As much as many Republicans do not want to face the reality - especially because of what it says about them themselves - racism and hatred of others in general has become one of the pillars of today's Republican Party. While pundits and GOP apologists continue to criticize Hillary Clinton for speaking the truth about Donald Trump's "basket of deplorables," as noted in a Washington Post column, polls and studies show that at least half of Republicans are likely racist. Throw in the homophobes and anti-immigrant crowd and the 50% figure used by Clinton is easily exceed. It is far past time that the media and the general public be honest about what motivates the today's GOP and it is NOT a philosophy of small government and alleged fiscal responsibility. As a former Republican, yes, there was always some latent racism in dome party members, but it went completely mainstream with the arrival of the Christofacists. Look at any of the major "family values" groups and scratch the surface and you find a lily white organization with strong white supremacy undertones. Thankfully, Hillary had the courage to speak the truth about these people. Here are column highlights:
Hillary Clinton may have been unwise to say half of Donald Trump’s supporters are racists and other “deplorables.” But she wasn’t wrong.If anything, when it comes to Trump’s racist support, she might have low-balled the number.
Trump, speaking to the National Guard Association of the United States’ annual conference here Monday afternoon, proclaimed himself “deeply shocked and alarmed” about Clinton putting half of his supporters in the “basket of deplorables” . . . . How dare she, Trump said, “attack, slander, smear, demean these wonderful, amazing people.”
But this isn’t a matter of gratuitous name-calling. This election has proved that there is much more racism in America than many believed. It came out of hiding in opposition to the first African American president, and it has been welcomed into the open by Trump.
The American National Election Studies, the long-running, extensive poll of American voters, asked voters in 2012 a basic test of prejudice: to rank black and white people on a scale from hardworking to lazy and from intelligent to unintelligent. The researchers found that 62 percent of white people gave black people a lower score in at least one of the attributes. This was a jump in prejudicial attitudes from 2008, when 45 percent of white people expressed negative stereotypes.
This question is a good indicator of how one votes: Republican Mitt Romney won 61 percent of those who expressed negative stereotypes. And, when the question was asked during the 2008 primaries, those with negative racial stereotypes consistently favored Republican candidates — any of them — over any Democratic candidate in hypothetical matchups. . . . . “Whites who reported prejudicial beliefs about blacks skewed heavily Republican in 2008 and 2012 — and they will in 2016.”
Clinton’s infelicitous “basket of deplorables” phrase . . . . for the large number of racists drawn to Trump, the shoe fits.
In June, the Pew Research Center found that 79 percent of Clinton voters believe the treatment of racial and ethnic minorities is an important issue, while only 42 percent of Trump supporters feel that way.
Research by Washington Post pollsters and by University of California at Irvine political scientist Michael Tesler, among others, have found that Trump does best among Americans who express racial animus. Evidence indicates fear that white people are losing ground was the single greatest predictor of support for Trump — more, even, than economic anxiety.
If you are “very enthusiastic” about a candidate who has based his campaign on scapegoating immigrants, Latinos and African Americans, talked of banning Muslims from the country, hesitated to disown the Ku Klux Klan and employed anti-Semitic imagery — well, you might be a racist.
Trump, on stage, rejected any notion of racism, . . . . But moments later, he repeated the campaign slogan he borrowed from an anti-Semitic organization that opposed involvement in World War II. “America First – remember that,” he said. “America First.”
For non-racist Republicans, they might want to take a good look at the company that they are keeping.
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