Racism charge sticks to GOP

Since the 1960s, Republicans have had to battle against liberal elites’ accusations that the GOP is exclusionary, anti-immigrant, uninterested in the fate of minorities and downright racist because the party rejected top-down welfare state programs, opposed race-based quotas and did not have a lot of national nonwhite leaders.

That changed somewhat under President George W. Bush, who championed education and immigration reform. He got 44 percent of the Hispanic vote and 43 percent of the Asian vote in 2004.

In the Obama years, the GOP has had mixed results at best. Its 2013 “autopsy” report scolded the party for being “unwelcoming.”

Although nonwhite and/or female Republican leaders have stepped up in recent years (e.g., Nikki Haley, Marco Rubio), Republicans undid whatever progress they might have made with nonwhite voters when the House killed immigration reform and the party then nominated Donald Trump. He figuratively built his campaign on his wall, rounding up and expelling 11 million or 12 million people, and banning Muslim immigration. His recent remarks about Judge Gonzalo Curiel are simply icing on the cake for Democrats, who have long claimed Republicans simply don’t like minorities.

Republicans may protest and condemn Trump’s comments all they like, but for every denunciation, a Republican surrogate offers up some contorted defense. And Republicans keep Trump as their nominee. Trump’s racist and misogynistic rhetoric makes him toxic to women and minorities, and it risks tarring the party for years.

Meanwhile, polling suggests that voters overall aren’t buying the Trump excuses. Research from YouGov indicates that “only 20 percent of Americans think that Donald Trump was right to complain that Judge Gonzalo had a ‘conflict of interest’ because of his Mexican ancestry.” Yet “only 22 percent of Republicans say that the comments were racist. In comparison 81 percent of Democrats and 44 percent of independents say that the comments were racist.”

Viewed from the vantage point of skeptical minorities, the conclusion here is likely to be that Trump is a racist and a majority of Republicans (who won’t acknowledge the “textbook case of racism”) are nearly as bad.

In short, a bad rap (Republicans’ opposition to the liberal agenda makes them racists) has been turned into an accurate, deadly analysis. (Too many Republicans harbor bigoted views of minorities and/or do not recognize racism when it’s in front of them.) Not all Republicans can be labeled as such, but far too many.

The solution only comes with repudiation of Trump, success of diverse candidates and an empathetic agenda that demonstrates Republicans care about all Americans, not just rich, white males.

It is that problem that now hangs over the GOP. Ironically, they may have to kill off the party of Lincoln to save the spirit of Lincoln.

This story was originally published June 13, 2016 at 12:03 AM with the headline "Racism charge sticks to GOP."