Ex-Republican conservative calls GOP 'the party of neo-Confederates' after Mississippi candidate outed for racism
Mississippi Republican Cindy Hyde-Smith's outing for a series of racist characteristics is causing more problems for a Republican Party already struggling to defend itself against accusations of racism.
Former Republican Max Boot detailed the laundry list of racist incidents stacking up against Republicans thanks to President Donald Trump and other party members. The GOP is struggling in the wake of Charlottesville, Americans ordering Confederate monuments be taken down and Trump's knack for racially charged insults to black Democrats.
"The neocons who are now in the ascendancy are the neo-Confederates who have been encouraged to come into the open by President Trump’s unabashed appeals to racist and xenophobic prejudices," Boot wrote for the Washington Post Sunday.
So, it's no surprise Trump is running to help Smith cinch the Senate seat. Boot noted she has "strong ideas about the War Between the States." At least, that's the way she put it when describing her state Senate resolution to commemorate a 92-year-old daughter of a Confederate soldier who "fought to defend his homeland." He also cited a bill she introduced to rename part of a highway after Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederate States of America.
"Hyde-Smith is a neo-Confederate troglodyte and a former Democrat who now feels right at home in the Trump Party," Boot wrote. "She is hardly alone. The defeated Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Virginia, Corey A. Stewart, pals around with white supremacists, defends the Old Dominion as the state of 'Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson' and says the Confederate flag 'is our heritage, it’s what makes us Virginia, and if you take that away, we lose our identity.” This self-described 'proud Southerner' was born and raised in Minnesota, suggesting that his reverence for the Confederacy is rooted in hatred, not 'heritage.'"
To make matters worse, Rep. Steve King (R-IA), who has a long history of bizarre racist comments, openly admitted the last thing he wants is a country full of children that didn't come from Americans.
“We can’t restore our civilization with somebody else’s babies," he told an Australian website. He narrowly won reelection.
Gov. Kay Ivey (R-AL) and Gov-elect Brian Kemp (R-GA) only add to the GOP's growing list.
"It is hard to remember that Republicans were once the Party of Lincoln," Boot closed. "But in the 1960s they sold out their birthright to court Southern voters smarting over desegregation. In more recent years, leaders such as George W. Bush, John McCain and Mitt Romney had been trying to appeal to minority and moderate voters. But with his pandering to white grievances, Trump has abetted the rise of the neo-Confederates."
Leave a Comment
Related Post