Trump's a Racist, Blame Paul Ryan and Lindsey Graham
Trump's a Racist, Blame Paul Ryan and Lindsey Graham
Excerpts from Tim Alberta’s book, "American Carnage," were released early last week in anticipation of the book release on Sunday. It details heavy criticism of the president from prominent Republican figures and former Speaker Paul Ryan is on the record about Trump saying, "I'm telling you, he didn't know anything about government. I wanted to scold him all the time."
On Sunday, the same day that the Trump Administration was re-initiating more Ice raids in large cities all over the country, Donald Trump tweeted a trio of racist statements about four female freshmen congresswomen and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. It was no doubt an attempt to further stoke the fires of the past few weeks that has tried to pit the new guard against the old guard, but it was also blatantly racist:
I’m not going to break down how these statements are racist, it should be obvious to anyone and I’m likely not the best person to do it. I’m also not going to explain the importance of calling out these statements by using the specific term “racist” so that we stop glossing over the continued racist sentiments often espoused by our president. There is a bigger issue at play. We should be talking about how we got here, why we can’t get out and how we fix things moving forward.
Back to Paul Ryan. There are two kind of people that still support Donald Trump-full fledged, foaming at the mouth racists and laissez-faire racists. While it might be easy to categorize Ryan as the first kind of racist based on his inaction, he really just doesn’t care as long as it doesn’t affect his interests directly. You could interchange racism with any concept that the general public generally disavows: sexism, elitism, poverty, ect. and as long as he is not personally burdened by it in terms of power or money, it doesn’t matter.
“I disavow these comments, I regret those comments that [Trump] made. Claiming that a person can’t to the job because of their race is sort of like the textbook definition of a racist comment. I think that should be absolutely disavowed, it’s absolutely unacceptable. But, do I believe that Hillary Clinton is the answer: no I do not. Do I believe that Hillary Clinton is going to be the answer to solving these problems, I do not. I believe that we have more common ground on the policy issues of the day, and more likelihood of getting our policies enacted with him than we do with her.” — Speaker Paul Ryan after Trump’s racist comments about Judge Gonzalo Curiel, June 7, 2016
The Republican Party largely consists of out-right, in your face racists-but there are still some people and big donors who are Paul Ryan racists. They don’t speak out unless they have to and even then, it doesn’t matter. They are funding and using an American contingent of dyed-in-the-wool racists, whose hatred of minorities was passed down from generation to generation. They are merely the soldiers who are being used to fight the war, while the disaffected generals in charge look the other way. According to Alberta, Ted Cruz told confidantes in 2016 that “there was ‘no way in hell’ he was prepared to subjugate himself to Trump in front of tens of millions of viewers.” But, then he did.
Trump threatened Cruz’s wife and insulted his father, yet he and his wife dined with Donald Trump in the White House. Ted Cruz reportedly told friends, ‘History isn't kind to the man who holds Mussolini's jacket.’ He is well aware of who Donald Trump is, and would have been completely justified in the public for standing up to him. But standing up to Trump would mean losing critical donors who originally bet on Cruz as their prize stallion, only to see Donald Trump lap him on the straightaway. Cruz was borne of the Tea Party and is beholden to Tea Party money and the Tea Party is now dominated by Trump.
Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) told Alberta in June 2016 that he wishes the Republican-controlled Congress could have done things differently to “avoid creating this environment that was conducive to someone like Donald Trump becoming the nominee.” Jordan now defends Donald Trump like a college wrestling team doctor and aids him more in Congressional Hearings than almost any other of the president’s allies. Except Lindsey Graham.
Graham was very outspoken about the need to stop Trump and didn’t hold his tongue all through the 2016 election, calling Trump a “kook,” “crazy” and “unfit for office.”
Flash forward to Graham bragging about Trump’s stellar golf game a few months ago, in an ego stroke that we all know Trump lives for, and his willingness to tell the press that the president “beat me like a dog” in the 2016 presidential primary…with gusto. Something made Lindsey Graham do an about face, and it’s quite marked. But Graham denies all of it, saying “What happened to me? Not a damn thing.”
“To every Republican, if you don’t stand behind this president, we’re not going to stand behind you. This is the defining moment of his presidency. It’s not just about a wall. It’s about him being treated different than any other president. This is a fight between the people who are so smart and the rest of us.” Lindsey Graham at a luncheon in February.
It’s about protecting personal interests. It’s an obsession with a continued stronghold on political power, the possibility or actuality of making a lot of money and the ability to access any powerful person they might need down the road. This is why a racist, sexist, embarrassing reality TV star will always be a better choice than a qualified woman who would put a stop to the control the Tea Party money men have amassed. All you need for proof is Lindsey Graham doubling down on Trump’s racism for him on the Fox News Monday morning show circuit. (Click the link below to play video.)
American Carnage details more on Paul Ryan’s stance on the destruction of Trump. “We’ve gotten so numbed by it all,” Ryan said. “Not in government, but where we live our lives, we have a responsibility to try and rebuild. Don’t call a woman a ‘horse face.’ Don’t cheat on your wife. Don’t cheat on anything. Be a good person. Set a good example.” Grand words from the then Speaker of the House, whose party controlled every aspect of government at the time. Ryan was in charge of the party in charge, and after creating and sitting on his own escape-hatch, that likely took some time in planning and should have emboldened him to speak out, to be a good person, to set a good example, he still couldn't or wouldn't. If it was the former, then who cares, good riddance to a feckless leader. If it was the latter, then we can be assured that the money men, who control every opportunity inside and outside of politics, are really controlling everything. I’m pretty sure it was a hearty serving of the latter with some former on the side.
The answer to this is simple. If you are enraged by this blatant racism then you need to vote in numbers larger than the Tea Party’s loyal, racist base. If you are angry that our system of Democracy moves too slowly to self-correct, then never make the mistake of falling asleep at the wheel again. The Democrats do not have the ability to stop Donald Trump from saying racist things. Mueller has declared that the courts do not have the power to stop Donald Trump from breaking the law right now, either. We the people have to stop Trump in 2020. It’s the only way to set up a smooth transition of power on this end, and protect what’s left of the veracity of our electoral system, so that we can take control and fix things moving forward. We have the numbers, we have to use them, it’s that simple.
So, while we don’t hold our breath waiting for current Republican leadership to speak out against their own self-interest and denounce the latest racist comments of the President of the United States, I will leave you with this quote from Martin Luther King, Jr:
“History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people.”
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Amee Vanderpool writes the “Shero” Newsletter and is an attorney, contributor to Playboy Magazine, analyst for BBC radio and Director of The Inanna Project. She can be reached at avanderpool@gmail.com or follow her on Twitter @girlsreallyrule.