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What caught my eye

The Republican Party wants to have it both ways: appeal to white Christian nationalists and peel off Black voters from Democrats; play up the “great replacement” theory while wooing Hispanics. MAGA Republicans often pull off such jaw-dropping hypocrisy because the docile right-wing media will not ask Republicans hard questions nor point to obvious contradictions. However, now and then, the gap between Republicans’ pretense of decency and their real attitudes toward Black people and immigrants becomes glaring to all but the most rabid MAGA voters.

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On race, Trump’s apologists, including those in “respectable” conservative quarters, insist — despite his rhetoric (e.g., “shithole countries,” “very good people on both sides”) and downplaying endemic racism in policing — that we cannot assume he is a racist. We also are expected to ignore, one supposes, his vendetta against the Central Park Five, his real estate company’s history of discrimination and his failure to appoint a single African American to the circuit courts or the Supreme Court. His slurs against Black female prosecutors and vivid social media posting showing him attacking Black Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg get brushed off by his supporters, who portray him as the real victim.

The media periodically does cover his abjectly racist language, as when he quoted Adolf Hitler on blood purity. Then, voters not entirely cocooned within the right-wing media bubble realize he and his party abhor fundamental American principles. But soon, journalists contend with straight faces that Trump has a real shot to win over large numbers of African American voters. That assumes such voters are as easily bamboozled as the red-hat-wearing cultists.

And before long, defying attempts to normalize him, Trump opens his mouth to spew forth a string of mind-boggling racist remarks, leaving his apologists with egg on their faces. He insisted in a speech last week in South Carolina that his indictments and mug shots are why “a lot of people said that that’s why the Black people like me.” He also proclaimed: “These lights are so bright in my eyes that I can’t see too many people out there. But I can only see the Black ones, I can’t see any White ones, you see, that’s how far I’ve come.” He persisted: “That’s how far I’ve come. That’s a long way, isn’t it? These lights. We’ve come a long way together.” Such casual racism wins plaudits with the white-nationalist crowd but reveals his true mind-set.

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Likewise, he left no doubt about his noxious bigotry toward immigrants at his unhinged rant at the Conservative Political Action Conference. “They’re coming from Asia, they’re coming from the Middle East, coming from all over the world, coming from Africa, and we’re not going to stand for it. They’re destroying our country,” he said. “We have languages coming into our country … they have languages that nobody in this country has ever heard of. It’s a horrible thing.” His plan to round up and deport millions of undocumented immigrants goes hand in hand with his effort to dehumanize them.

And, finally, voters should not forget his persistent efforts to disenfranchise non-White voters. He tried in 2020 to throw out millions of African American votes and vilified two African American poll workers in an effort to steal votes in Georgia. He still rails against mail-in voting (which allows many low-income workers to vote without missing work). And he now accuses Democrats of preparing to let illegal immigrants vote, foreshadowing future claims of fraud and harking back to baseless claims he won the popular vote in 2016 (despite “millions” of illegal votes, he insisted).

In sum, MAGA is a movement largely for and by white Christian nationalists who insist they are the “real” Americans. Mainstream media........

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