Charlie’s memory is selective; Republicans NEVER encouraged racism in their ranks until 2015, apparently.
Yeah Charlie, we all LOVE the story about Buckley kicking out the Birchers. But guess who never told the Birchers (or any of their ideological successors) they weren’t welcome?
The NRCC. The RNC. The Republican Party.
Wink at racists and fascists for 50 years, don’t try to blame the people calling it out when they take over your Party.
To say nothing of the dodging of the issue employed by Congressional R leadership. When asked if Obama was a Muslim (because, that would be wrong apparently?), you would never get a straight-forward response from Boehner, McConnell, Ryan, McCarthy, et al. that no he wasn't, and/or that it was irrelevant, but instead an artful "I have no reason to believe he is" or "I take him at his word that he is a Christian". In other words, NEVER deny or refute it--and thus incur the wrath of the base--but instead give a weaselly answer that does not stake you to the position, but leaves open the *possibility* it is true.
In short, it was a perfect dry-run for the evasion they would employ with Trump's tweets
Thanks for naming names. Looking at the sources, back then, I would not have recognized the names named as important parts of the GOP coalition. That stuff seemed fringe to a lot of us then, leftovers of Buchananism 1.0 instead of harbingers of Buchananism 2.0. Mocking Buchananism as the senile grandpa who couldn't remember to pull his pants up from his ankles after excusing himself was even a pastime among more cosmopolitan members of the GOP. Oh, our hubris back then!
In particular, the California GOP was a state party losing power, and growing more fringe in the process. A GOP optimist at the time would have said California was evidence Buchananism was no longer going to work. Plus, "Hey, it's California. It's not like the rest of the US. People are crazy there," was a common right-wing trope at the time. In retrospect, this trope seems strategic, doesn't it?
Which respectable Republicans? Names pls
Charlie’s memory is selective; Republicans NEVER encouraged racism in their ranks until 2015, apparently.
Yeah Charlie, we all LOVE the story about Buckley kicking out the Birchers. But guess who never told the Birchers (or any of their ideological successors) they weren’t welcome?
The NRCC. The RNC. The Republican Party.
Wink at racists and fascists for 50 years, don’t try to blame the people calling it out when they take over your Party.
Chaffey Community Republican Women
Diane Fedele
https://www.npr.org/sections/newsandviews/2008/10/gop_mailing_is_mouth_watering.html
http://web.archive.org/web/20081018102749/http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_S_buck16.3d67d4a.html
TownHall.com & Steve King
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/steve-king-racist-obama-cartoon-crusades
https://townhall.com/political-cartoons/glennmccoy/2015/02/05/127536
Bobby May, John McCain's Buchanan County (VA) campaign chairman saying Obama would change the National Anthem to the Black National Anthem
https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna27378706
To say nothing of the dodging of the issue employed by Congressional R leadership. When asked if Obama was a Muslim (because, that would be wrong apparently?), you would never get a straight-forward response from Boehner, McConnell, Ryan, McCarthy, et al. that no he wasn't, and/or that it was irrelevant, but instead an artful "I have no reason to believe he is" or "I take him at his word that he is a Christian". In other words, NEVER deny or refute it--and thus incur the wrath of the base--but instead give a weaselly answer that does not stake you to the position, but leaves open the *possibility* it is true.
In short, it was a perfect dry-run for the evasion they would employ with Trump's tweets
Thanks for naming names. Looking at the sources, back then, I would not have recognized the names named as important parts of the GOP coalition. That stuff seemed fringe to a lot of us then, leftovers of Buchananism 1.0 instead of harbingers of Buchananism 2.0. Mocking Buchananism as the senile grandpa who couldn't remember to pull his pants up from his ankles after excusing himself was even a pastime among more cosmopolitan members of the GOP. Oh, our hubris back then!
In particular, the California GOP was a state party losing power, and growing more fringe in the process. A GOP optimist at the time would have said California was evidence Buchananism was no longer going to work. Plus, "Hey, it's California. It's not like the rest of the US. People are crazy there," was a common right-wing trope at the time. In retrospect, this trope seems strategic, doesn't it?