The GOP is a Hate Group
Let’s start with some definitions. First off, what is a “hate group”. The Southern Poverty Law Center defines it thusly:
The Southern Poverty Law Center defines a hate group as an organization or collection of individuals that – based on its official statements or principles, the statements of its leaders, or its activities – has beliefs or practices that attack or malign an entire class of people, typically for their immutable characteristics. An organization does not need to have engaged in criminal conduct or have followed their speech with actual unlawful action to be labeled a hate group. We do not list individuals as hate groups, only organizations.
Pretty straightforward. BUT. Let’s say you think the SPLC is some leftist, progressive group. Maybe we can find a bit more conservative of an organization to define it. The FBI perhaps? They define a hate crime this way:
[A] criminal offense against a person or property motivated in whole or in part by an offender’s bias against a race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, ethnicity, gender, or gender identity.
Since the FBI is mostly concerned with investigating crimes, it makes sense that they would include criminality in their definition. Perhaps we need one more. How about the Anti-Defamation League? Here’s what they have to say and it’s pretty close to the SPLC definition:
An organization whose goals and activities are primarily or substantially based on a shared antipathy towards people of one or more other different races, religions, ethnicities/nationalities/national origins, genders, and/or sexual identities. The mere presence of bigoted members in a group or organization is typically not enough to qualify it as a hate group; the group itself must have some hate-based orientation/purpose.
I think it is EXTREMELY telling that there are almost no conservative groups that are concerned about hate groups, let alone one that bothered to define it. At least that I could find. Why — it’s almost as if conservatism holds hate as a core value. Based on these, let’s define a hate group as an organized collection of people who aim to deny, attack, or malign the rights of a specific group of people based on immutable characteristics.
Agree? Great.
This past week (it’s only Wednesday!) has been a banner week for Republicans showing their hateful asses to the world. Here’s a quick recap on what the party of “limited government” and “libertarian views” has done:
Wowowowowowow. Let’s start with the last one, first. Indiana senator Mike Braun, whose name sounds like a failed baseball manager, went on a TV show and said what most conservatives believe, namely, that the US would be a better place if states could make their own laws about everything. Stuff like abortion, gay marriage, and — what’s that? Interracial marriage?? Ooooookay.
Just so we’re clear. This is a sitting US senator, bemoaning the federal government enforcing such stringent requirements upon states like interracial marriage and abortion. He would sacrifice gay marriage, interracial marriage, female contraception, and many, many other things we take for granted just to outlaw abortion. Who cares if that returns us to roughly 1856, at least men would get to control what women do with their bodies!
Do you know who also believed in “state’s rights”? The Confederacy. Yeah, the people who wanted to keep slavery as a thing. A lot of these issues and court cases are being discussed because there is a new SCOTUS nominee facing questions from Congress. Naturally, it is a total embarrassment for our nation. Here are some of the important topics being discussed:
There’s a bit of sarcasm in this tweet but if you watch the hearings it really isn’t far off. Lindsey Graham, best known for being Trump’s lapdog, might have even violated federal law when he asked the nominee this question:
As Judge Brown notes, there is no religious test when it comes to government positions. No other job interviewer could ask this. Setting aside his condescending tone and the wildly inappropriateness of this line of questioning, I’m not sure what he is trying to establish here. During the hearings, Graham mentioned that the previous SCOTUS nominee, Amy Coney Barrett, was asked about her religious convictions. But it wasn’t directed at whether or not she believes in a specific faith but rather that she was a member of a religious fanatic group called People of Praise.
The reason for their concern was obvious. The group has been outspoken about what has been charitably called “traditional values” which is just white people code for a strictly enforced patriarchy. They believe in a male-dominated society in which women serve as handmaids (their word) and everyone adheres to typical gender roles. Oh, they also don’t like the gays or trans people. One more thing: it was totally appropriate for Congress to question her about this. People of Praise specifically says on their website that they are NOT a church. Not to mention that with the issues being faced by SCOTUS they might want to know if they’re putting a Margaret Atwood villain on the court.
