Donald Trump outed the GOP

This year’s presidential election has brought a lot of things into the light. Whether that be Hillary Clinton’s pneumonia, or what’s really beneath that comb-over of Donald Trump, a lot of it is petty. But what’s not petty and something that should be viciously exposed, is the reality that the Republican party is running on an outright racist platform. What’s more is that their politics have always had a slightly racist undertone, but their focus on small government and protection of the Second amendment kept most of that in the closet. Jonathan Chait writes for New York Magazine, and digs up some real dirt on the GOP.

"Within the Grand Old Party, open racism is extremely rare. Far more common is denial of the persistence of racism in American life, a willingness to pursue policies that disadvantage nonwhites, and a refusal to jeopardize the party’s support among racists. Donald Trump has pulled the cloak away, leaving the party’s alliance with racism exposed for all to see."

Let’s look at a few examples: Republicans tirelessly pushing to defund planned parenthood which provides low income women and families with healthcare, shutting down the federal government in 2013 in a congressional stalemate that led to the halt of federal funding to WIC, leaving low income mothers, infants and children without food vouchers, oh and the most recent atrocity of voting restrictions - In North Carolina, a judge struck down discriminatory voter ID laws that “target African Americans with almost surgical precision.” There’s a pattern here. The GOP continuously creates targeted legislation to disenfranchise low income people of color. And maybe for the politically conscious, we have seen this pattern all along, but not until the onset of the nasty narrative following the Trump campaign have we really started talking about this.

A glowing representation of this is the study from political scientist Michael Teslar. As compared to previous Republican presidential candidates, Trump’s platform is racial resentment.

And I’m surprised to have yet to hear about any prominent Republican politician who has spoken out directly in opposition to Trump. There have been a few that strategically try to beat around the bush of his racism but don’t necessarily condemn him outright.

"[Senator] Flake considers Trump’s racism unacceptable, but sees his racism as a series of discrete acts that he can stop engaging in, rather than a pattern that reflects unacceptably racist underlying beliefs. Flake withholds any character judgment of the nominee; he simply requires that he stop acting so racist for some undefined period of time in order to endorse him."

So if Trump stops “acting” racist then it’ll be okay? I don’t think we can let him off that easy. First off, he’s not “acting”, he just is racist. You can’t just stop acting like something that you truly are. The strategy for most Republicans is to walk the fine line carefully. They want the support of the Trump base without seeming racist themselves. But they aren’t very good about being unassuming when they’ve been targeting people of color for decades. At the end of the day, the establishment Republicans were beat out by Trump, and now the Republicans refuse to be defeated by the Democrats. So what are they really endorsing here? It’s become very clear...

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/08/the-gop-has-made-its-peace-with-trumps-racism.html