President Donald Trump traffics in racial epithets.
Since his first year in office, Trump’s displays of xenophobic, misogynistic, LGBTQ-phobic, and racist remarks (to name just a few from his laundry list of bigotries) appear to have no cutoff point.
The Republican Party under Trump doesn’t seem to have one, either.
In a recent YouGov poll, 70% of Republicans said they believe diversity unfairly advantages black people and hurts whites, 59% said blacks don’t have as much motivation as white people, and 59% said the judicial system treats black people fairly.
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Two of Trump’s top staffers are just the tip of the racist iceberg. For example, in June 2018, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions used the biblical passage Romans 13 to defend Trump’s indefensible “zero tolerance” immigration policy.
“I would cite you to the Apostle Paul and his clear and wise command in Romans 13, to obey the laws of the government because God has ordained them for the purpose of the order,” said Sessions. “Orderly and lawful processes are good in themselves and protect the weak and lawful.”
The scripture has been used as a text of terror by miscreant thugs in power throughout history, including slave owners, Nazi sympathizers, apartheid enforcers, supporters of Japanese-American internment, and loyalists opposed to the American Revolution.
In 2017, Boston-born White House Chief of Staff John Kelly came off as a die-hard Lost Cause apologist on Laura Ingraham’s Fox News show. His remarks reopened a divide deep in this country about slavery when he told the conservative media television host that he viewed Confederate General Robert E. Lee as “an honorable man” and that “the lack of an ability to compromise led to the Civil War.”
But if a tape of Trump using the n-word appears, a tape that former White House staffer Omarosa Manigault Newman says exists, will the GOP have a cutoff point? What stance will the Republican Party take?
Impeachment? Apology? Or will it be too feckless to move forward?
The n-word is one of the most odious deriving from this country’s original sin of slavery. And, it is firmly embedded in the lexicon of racist language that is used to disparage African-Americans.
If President Trump used the n-word, then he has breached his oath of office to respect and represent “all the people” as one who holds the highest office in a democratic society.
Trump has a history of racist statements and actions toward black Americans. He mocked LeBron James’ intelligence, called CNN anchor Don Lemon the dumbest man on TV, and said Congresswoman Maxine Waters has a low IQ.
Trump has also called NFL players “sons of b*tches” for taking a knee at games, created birther fearmongering, and came to national attention when he took out full-page advertisements in four New York newspapers calling for the return of the death penalty for the Central Park Five — and he continued his call after they were exonerated.
Trump’s embrace of white supremacy showed itself in his statement about black immigrants from what he deemed “sh*thole countries.” And Trump’s removal of white supremacist groups — the Ku Klux Klan, Identitarians, Identity Christians, Neo-Nazis, and neo-Confederates, to name a few — from a government list of violent extremist groups tracked by the Southern Poverty Law Center, highlights the Jim Crow-era Trump means when he says “Make America Great Again.”
The GOP has already demonstrated an allegiance to its party over the country. White nationalists are gradually winning state and county seats, and Democratic incumbents are running scared in states with huge numbers of Trump supporters.
Republicans have no cutoff point when it comes to Trump’s demands and his supporters. With no spine or moral compass, the GOP will neither impeach Trump nor make him apologize. The Republican Party, whether willingly or unwillingly, is dragging its feet and has become the party of racism.
Does the GOP have a racist cut-off point?