Vance Defends Racist GOP Group Chat

Here in Virginia, Democrat Attorney General candidate Jay Jones is being attacked by Republicans for unfortunate private text messages (which have not been presented in their full context) even as the same Republicans ignore the calls for violence against Democrats and political opponents uttered almost daily by the Felon and his minions who increasingly label anyone against his cruel and perverse policies, much less those who engaging in peaceful protests, as "terrorists." Sadly, much of the mainstream media remains cowed and is failing to condemn the endless threats and and calls for violence uttered by the Felon, his imitators in the Republican Party not to mention the talking heads (and professional liars) at Fox News.  Candidly, its more of the false equivalency, if not double standard, we have seen for well over a decade as the GOP has lurched towards something unrecognizable compared to the GOP of my youth and young adulthood.  Tellingly, in the wake of Politico's expose of the young Republican chat group that engaged in overtly racist, pro-Hitler, and politically violent rhetoric, JD Vance is defending the ugly statements and behavior Politico revealed.   A piece at The Atlantic looks at Vance's conduct.  Here are excerpts:

This week, Politico revealed the contents of Young Republican leaders’ group chats, which were filled with rampant bigotry, endorsements of rape, and praise for a certain fascist dictator (“I love Hitler”).

Some Republicans, including those who have directly employed the people in these chats, condemned these messages. But Vice President J. D. Vance had a different, and more telling, response. “I refuse to join the pearl clutching,” he posted on X defiantly.

When a political ally does something controversial, there are three ways to respond: defend it, repudiate it, or deflect attention away from it. Defense is the obvious option if you think the action is acceptable enough to the public. Repudiation makes sense if the matter is so toxic that you can’t afford to keep the guilty party in your coalition. Deflection is the response of choice only when the behavior of an ally is too toxic to defend, but so widespread within your coalition that you cannot afford to criticize it.

Deflection can take different forms. You can insist that the story does not merit attention, because other issues are more important (as if the public can entertain only one subject at a time). Alternatively, you might claim that the offenders in question are too powerless to be held publicly accountable. Vance employed both tactics. “Grow up! I’m sorry; focus on the real issues. Don’t focus on what kids say in group chats,” he said on The Charlie Kirk Show. This despite the fact that the participants included people in their 30s, and many work as high-level staffers in Republican politics.

A decade or so ago, as illiberal norms were spreading in progressive spaces such as universities, deflection was by far the most popular way for Democrats to address the subject. Why focus on the excesses of the left when the right is doing worse things?, many progressives would insist, as if the awfulness of the other side precludes ever criticizing one’s own.

This dynamic is now playing out on the right. Yet the rhetoric in the Republican chats is far more disturbing, in both its nature and its influence.

That a group of ambitious professional Republicans can spread nakedly racist messages without rebuke signifies the transformation of conservative political norms in the Trump era. Party members now regularly engage in what the political commentator Richard Hanania has called the “based ritual,” a kind of game of rhetorical one-upsmanship. The only professional risk they perceive is being seen as insufficiently devoted to the MAGA cult. Displays of devotion involve espousing authoritarian, racist, and sexist concepts.

Given Vance’s evident ambitions to succeed Donald Trump as the Republican standard-bearer, his response is revealing.

The vice president apparently grasps that openly defending references to Black people as “watermelon eaters” and quips about sending political rivals “to the gas chamber” would hurt his political standing, but he also clearly needs these Young Republican leaders if he hopes to consolidate the Trump base behind him. Deflection is a calculated response. In the racist provocations of conservative cadres, Vance clearly sees the future of the party he intends to lead.