The GOP Needs to Banish Those Embracing "White Replacement Theory"

Back in the years when I was a Republican city committee member overt white supremacists and Christofascist - perhaps a majority of whom were/are segregationists - were not welcome in the Republican Party and efforts were made to keep such people from becoming members of city and county committees and most certainly out of leadership positions.  That laudatory policy began to crumble in the late 1990's in Virginia Beach and those who were  previously unwelcome began to infiltrate the party with leaders foolishly believing they could control these foul elements.  Fast forward a little over two decades and those who were once viewed with disgust and contempt now largely control the GOP base and many amoral party leaders who certainly know better have embraced the hate and bigotry that are synonomous with Christofasist and white supremacists.  Fox News and similarly foul "news" outlets actively promote the hate and prejudices of these elements of the GOP, including the white supremacist "white relpacement theory" which claims the white race is under attack and that a conspiracy exists to flood the voter ranks with non-whites/non-Christians.  The horrific murders in Buffalo has caused a few voices, including Liz Cheney - who seems to be one of the few who wants to return the GOP to what it once was - and former GOP columnist Michael Gerson to call out the GOP leadership to banish supporters of the "replacement theory" and similar lies.   A piece at CNN looks at Cheney's condemnation of the GOP leadership:

Less than 48 hours after a deadly shooting by a White nationalist in Buffalo, New York, Wyoming Republican Rep. Liz Cheney minced no words in her assessment of where blame lies.

"The House GOP leadership has enabled white nationalism, white supremacy, and anti-semitism," tweeted Cheney on Monday morning. "History has taught us that what begins with words ends in far worse. @GOP leaders must renounce and reject these views and those who hold them." 

[T]here is some evidence to suggest that House GOP leaders -- of which Cheney was one before being ousted last year for her willingness to criticize former President Donald Trump -- have, at a minimum, been willing to look the other way as some of their rank and file have flirted with major figures in the white nationalist movement.

Over the weekend, Illinois Republican Rep. Adam, Kinzinger suggested that New York Rep. Elise Stefanik, the number three Republican in House leadership who replaced Cheney last year, pushed "white replacement theory" -- the idea that White people are being purposely replaced in America by minorities.

Here's the thing: When you don't condemn and punish members of your own party when they flirt with White nationalists and White nationalist ideology, you open the door for it to happen more often. 

That fact doesn't mean that the likes of McCarthy or Stefanik bear direct blame for what happened in Buffalo over the weekend. But, there is no question that Republican leaders have allowed intolerance -- and noxious notions like White replacement theory -- to fester within a part of their ranks over the past few years. 

And, as Cheney rightly notes, those actions -- or, more accurately, that inaction -- have consequences.

Meanwhile, in a column in the Washington Post Gerson - who once worked in the Bush White House - makes a similar call (the history cited in the piece is exactly what many on the right do not want today's school children to learn):

The memorial dedicated by the White townspeople of Colfax, La., in 1921 was at least direct. . . . . on the white marble obelisk in Colfax was engraved: “Erected to the memory of the heroes, Stephen Decatur Parish, James West Hadnot, Sidney Harris, who fell in the Colfax riot fighting for white supremacy.”

The Colfax conflict was less a riot and more a frenzied murder spree against Black citizens who were resisting white supremacy. Most of the “rioters” took refuge in the local courthouse. The building was set aflame. Whites shot anyone who tried to put out the fire. Many Black people who tried to escape were slaughtered at close range. Later in the evening, drunk, younger White men executed the remaining prisoners by marching them two by two out of a makeshift jail and shooting them from behind. By the end of the massacre, as many as 80 Black people were dead.

All these heinous crimes were committed with impunity. Local law enforcement had no intention of arresting and convicting the guilty.

I recount this story not only because it is tragic but also because it demonstrates some enduring characteristics of white supremacy. The White people in this case were not merely acting out of racial animus (though their cups runneth over with hatred). The prejudice and violence of many White Southerners were incited and sustained by a certain historical narrative. They generally believed that violent actions by Whites — eventually organized by the Ku Klux Klan and the White League — were fundamentally defensive in nature.

This vision of victimization was set out in films such as “The Birth of a Nation,” screened by President Woodrow Wilson at the White House in 1915. Such cultural products lent credibility to White fears and knit these fears into a compelling conspiracy theory . . .

These thoughts came to mind with the Buffalo grocery store massacre. The accused killer wrote a manifesto endorsing the “great replacement theory,” popular among today’s right-wing activists and media personalities. . . . In some instances, the story alleges that the whole plot is being orchestrated by Jews.

Replacement theory checks many of the boxes of useful racist ideology. Most of all, it presents White people as the victims of a plot. . . . Their failures and suffering are no longer their fault. There are always enemies to blame. The future of White, Christian America is at stake. Those willing to fight for it, in this self-justifying myth, are heroes.

Do the purveyors of replacement theory bear some responsibility when their revisionism motivates murderers? Of course they do. . . . There is no moral world in which those who libel outsiders, justify rage, incite bigotry and allege that enemies have broken down the outer gate are innocent of the likely influence of their words.

If the Buffalo supermarket killer’s motivation was to undo the anti-racism of modernity, he is part of a long, ignoble history of racist killers.

The perpetrator of this mass murder will not be given impunity. But the racist ideas closely associated with such killing are being granted impunity daily within the Republican Party. The problem is not just that a few loudmouths are saying racist things. It is the general refusal of Republican “leaders” to excommunicate officials who embrace replacement theory. The refusal of Fox News to fire the smiling, public faces of a dangerous, racist ideology.

This much needs to be communicated — by all politicians and commentators — with clarity: No belief that likens our fellow citizens to invaders and encourages racist dehumanization is an American belief.