GOP sanction of Steve King ignores Trump’s prejudices

Republicans completed, with relative ease, what may be their least painful act of righting a wrong in 2019. They repudiated U.S. Rep. Steve King’s repeated blathering about white supremacy.

The Iowan, in a New York Times interview, set things in motion by lamely wondering why terms like “white nationalist,” “white supremacist” and “Western civilization” have negative connotations.

That’s a thinly veiled way of saying: “Hey, I don’t hate blacks and Latinos. I’m just proud of being white.” From a prominent member of Congress, that’s a dog whistle to organized haters like the Proud Boys, neo-Nazis and their ilk who endlessly complain that the white “identity” is under attack. But it also appeals to a broader range of people who want cover for their own good, old-fashioned racial, ethnic and sectarian biases.

The GOP stripped King of his committee assignments, which is the political equivalent of ordering him to stand silent in a corner, while others enjoy the fruits of congressional seniority.

All good. But the righteousness of the 424-1 vote on the House resolution against the words of King is less convincing than it might seem. King has been serving up similar hateful talk for years. Only now have his party’s leaders determined that they need to do something about it.

White supremacy, after all, dangerously plays into the president’s America First doctrine.

Trump’s foreign and domestic policy perspectives focus on the supposed victimhood of white Americans and the supposed dangers presented by others deemed to be of lesser status: African-Americans; Latinos, including asylum seekers at the southern border; Syrian refugees and Muslims generally. Trump’s willingness to cause devastating financial harm to federal workers with the shutdown is directly tied to his insistence on a pseudo-solution to the pseudo-problem of Central Americans acting out their supposed criminal blood-lust on Americans. Of course, it’s not true. Immigrants among us, whether documented or not, commit violent crime at much lower rates than nativeborn Americans, probably because they’ve come here to work and get ahead. However, the Trump brand is xenophobia, whether the foreign bogeymen are immigrants or longstanding U.S. allies. He simply does not want the U.S. engaged in the world, except to dominate and despoil. What he and his supporters don’t understand is that this attitude carries devastating risks.

Horrifyingly, the deaths of four Americans became an example the day after the House vote on King. Two members of the U.S. military, a contract worker and a civilian, were murdered in a heinous act of terrorism in Syria that took as many as 19 lives total. ISIS immediately claimed credit.

The bombing deaths stood in direct conflict with Trump’s December insistence that ISIS had been defeated.

Sen. Lindsey Graham was among the few Republicans who quickly spoke up, questioning whether Trump’s bravado had goaded the terrorists to act. Many military leaders today believe that withdrawing U.S. forces in Syria would create a vacuum for others with less benign intentions to fill. It’s a fair bet that Trump neither knows nor cares.

So, yes, the Republicans were right to repudiate King. But it’s Trump, not King, whose prejudices are causing the greatest harm at home and abroad. It’s a shame the GOP lacks the backbone to stand up to him.