Don’t mainstream hate

Ten people were murdered at a Buffalo supermarket Saturday by an alleged white supremacist who believed in the “great replacement theory,” an absurd racist ideology that claims there is a plot to replace white Americans with people of color.

Roughly 1 in 3 Americans believe there are efforts to replace native-born citizens with immigrants for electoral gains and that more immigration is leading to native-born Americans losing economic, political and cultural influence, according to polling from The Associated Press and the NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

Fear of the stranger, of the unknown, of losing power are sadly human thoughts — ones that no political party has a lock on. But conservatives are being fed a steady diet of misinformation and hate by many who would exploit that fear for political gain.

Media figures such as Ann Coulter, and Fox News’ Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham, have helped legitimize this paranoid delusion, while some GOP leaders have made the bet that stoking racial animosity will keep them in power.

Theirs is a cynical ploy with a rising body count.

Replacement theory has been cited by several mass U.S. shooters, including killings at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh and a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, in 2018 and at a Poway, California, synagogue in 2019.

Republicans of conscience can take their inspiration from someone like John McCain. The late U.S. senator from Arizona famously pulled the microphone away from a woman to defend his opponent, Barack Obama, from racist claims during the 2008 presidential race.

McCain stood up when it mattered, regardless of the consequences. Republicans cannot wait for the next Pittsburgh, the next El Paso or the next Buffalo.

They need to stand up now.