own their role in creating the environment for it and repent thereof. There is no wiggle room here. They’ve sent invitations for years.

They can’t be surprised to see guests arrive.


http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/leonard-pitts-jr/article168097357.html
19 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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Leonard Pitts Jr: Republicans have courted racists for years. Why are they cringing now? (Original Post) babylonsister Aug 2017 OP
K&R sharedvalues Aug 2017 #1
They are not cringing Not Ruth Aug 2017 #2
That's a broad brush - but Nixon and Reagan courted racists sharedvalues Aug 2017 #3
Your Last Sentence ProfessorGAC Aug 2017 #5
What's that old quote? Wounded Bear Aug 2017 #8
Well, Except for the 50 Part ProfessorGAC Aug 2017 #10
Me, too... Wounded Bear Aug 2017 #11
Some British Guy! ProfessorGAC Aug 2017 #14
Recent podcast: how GOP youth get radicalized young sharedvalues Aug 2017 #16
Haven't Listened To Podcast, But... ProfessorGAC Aug 2017 #17
And Bannon and Breitbart have tried to radicalize those young white men specifically sharedvalues Aug 2017 #18
Sure Seems To Be So ProfessorGAC Aug 2017 #19
That's no cringe C_U_L8R Aug 2017 #4
They like to stir the pot then hide in their gated communities.... wolfie001 Aug 2017 #6
"Econimic anxiety" was simply code for these things in the past. It had an impact on people like... Weekend Warrior Aug 2017 #7
They're "cringing" (sort of) because they've been caught Proud Liberal Dem Aug 2017 #9
"at least appear concerned or ashamed about things." Hayduke Bomgarte Aug 2017 #12
Appearances are pretty much all that matters to Republicans Proud Liberal Dem Aug 2017 #13
They're only cringing cuz it's not convenient for them at the moment. southerncrone Aug 2017 #15

sharedvalues

(6,916 posts)
3. That's a broad brush - but Nixon and Reagan courted racists
Mon Aug 21, 2017, 07:53 AM
Aug 2017

When you court racists for four decades, can you be surprised when your voters are racist?

It's striking how many Charlottesville neo-Nazis are College Republicans.

ProfessorGAC

(65,042 posts)
5. Your Last Sentence
Mon Aug 21, 2017, 08:13 AM
Aug 2017

My wife and i were commenting on that as well. So many bitterly driven 20 to 25 year olds. How can one get that bitter by that age?

I'm very suspicious of college republicans in general, and question their true motives. I can see a college student still being idealistic and being politically active on the other side. The idealism of youth drives that sort of social optimism.

But, being a hard line conservative when one is 19? They don't know enough about anything to form positions that rigid, so i am dubious that those positions are solely based on political science.

I graduated from college when i was 19, so i knew more at 19 than most of these buffoons, and i will readily admit i didn't know much about real life. They all believe they've got it ALL figured out. I'm convinced bigotry is a primary trigger.

Wounded Bear

(58,656 posts)
8. What's that old quote?
Mon Aug 21, 2017, 10:29 AM
Aug 2017

If you are not a liberal at 20, you have no heart. If you are not a conservative at 50, you have no brain?

sharedvalues

(6,916 posts)
16. Recent podcast: how GOP youth get radicalized young
Mon Aug 21, 2017, 11:06 PM
Aug 2017

Check out the middle interview here - it's good.

Trump’s press conference goes off the rails as he defends the ‘fine people’ who were chanting Nazi slogans in Charlottesville, and the world reacts to the madness. Then Jon and Dan talk to VICE News Tonight correspondent Elle Reeve about her Charlottesville reporting, as well as the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Lecia Brooks about the rise of white supremacist extremism.
https://art19.com/shows/pod-save-america/episodes/d48b0001-cd3f-451f-b4cd-ea9ce14f3d0e


Also WaPo article on young radicalization:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/social-issues/the-road-to-hate-for-six-young-men-of-the-alt-right-charlottesville-is-only-the-beginning/2017/08/19/cd1a3624-8392-11e7-b359-15a3617c767b_story.html

But, being a hard line conservative when one is 19? They don't know enough about anything to form positions that rigid, so i am dubious that those positions are solely based on political science.


Propaganda. Fox News, Limbaugh. Now Breitbart and internet crazies. If we want to fix america we have to stop the GOP propaganda.

ProfessorGAC

(65,042 posts)
17. Haven't Listened To Podcast, But...
Tue Aug 22, 2017, 05:45 AM
Aug 2017

...read the WaPo article. I came away thinking these 6 are all emotionally unstable, immature twits.
IOW, they were radicalized because they're weak but entitled idiots.
Perhaps that is the most common thread. Incapable of introspection, ready to blame others, unaware of the uncontrollables.

sharedvalues

(6,916 posts)
18. And Bannon and Breitbart have tried to radicalize those young white men specifically
Tue Aug 22, 2017, 07:38 AM
Aug 2017

Bannon confesses to going after young white men gamers in the book by Joshua Green.

To me that is the biggest recent revelation -- Bannon fanned the flames of the alt-right online on purpose, for political advantage.

 

Weekend Warrior

(1,301 posts)
7. "Econimic anxiety" was simply code for these things in the past. It had an impact on people like...
Mon Aug 21, 2017, 10:26 AM
Aug 2017

Mr. Pitts. Those are the ones who seem to be truly uncomfortable by the manner in which they promoted their own privileged concerns over "economic anxiety" compared to how they are now being outed.

They are cringing now because their most comfortable terms, which we have always know to be code for racism, are finally being called what they are.

Proud Liberal Dem

(24,412 posts)
9. They're "cringing" (sort of) because they've been caught
Mon Aug 21, 2017, 10:31 AM
Aug 2017

The media is shining a hot white light on them at the moment, so they have to at least appear concerned or ashamed about things. It's highly doubtful that anything will substantively change as a result of this, however.

Hayduke Bomgarte

(1,965 posts)
12. "at least appear concerned or ashamed about things."
Mon Aug 21, 2017, 10:38 AM
Aug 2017

And that's all it is. Simply the appearance of shame and concern. Smoke and mirrors.

Proud Liberal Dem

(24,412 posts)
13. Appearances are pretty much all that matters to Republicans
Mon Aug 21, 2017, 10:41 AM
Aug 2017

Messaging, style, appearances are how they win. They are always obsessed with figuring out to make their policies more palatable or look better than what they are, never questioning their actual substance (or lack thereof). Most of their supporters fail to do so as well.

southerncrone

(5,506 posts)
15. They're only cringing cuz it's not convenient for them at the moment.
Mon Aug 21, 2017, 04:08 PM
Aug 2017

They still love them deep down in their dark souls.

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