- Kanye, hailed by many Republicans for his “White Lives Matter” shirt, went on an anti-semitic rant
- Sen. Tuberville said Democrats are “pro-crime” because they “want reparation.”
- Some in the GOP defended the comments.
It was a big weekend for high-profile, public displays of anti-Semitism and racism. (That sentence will one day be the answer to the question: “How were things going in America in the fall of 2022?”)
Kanye West – hailed a hero by many Republicans last week because he wore a “White Lives Matter” shirt – went on an anti-semitic rantwriting Sunday on Twitter that he’s “going death con 3 on JEWISH PEOPLE.”
That was met by silence from the aforementioned Republicans, with the notable exception of Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita, who on Sunday tweet-praised West’s “independent thinking.” Is that what they’re calling it these days?
Kanye. Elon. Trump. bigotry?
The Twitter account for Republicans on the US House Judiciary Committee had a tweet up all weekend that read “Kanye. Elon. Trump.” Nobody bothered to take it down – or respond to it – after Kanye declared war on Jewish people. That’s either lazy or unconcerned, neither of which is good.
West’s tweet got his Twitter account suspended, but the awfulness vacuum was swiftly filled by racist rants from two sitting Republican lawmakers, Sen. Tommy Tuberville and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.
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Repairs? Ahhh, I see what you did there, Sen. Tuberville
At one of former President Donald Trump’s (hate) rallies Saturday night, Tuberville said this of Democrats: “They’re pro-crime. They want crime. They want crime because they want to take over what you got. They want to control what you have. They want reparation because they think the people that do the crime are owed that.”
If I run that through my Racist White Guy Translator it reads: “Black people are all criminals.” How subtle. It makes me long for the days when people at least took the time to veil their racist comments. Now they’re just stripped bare and tossed right out in the open.
The Onion makes a serious point. Police violated rights of a man who mocked them.
There’s also the seemingly important fact that, according to FBI data, the majority of people who commit crimes are white. But I wouldn’t want to toss a fact at Tuberville. He’d probably break out in hives.
Sadly, these are not insignificant people
There’s a tendency to write off comments like these as the ramblings of insignificant trolls, but I’ll remind you of the examples cited so far came from: a rapper and fashion designer who is one of the most famous people in the world; the top law enforcement officer in the state of Indiana; and a sitting US senator. They are not insignificant.
And then there’s Marjorie Taylor Greene, who should be insignificant but, because the universe is testing our will to live, is not.
MTG and the ‘great replacement theory’
At another Trump rally on Sunday, Greene took the “great replacement theory”‘ – a belief that there’s an effort afoot to replace majority white populations with non-white people – and gave it a big old hug, saying that “illegal aliens are on the verge of replacing you, replacing your jobs, and replacing your kids in school. And coming from all over the world, they’re also replacing your culture.”
That is, as we say in the basic-human-decency biz, abhorrent. It’s also complete nonsense.
The avowed white supremacist who shot and killed 10 people at a Buffalo grocery store earlier this year was inspired by the so-called theory (and let’s be clear: there is nothing great” about it). It’s not the kind of belief a sitting members of Congress should be peddling, but if we’re being fair, Greene isn’t the kind of person who should be a sitting member of Congress.
‘I’m not going to say he’s being racist.’ Of course you’re not
If the end is near – and at this point, I’m rooting for it – West, Rokita, Tuberville and Greene are the Four Jackasses of the Apocalypse. But what’s somehow louder than their thunderously repugnant rhetoric is the silence from the political party that embraces them.
Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska appeared to be the only Republican addressing Tuberville’s comments on Sunday, telling NBC’s “Meet the Press”: “I’m not going to say he’s being racist.”
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You may not want to say it, Rep. Bacon, but it’s true. If you took out your iPhone and said, “Siri, show me something racist,” Siri would direct you to Tuberville’s Saturday rant.
The fact is… facts aren’t on your side
Bacon continued: “But the fact is we can’t ignore we have a 40 to 50 percent violent crime increase.”
That’s also factually incorrect – the FBI reported last week that the US crime rate largely held steady in 2021 – and it’s irrelevant to the racism in question.
Anyhoo, I hate to keep harping on the year, but it’s 2022 and we have people with a lot of power and a lot of fame comfortably saying they’re “going death with 3 on JEWISH PEOPLE” (speaking of facts, Ye, it’s DEFCONnot death with, you ninny), saying Black people are “the people that do the crime” and telling white people that non-white immigrants are “on the verge of replacing you.”
They’re saying it without fear of repercussion, and many of the people they’re saying it to are lapping it up because – lo and behold – they agree.
Call out Kanye, and Tuberville, and Greene – loudly
There’s one thing that connects all these people: the disturbingly silent Republican party.
That leaves the rest of us with a choice: stay silent, or make some noise.
Grab your bullhorns, folks. I say the more the noise the better.
More from Rex Huppke:
If the GOP is ready to rebrand, here are my ideas for a post-MAGA party.
Amid teacher shortage, folks who called them ‘groomers’ should say sorry. Here’s how.
Quiet quitting is all the rage. But let’s not stop there. How about ‘quiet dieting’?
Follow USA TODAY columnist Rex Huppke on Twitter @RexHuppke and Facebook: facebook.com/RexIsAJerk
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George is Digismak’s reported cum editor with 13 years of experience in Journalism