Over at National Review, David French comments on President Trump’s racist comments this weekend telling progressive congresswomen of color that they should “go back where they came from”:
The near-total silence (at least so far) from GOP leaders is deeply dispiriting. Do they not understand the message the leader of their party is sending — especially to America’s nonwhite citizens? Do they not understand that racial malice as a political strategy isn’t just an ultimately losing proposition but also deeply divisive, picking at the scabs of America’s deepest political, cultural, and spiritual wounds?
But the problem extends far beyond Washington. There are many GOP leaders who, quite frankly, understand that they criticize even the president’s racist speech at their own peril. The grassroots have spoken. Loyalty to the president must be absolute, or one risks a primary challenge. Yet individual voters have responsibilities as well, and they must understand that extraordinary loyalty to a malicious man broadcasts their own disdain for their fellow citizens.
For all I know, French thinks we should conduct nuclear testing on the San Andreas fault and let California sink into the sea. When this is all over we can go back to arguing about that. For now, though, any conservative willing to call out Trump’s toxic appeal to white racism is basically on my side. I don’t think it’s something we can never recover from, but that’s only if it stops soon and leads to Republican defeat. If, instead, Republicans decide it’s their only road to victory—and it works—the impact on our country is difficult to imagine.
There have got to be at least a few dozen Republicans who are currently in office and have both the guts and the common decency to publicly denounce Trump’s racist swill. Where are they?
