On Monday, the editorial board of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch took the Republican party to task for doing virtually nothing to clamp down on members of their caucus for appearing at a white nationalist convention in Florida and aligning themselves with some of the leaders of the growing racist movement that gained strength during Donald Trump's four years as president.
White House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) did condemn Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and Paul Gosar (R-AZ), but the paper's editors believe the GOP leadership has not done enough.
Noting that the Anti-Defamation League has issued a report claiming "White supremacist groups in the U.S. are distributing propaganda at historically high rates in the past few years," the Post-Dispatch pointed at the GOP lawmakers as some of the culprits.
"Because these groups usually self-identify as conservative, responsible conservatives should be taking the lead in pushing back on that misrepresentation of their ideology. More forceful and specific condemnation by GOP leaders against Republican Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Paul Gosar for participating in a recent white nationalist event in Florida, for example, would go a long way toward conveying that message and countering this toxic propaganda," they wrote.
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The editorial continued, "Those in society who are the most susceptible to this poison aren’t likely to listen to the Joe Bidens of the world — but they might listen to prominent Republicans. Those leaders have a vested interest in getting out the message that, regardless of what these vile groups say, true conservatism and white supremacy aren’t parallel belief systems."
According to the editors, not severely reining in members who have aligned themselves with the rising racist movement is tantamount to endorsing it and expressing concern about the future.
The editors added, "Recruitment of new members is a big part of what drives the propaganda. The hope is that disaffected young white people, perhaps already nervous or angry at changes in society that they believe have diminished their power, might be nudged to take the next step and join white supremacist or antisemitic organizations and participate in their events (which are also growing more numerous and frequent)."
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