The “Unite the Right“ rally in Charlottesville, Va. and its deadly outcome may prove a turning point in how America views white supremacist violence, rightwing extremism and domestic terrorism. The tragedy, which left one woman dead and many more injured, should also be a point of no return for the GOP, and a comeuppance for an increasingly radicalized modern conservative movement—hateful, racialized and fundamentally in opposition to civil rights. Reliant upon white supremacist support after stoking racial fears for decades and becoming the de facto party of white nationalism, the Republicans are faced with a clear choice: Continue to embrace an angry, aggrieved base--some of whom are members of hate and domestic terror groups—or seek a moderate, tolerant and inclusive party.

This movement of white nationalists, Alt-Right, neo-Nazis, Ku Klux Klan and others, emboldened by their crusade against ”white genocide” and empowered by Donald Trump’s policy of white grievance, represents a shift in the Republican Party that was a long time in the making. Trump has been reluctant to condemn white supremacists or the terrorist acts they commit—such as the bombing of mosques, the desecration of Jewish cemeteries, or the ISIS-style vehicular murder of Heather Heyer by Nazi sympathizer James Alex Fields.

Although he condemned white supremacy two days after the terror attack in Charlottesville, Trump has shown a reluctance to specifically repudiate terrorist activity that implicates his base of Republican supporters. The president, who reserves his venom for ISIS and other extremist Islamist groups, has made a concerted effort to ignore the very real, more substantial threat of domestic terror committed by white Christian men.

Some Republican leaders have spoken out against white supremacy as well, but their problem is Trump’s problem. How does the Republican Party claim to reject white supremacy when hate groups are attracted to the GOP, and its policies embrace white skin solidarity and racial scapegoating at their core?

Donald Trump’s rise was a direct appeal to white people which was not economic, but racial. A founder and champion of Birtherism, Trump capitalized on the politics of racial resentment by questioning the legitimacy of a black president’s citizenship. His allure was in his promise to enact policies of retribution, even violence, against racial, ethnic, religious and sexual minorities. The slogan, “Make America Great Again” was a clarion call to restore greatness to white Americans feeling victimized by an onslaught of diversity and inclusion, and besieged by demographic shifts that will render them a minority in a country created for them.

Since the days of Barry Goldwater, the modern conservative movement has been characterized by its opposition to civil rights. Since that time, the Republican Party has reaped a bitter harvest of racial hatred and violence. And like addicts with white supremacy as the drug of choice, the Republicans cannot help themselves. The former party of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass, the Reconstruction amendments and 2,000 black elected officials after the Civil War, the modern GOP had become adept at stoking white resentment and harvesting the hate for electoral victories through their Southern Strategy-- a plan to lure disaffected Southern whites resentful of Black Power and civil rights from the Democratic Party beginning in the 1960s. Hatred of government and tax cut worship became racialized, fueling a push to gut government programs on the grounds that doing so would hurt black people more than whites.

As a result of these successful race card politics, the GOP became almost exclusively white, and the dog whistle became a bullhorn of white nationalism. With liberals long gone, moderates and principled conservatives left the increasingly intolerant, fundamentalist Republican Party. Following the 2012 election, GOP leaders attempted to salvage the party’s long-term viability with an autopsy report calling for major changes, such as listening to people of color, women and youth, and those who may not agree with the party, enacting immigration reform, and changing its stance on LGBTQ issues. These calls for an inclusive Republican Party were effectively killed with the rise of Trump.

Today, the GOP has blurred the lines between itself and its strategic partners and fellow travelers such as the Alt-Right, militia groups and the NRA. In recent ads, NRA spokespeople demonized anti-Trump protesters, suggested that Black Lives Matter will destroy white families, and North Korea should bomb California instead of Guam. Republican lawmakers openly discuss or employ violence, pummel or threaten journalists, threaten lynching for the removal of Confederate monuments, and challenge female colleagues to a duel over their healthcare vote. This, as Republican-controlled statehouses carry out voter suppression and purges, and, in response to the Black Lives Matter movement, propose sociopathic legislation to criminalize protesters, and protect drivers who hit and kill protesters.

Even today, President Trump and the party he leads seek to purge and disenfranchise black and brown voters on a national scale, and eliminate affirmative action for people of color in college admissions. The Republican Party shares common cause with the brown shirts and red shirts in Charlottesville. They have decided they need each other. Today’s Republicans bear similarities to the Jim Crow-era Democrats who enacted segregationist policies and maintained the legal framework for institutional racism, while the Ku Klux Klan got dirty and meted out racial violence in the streets. The former wrote the laws, while the latter provided the lynchings. Neither group was any less insidious in its racism.

Similarly, Trump and other Republican politicians incite violence though policy and use the law as tools for racial warfare, but absolve themselves of guilt because they did not pull the trigger or drive the car into the crowd. Charlottesville should be the wakeup call the Republican Party needs to wean itself off white supremacy.