Tuesday, July 19, 2016

The Republican Party: Party of Trump, Party of Hate

How appropriate.

On the same night that Donald Trump officially became the Republican nominee for president, the GOP convention highlighted a tweet from the white supremacist group VDARE.

This seals it.  The Republican party is now officially the party of hate.

"But," Trump's defenders will object, "the tweet itself isn't racist. Just because a white supremacist group supports Trump's message doesn't mean that Trump or the Republicans are racist!"

Sorry, that excuse doesn't hold water any more.  Trump has long since passed getting the benefit of the doubt.  All the way back in January, people were already writing articles about Trump's habit of retweeting white supremacists.  In February, he was still doing it.  He was still doing it in April.  And of course in July, Trump famously tweeted out his own anti-Semitic attack on Hillary.  Lots of people use Twitter, and a political candidate can't know the extreme views that one or two or a half-dozen of his supporters might hold.  But Trump has established a definite affinity for white supremacists.

Tonight is the night that the Republican party embraced Trump, so it's appropriate that tonight is the night the Republican party embraced the white supremacist brand.  A political convention is not just about anointing your party's standard-bearer in the upcoming presidential election; it's also about putting on a show to tell the rest of the country and the world what you stand for.  And if you want to distance yourself from white supremacists, you do the work to make sure you check every tweet you highlight, especially when your nominee has the history that Trump does.

But tonight, the Republican party broadcast it's warm embrace of hatred and bigotry for all to see.  This is why henceforth in this blog, I shall refer to the Republican party only as the Party of Hate.  They proudly showed their true colors; I think we owe it to them and the country to call them out for what they are.

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