It’s ironic that race was the issue that created the Republican Party and that race could very well be the issue that destroys it.
The G.O.P. was founded to fight slavery, and through most of its history it had a decent record on civil rights. A greater percentage of congressional Republicans voted for the Civil Rights Act than Democrats.
.. But the Republican Party has changed since 2005. It has become the vehicle for white identity politics.
.. Recent surveys suggest that roughly 47 percent of Republicans are what you might call conservative universalists and maybe 40 percent are what you might call conservative white identitarians. White universalists believe in conservative principles and think they apply to all people and their white identity is not particularly salient to them. White identitarians are conservative, but their white identity is quite important to them, sometimes even more important than their conservatism.
.. These white identitarians have taken the multicultural worldview taught in schools, universities and the culture and, rightly or wrongly, have applied it to themselves. As Marxism saw history through the lens of class conflict, multiculturalism sees history through the lens of racial conflict and group oppression.
.. 48 percent of Republicans believe there is “a lot of discrimination” against Christians in America and about 43 percent believe there is a lot of discrimination against whites.
.. roughly as many Republicans believe Muslims, immigrants and trans people face a lot of discrimination as believe whites and Christians do.
.. First, identity politics on the right is at least as corrosive as identity politics on the left, probably more so. If you reduce the complex array of identities that make up a human being into one crude ethno-political category, you’re going to do violence to yourself and everything around you.
.. Second, it is wrong to try to make a parallel between Black Lives Matter and White Lives Matter. To pretend that these tendencies are somehow comparable is to ignore American history and current realities.
Third, white identity politics as it plays out in the political arena is completely noxious. Donald Trump is the maestro here.
- He established his political identity through birtherism,
- he won the Republican nomination on the Muslim ban,
- he campaigned on the Mexican wall,
- he governed by being neutral on Charlottesville and pardoning the racialist Joe Arpaio.
.. white resentment is bound to define Republicanism more and more in the months ahead. It’s what Trump cares about. The identity warriors on the left will deface statues or whatever and set up mutually beneficial confrontations with the identity warriors on the right. Things will get uglier.
.. And this is where the dissolution of the G.O.P. comes in. Conservative universalists are coming to realize their party has become a vehicle for white identity and racial conflict. This faction is prior to and deeper than Trump.
.. It may someday be possible to reduce the influence of white identity politics, but probably not while Trump is in office. As long as he is in power the G.O.P. is a house viciously divided against itself, and cannot stand.
Kasich: Trump used Arpaio pardon as a ‘political wedge’
“It should be out of bounds for somebody to use that as a sort of political wedge,” added Kasich, who is a frequent Trump critic. “It appears that’s what it was.”
.. Arizona Sen. John McCain noted that Trump pardoned Arpaio even though he’d “shown no remorse” for his actions. A spokesman for Ryan said the speaker doesn’t agree with the decision.
“Law enforcement officials have a special responsibility to respect the rights of everyone in the United States,” spokesman Doug Andres said. “We should not allow anyone to believe that responsibility is diminished by this pardon.”
What authoritarianism experts think of Trump’s decision to pardon Joe Arpaio
“In situations where democracies become right-wing regimes, the leader usually relies on paramilitary or other extremist forces to get into office or consolidate power once he’s there. He has to dance the line between expelling them and using them. Trump’s expulsion of Stephen Bannon and Seb Gorka, coming together with his open support of white nationalism and now his pardon of Joe Arpaio, shows this dynamic well.
“If the leader does not explicitly renounce the violent rhetoric and actions of extremists, they will have done their damage even if he later purges them. The result is a new culture of violence in the country, which the other armed and security forces of society must adapt to.”
.. First of all, it is very early in the presidency and, second, it is before Arpaio has been sentenced. I think the latter is a clear reflection of President Trump’s complete disregard for the rule of law. He believes in the rule of power, in part because he has experienced throughout his lifetime that this is how U.S. justice works. However, the timing is probably, as several others have also noted, more linked to the issue that predominates President Trump’s mind: the Russia investigation. There are several key people in his former entourage who are at the point of caving to pressure to working with the [Robert S.] Mueller investigation. Trump has shown them that they have nothing to fear, because he can and will pardon them, irrespective of the circumstances. This, of course, is a fundamentally undemocratic position, but not so much informed by ideology but by naked self-interest.”
.. So I would treat Arpaio’s pardoning as a political and in particular a signaling move on Trump’s part — and a smart one. I think Trump has been very good at this — he hasn’t been able to get many things through Congress, but he has ‘compensated’ with exec orders and symbolic politics that have, for the most part, kept his base attached.”
Paul Ryan, John McCain break with Trump on Arpaio pardon
Speaker of the House Paul Ryan opposes President Trump’s pardoning of former Sheriff Joe Arpaio, an aide said Saturday, joining Arizona GOP Sen. John McCain in criticizing the decision.
“The speaker does not agree with this decision,” said Doug Andres, a spokesman for Ryan. “Law enforcement officials have a special responsibility to respect the rights of everyone in the United States. We should not allow anyone to believe that responsibility is diminished by this pardon.”
.. “The president has the authority to make this pardon, but doing so at this time undermines his claim for the respect of rule of law as Mr. Arpaio has shown no remorse for his actions,” McCain said after the Friday pardon announcement.
.. “While no one can dispute Manning acted to undermine our country’s national security, Joe Arpaio has spent a lifetime trying to maintain it. … It is easy to discern that Arpaio is a patriot, while Manning is a traitor.”
.. The White House said Friday that the 85-year-old Arpaio was a “worthy candidate” for the pardon, citing his “life’s work of protecting the public from the scourges of crime and illegal immigration.”
.. Republican Gov. Doug Ducey said Arpaio should be given credit for his crime-fighting efforts and allowed to “move on” and enjoy his retirement.