Well Beyond Race

This misses the point, and not in a small way:

 

Let’s find anti-racist Republicans for office.

— Anthony Scaramucci (@Scaramucci) March 22, 2021

 

I couldn't blame Scaramucci if he thinks this makes sense because many people on the left seem to agree with him. Responses to his tweet include:

• Mooch, dude. I can find Bigfoot before a non-racist q-publican...
• Racism is one of the party pillars for Republicans
• That’s getting tougher for your party. Even if you find them their constituents may not vote for them
• Good luck with that.  Most of the anti-racist Republicans have left the party over disgust at what the GQP has morphed into over the last 4 years
• ...A set of Republicans and a set of anti-racists are two mutually disjoint sets. Draw your own conclusion!
• Good luck with that!...
• Racism is in their DNA...
• There’s no such thing, seriously.  To even suspect that there might be such a thing is about as naive as believing that maybe, just maybe there really is a Santa Claus. There isn’t. There’s no Santa, reindeer can’t fly, and there’s no such thing as non racist Republican, at all.

Sure, there are. If all Republicans were racist, we'd be in even more trouble than we're in now, given there the (few) Independents and (even fewer) Democrats who are.  The number surely would be on the north side of 40%.  That's a whole lot of people despising other people because of their race.

There certainly are some non-racists- or if you prefer the indentical "anti-racist"- among Republican public officials. Racial animosity is not the focus of the Party. On February 19, we could read

To get a sense of GOP senators' loyalty to the former president, CBS News contacted all 50 Republican Senate offices Wednesday night and Thursday with a simple question: Do you agree with President Trump that he — and not Joe Biden — won the November election?

Five offices replied. Forty-five ignored the inquiry.

Spokespeople for Senators Susan Collins of Maine, Steve Daines of Montana, Jerry Moran of Kansas and Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania answered that they do not share Mr. Trump's view and believe Mr. Biden to be the duly elected president.

(Senator Cornyn's office suggested the Texan accepted the results as "legitimate.")

So there you have it. Ninety percent of Republican senators refused to admit that Joe Biden won election to the presidency. It's difficult to believe that all of them are racist.  Mitt Romney was the GOP nominee for President, subjected to serious scrutiny and, despite visible elitism, there was never any serious suggestion that he looked down on people because of their race. (Affluent blacks, Latinos, and Asian-Americans would be quite acceptable to him and most others of his party.)

Tim Scott of South Carolina is African-American. That doesn't preclude the possibility that he is racist (or not "anti-racist"), but really. Those are two of the most obvious; surely there are other Republicans who, like Romney and Scott, are irredeemably right-wing (Scott, anyway) but still are "anti-racist."

Or perhaps Anthony Scaramucci would like to see Sean Hannity run for office. Hannity's sins, which include many, may include racism. However, there is no hard evidence. Instead, there is "hell will freeze over before Joe Biden is ever allowed to debate Vlaimir Putin. Why? Because Vladimir Putin would clobber him in any debate."

Hannity did not seem displeased. You should not be surprised that no Republican has risen to question Hannity or to defend Biden.  The GOP has in the past twelve months chosen in near unanimity to acquit of impeachment a President, first shown to have tried to bribe a foreign government to defame his political opponent, later to have aided and abetted an insurrection against our own government.

This was another chapter in the same GOP playbook. Six years ago, 47 GOP senators tried to persuade an enemy of ur country, Iran, not to make a deal with the President of the United States of America. A news media not fixated on both-siderism would have characterized that as unpatriotic.

Republicans generally deny the need to address climate change, environmental deterioration, consumer protection, reproductive freedom, educational inequity, the dangers of gun violence, rights of Americans in the workplace, importance of access to health care, or aid to poor, working-class and middle class people during an historic pandemic. This is only a portion of their fixation with right-wing policies which undermine the public.

And, yes, a few are not "anti-racist." But that is only the tip of a very big and dangerous iceberg. First, it is critical to get a few to accept the quaint notion that citizens should have a right to vote, that our government is legitimate, and that an election should not be overturned simply because a Democrat was elected.

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