The racism on display during these hearings is obvious to anyone with eyes and ears. All you need to hear is big ol’ dumbass John Kennedy's opening remarks to Judge Brown. Doing his best Foghorn Leghorn impression, Senator Kennedy compliments the judge in a way I’m sure most Black people love to be complimented.
I’m surprised he didn’t say she was “one of the good ones”.
The coverage of the hearings has been just as bad and repugnant. Aaron Rupar, whose Twitter feed I repost a lot in my writings, had a great breakdown on how Republicans use these hearings to get soundbites and face time on Fox News shows. Tucker Carlson kicked things off with this gem.
Tuckems, as usual, deliberately misunderstands the issue at hand. It isn’t racist to ask about Judge Brown’s LSAT scores. It’s totally irrelevant and inappropriate but not racist. What makes it racist is that up until a Black woman was nominated for SCOTUS nobody gave a shit about them. Like ever. Did we hear about Brett the Beer Lover’s scores? Or the Handmaiden’s? Nah. They were white!
To wrap up today’s post, let’s turn to GOP darling and Trump-lover Marjorie Taylor Greene. There is so much meat on this bone she could probably be her own article. But let’s just hit on her most recent highlights. She kicked off March by speaking at a white supremacist conference. And listen, I know we tend to throw those words around so much it borders on hyperbole but there is no mistaking what this group wants. Heck, the guy who introduced Marjorie praised Hitler!
MTG claimed she didn’t know what the group stood for and just wanted to get an audience with the group’s members, which is ludicrous for many reasons. First, does she just go around giving speeches at conferences without knowing what they are for? Could we get her to come and speak at a pro-choice rally? Obviously not. Next, what exactly is it about a group of young white supremacists that she would think they’d be receptive to her message. Hmmm. I wonder…
When she was done with being a racial bigot, she decided to turn the card to the gender bigot side. In a series of statements and tweets, she attacked Lia Thomas, a transgender female swimmer who won a race in the NCAA finals for swimming. MTG was far from the only person to spread her vile transphobia, as Senator Marsha Blackburn used the SCOTUS hearings to do just that, along with some racism too.
Black people’s hidden agenda! CRT in schools! My god, what can we do? Everyone knows the Supreme Court definitely sets the curriculum for public schools!
Taylor Greene’s attack was more direct. One of the most disrespectful and hateful things you can do to a trans person is to misgender their pronouns. Calling a trans woman “he” is basically you saying that you don’t think they have a right to identify how they do. So what does MTG do? You guessed it!
All of this is hateful nonsense. Who the hell does MTG think she is to define another person’s identity? This is the core of bigotry. They seek to dehumanize and control other people based on their own feelings about that person’s characteristics. You can debate whether or not it is “fair” for transgender athletes to compete in sports without dehumanizing them. And this notion that trans women are replacing cis women is so ludicrous that it defies explanation.
All of this, and remember this is just from a couple of days this month, is all the evidence I need to say definitively that the Republican party en masse is a hate group. They seek to marginalize and destroy the rights of gay people, trans people, and people of color. They want to force their religious beliefs upon everyone else. They claim to be the victims of oppression while holding the whips.
People like to think of Trump as some kind of outlier. He wasn’t. He was just uncouth and dimwitted enough to say what all his followers believe out loud. There’s a reason why the most popular person in the Republican party is a racist (proven in court), misogynist (grab ‘em by the pussy), xenophobic (Mexican rapists), violent (remember when he said he “loved” the insurrectionists) bigot (said the men marching with torches chanting “Jews will not replace us” were very fine people?). How much more evidence do you need? Several Republicans voted AGAINST making lynching a hate crime just a few weeks ago!
It is time to adopt an old adage: when people tell you who they are, believe them. Republicans, through their actions, words, and platforms have made it clear that they want this country to be a patriarchal society run by white men based on “Christian” doctrine. They want to enshrine the Bible as the law of the land (or at least the parts that justify their hate). What more do you need to see to agree?
The GOP is a hate group. And it’s time to start calling them that.