Racism is the Republican Party's ace in the hole (a rant)

[Cyrano]

If racism didn’t exist, today’s Republican Party wouldn’t exist.

That’s not to say that each and every Republican voter is a racist:

O Some vote Republican because they’ve been told their taxes are “too high.”

O Some vote Republican because they believe in a “strong military.”

O Some vote Republican because it's the party of “patriotism” and “real Americans.”

Those who fall into those three categories, (and who sincerely harbor no racism), actually believe that those are the “values” and “beliefs” of the Republican Party.

But, IMO, these people are dupes who have bought into the propaganda that the GOP has been peddling for decades. (I was going to call them idiots who bought snake-oil, but I restrained myself.) Let’s face it. Republican “economics,” “love of the military,” and “flag waving,” are all transparent techniques of rancid bullshit that they sell to those foolish enough to buy it.

The Republican “product” is a purely manufactured concept designed to cover up their lust for greed, power, control, and outright authoritarianism. They’re telling the peasants to believe, be good, play by the rules, and then (someday, perhaps) graduate to the ruling class. They’re selling hazardous mental waste.

So, putting aside the voters mentioned above, who are those other Republican voters?

They are racists.

They are haters of, primarily, black people. And they also hate brown people, and Asian people, and Muslim people, and Jewish people, and Hindu people, and Shinto people, and Buddhist people, and Native American people, and all other people who are not white, Christians of (preferably Northern) European descent. And they therefore hate all immigrants who are not white Christians from Europe.

Can anyone deny that Republican Party has, for 50 years, been using Nixon’s “Southern Strategy?” Can anyone deny that Trump has turned Republican dog whistles into a bullhorn? Can anyone deny that dying and dead industries have produced millions of “left behind” people who are willing to listen to someone who blames their loss of jobs on the “THEMS?” Can anyone deny that institutional racism is the lasting legacy of slavery and Jim Crow? Can anyone deny that the Republican Party aims their hateful messages specifically at those who are ready to hear them?

It makes Republicans the party of those who are ignorant and those filled with bile. And that’s the perfect recipe to ensure that they cannot endure for very long. History demonstrates that all such regimes have fallen under the weight of their own corruption.

In the meantime, the Republican Party is poisoning the physical and social environment of the world the rest of us have to live in. And they're succeeding because their ace in the hole is racism.

[Eliot Rosewater]

1. Save the handful of POC who vote GOP, the rest have to harbor racism and bigotry to

some degree because the party's main agenda platform position is racism and bigotry.

Every single thing they do NOW, not even 10 yrs ago, but NOW, is anchored in racism, bigotry, misogyny and xenophobia.

[Garrett78]

2. As I've written many times, the GOP would cease to be viable were racism extinguished.

Doing away with racism alone (much less both racism and sexism) would put the Republican Party out of business. At least at the national level. Absent racism, there simply wouldn't be enough people to support their economic or foreign policy. The fostering and exploitation of racism is without a doubt what keeps the Republican Party alive and kicking. I have little use for those who deny that reality.