Silent Republican lawmakers are the handmaidens of white supremacy

The silence is deafening.

President Trump has gone in the past several weeks from racist dog whistles to an all-out Confederate bugle call with a rebel yell — and yet his Republican enablers in Congress continue determinedly to cover their ears.

He retweets a video in which a man shouts “white power” and later deletes but never disavows it. He talks of the pandemic as “kung flu,” calls for violence against “thugs” in the streets of Minneapolis and labels a sign proclaiming “Black Lives Matter” a “symbol of hate.” He threatens to veto a defense bill if it removes the names of Confederate generals from U.S. military bases.

In the past few days, he has declared that those marching under “the banner of social justice” are part of a “radical ideology attacking our country” and are “bad, evil people” seeking “to end America” in favor of “far-left fascism.” And he has attacked NASCAR for banning the Confederate flag and said its only black full-time driver should “apologize” for a “hoax” after a noose found in his garage was determined not to have been directed at him.

Yet from Republican officeholders, nothing.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/07/06/silent-republican-lawmakers-are-handmaidens-white-supremacy/