Frank Sharry: “Today’s Republican politicians are less focused on winning general elections and more interested in surviving the Trump-led purge in contested primaries that are right around the corner.”
Yesterday offered a perfect contrast between the two parties. Democrats are focused on solutions that change lives, and Republicans are focused on pointing fingers, stoking racism, and pulling publicity stunts aimed at Foxlandia.
- House GOP Whip Steve Scalise’s milk carton stunt vs. VP Kamala Harris’s solutions for Central America. As Jen Bendery wrote for HuffPost, “House Republican leaders on Wednesday accused Vice President Kamala Harris of being absent on immigration matters ― even showing up to a press conference with a milk carton with Harris’ face on it, declaring her ‘missing’ at the border. One problem: At the same time, Harris was holding a White House meeting on immigration and announcing her plans to visit Mexico and Guatemala.”
- Republican Governors’ tried “blame Biden” attacks: Republican governors Greg Abbott (R-TX) and Doug Ducey (R-AZ) published a Washington Post op-ed attempting to pin the blame on rising numbers of apprehensions and encounters at the border – which started under Trump – on Biden. They don’t want to work with the Biden administration on policy solutions, they want to inflame a political issue to please their base – and the man the base loves. A San Antonio Express News editorial blasted Gov. Abbott’s efforts to turn the plight of migrant children into a “political prop.”
- Republican Governors reject and demonize migrant children: The Republican Governors of South Carolina and South Dakota joined in the gamesmanship, saying publicly and proudly they would not allow federal authorities to relocate children into shelters in their states. As if the federal government would ask them. Gov. Kristi Noem took to Twitter to say “South Dakota won’t be taking any illegal immigrants that the Biden Administration wants to relocate. My message to illegal immigrants… call me when you’re an American.” Subtle, she’s not.
- Republicans’ grievance politics now openly embracing white nationalists’ great replacement theory: Tucker Carlson is embracing the “great replacement theory” with odious arguments that welcoming immigrants and refugees is a Democratic plot to replace Republican voters. HuffPost reported that hate group VDare.com tweeted in response, “This segment is one of the best things Fox News has ever aired and was filled with ideas and talking points VDARE.com pioneered many years ago … You should watch the whole thing.” Of course, Tucker’s racist diatribes are quickly spreading to GOP politicians. Ohio Senate candidate J.D. Vance to Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA) are picking up Tucker’s accelerating descent into white power radicalism.
According to Frank Sharry, Executive Director of America’s Voice:
Stay strong and stay focused, Democrats. Americans elected a Democratic President and Democratic majorities in both chambers of Congress to do big things, to tackle challenges left unaddressed for too long, and to effect change that people experience in their daily lives.
Democrats are delivering – on COVID relief, on vaccines, on strengthening health care, on putting checks in peoples’ pockets, on creating jobs, on reopening schools, on building infrastructure, on making corporations pay their fair share, on confronting racial inequity, on reducing gun violence, on fighting for voting rights, on slowing and reversing climate change and on putting millions of long-settled undocumented immigrants on pathways to citizenship.
No wonder Republicans want to change the subject.
The GOP has other priorities. They want to distract from Democratic achievements. They want to keep their base stoked by demonizing Democrats and the multiracial majority they represent. And most of all, they want to appease the man who hijacked their party and retains a grip on their shrinking, radicalizing base.
Today’s Republican politicians are less focused on winning general elections and more interested in surviving the Trump-led purge in contested primaries that are right around the corner.
Leave them to it, Democrats, and get back to work on fixing America.
