The
Justice Department investigation into Rep. Matt
Gaetz
(R., Fla.) for alleged child sex trafficking
may be a bridge too far, even for the scandal-plagued Republican
Party, whose standard-bearer, Donald
Trump,
has had numerous
sexual assault allegations
against him.
While
the GOP may not be prepared to cover for their colleague from
Florida’s 1st district amid allegations that he, a grown man,
had sexual relations with at least one 17-year-old, condemning
racists in their ranks is an entirely different story.
After
all, in a political party that breaks bread with racists, promotes
white supremacist policies and participates in insurrections, racism
is an important part of their brand.
Within
24 hours after news of Gaetz and the federal sex trafficking
investigation, House Minority Leader Kevin
McCarthy (R.,
Calif.) told Fox
News
that while it is too early to judge, he will remove
Gaetz from his committee assignments
if the allegations are proven true.
The
GOP’s double standard was on full display in February, when
McCarthy and all but 11 Republican lawmakers voted
against a resolution to remove
QAnon conspiracy theorist Rep. Marjorie
Taylor Greene
from her committee assignments for her racist, antisemitic,
Islamophobic and other incendiary statements.
And
as a purveyor of white nationalism and antisemitism, Gaetz provided
ample reason for his Republican leadership to discipline him for his
own racism. On Fox
News,
Gaetz has promoted the “great
replacement” theory,
the white supremacist conspiracy theory that people of color and
immigrants are an existential threat to white people, and want to
replace white people in America.
Gaetz
also told Fox‘s
Judge
Jeanine Pirro
that Black Lives Matter protests were part of “an
attempted cultural genocide
going on in America right now,” and claimed, “the left
wants us to be ashamed of America so that they can replace America.”
And
yet, according to a report
from the Acre Action Center on race and the economy, Wall Street
lobbying groups fill the coffers of Gaetz and other racist
politicians and enable his white supremacy. Gaetz has received
thousands in financial contributions from the American Bankers
Association, the American Financial Services Association and the
Credit Union National Association.
“The
finance industry is aiding and abetting the rise of violent white
supremacy and nationalism by donating to the congressional campaigns
of candidates who have expressed viciously racist, xenophobic,
sexist, and homophobic views,” said the report. The report also
noted that Gaetz called Haiti a land of “sheet metal and
garbage,” invited Chuck
C. Johnson,
a Holocaust denier, to the State of the Union, and promoted the
antisemitic conspiracy theory that Jewish billionaire and
philanthropist George
Soros
funded migrants to storm the U.S.-Mexico border.
Further,
in 2015, as a Florida state representative, Gaetz singled out two
Black state senators
for ridicule, suggesting they were illiterate.
And
Gaetz has thrived in an environment where Republicans trip over
themselves and each other to appear more Trumpian and extremist than
the next, all in an effort to appeal to their base — which
includes QAnon tin foil hat folks, tiki torch carriers, Proud Boys,
Oath Keepers, Confederate cosplayers, would-be lynch mobs, neo-Nazis
and other domestic terrorists. Meanwhile, as they act racist and
support racist policies, they gaslight the public and tell us racism
does not exist.
Senate
Minority Leader Mitch
McConnell
claimed the Senate filibuster,
used by white nationalists to uphold slavery, block civil rights for
Black folks and kill
anti-lynching bills,
is not racist. He also said he opposes reparations
because “none of us currently living are responsible” for
slavery, which he said is “something that happened 150 years
ago for whom none of us currently living are responsible.”
Sen.
Lindsey
Graham (R.,
S.C.), who has posed
for photos
with white
nationalists,
once said Black people can go anywhere in South Carolina if
they are conservative.
Graham threatened
to filibuster the Democrats’ voting rights legislation, the For
The People Act,
and accused President Joe
Biden
of playing the race card by attacking nationwide GOP voter
suppression efforts as “sick” and “Jim Crow in the
21st century.”
“Every
time a Republican does anything, we’re a racist. If you’re
a white conservative, you’re a racist. If you’re a Black
Republican, you’re either a prop or Uncle Tom,” Graham
said.
Speaking
of which, Graham’s fellow South Carolinian Sen. Tim
Scott (R.,
S.C.) — who would disappoint Black people in a world where
Black people had any expectations of Black Republican senators —
attacked critics who claim the GOP is using him as a Back prop.
Outraged over cancel culture, Scott was caping
for racists in his party
when he said
“woke supremacy is as bad as white supremacy. We need to take
that seriously.”
Meanwhile,
except for fellow travelers Marjorie Taylor Greene and Jim
Jordan,
Republicans have not jumped to the defense of Gaetz, who apparently
has few
friends in Washington.
Republicans were silent when he spewed his racism, but the child sex
trafficking allegations could be his undoing.
After
all, Matt Gaetz is a member of a party that has decided to lean in
and double down on white identity politics. While the GOP cannot
ignore sex trafficking, they care little about racists in their
ranks, let alone the laws and measures designed to combat racial
injustice and discrimination in America. Republicans could expel all
their racists, but if they did, few would remain.
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