Blowing the lid off GOP’s polite white supremacy

A federal judge found last summer that North Carolina Republicans had passed voting restrictions that “target African Americans with almost surgical precision” in an effort to “impose cures for problems that did not exist.” In other words, they were trying to cure an epidemic of black people voting.

The ruling confirmed that conservatives in a crucial swing state had been engaging in unrepentant suppression of black voters — yet not one prominent Republican threatened to quit the GOP. There weren’t even vague condemnations.

The same silence did not meet President Trump’s insistence last month that “many sides” were at fault for the violence at the “Unite the Right” protest in Charlottesville, Va. Many in Trump’s own party denounced his rhetoric, if not him.

Why has Trump’s comfort for white supremacists provoked bipartisan critiques while the North Carolina GOP’s voter suppression did not? Why are conservatives silent about reports that the Indiana GOP has limited early voting in urban areas while letting it flourish in suburbia?

Perhaps Republicans know they get away with policies that enforce white supremacy through voting restrictions and mass incarceration, but to do this, they must reject public displays of bigotry. This unstated compromise is the heart of a strategy that has helped the GOP accumulate more political power than at any time since the Great Depression.

The Republican approach to white-identity politics has been reinforced in the past decade by new voting restrictions and more effective racial gerrymandering, on top of felon disenfranchisement. But it has been stoked for generations by an assault on public services fueled by the dog whistle that “government” equaled “coddling non-whites.”

This doesn’t mean there isn’t a sincere philosophy of “limited government” that appeals to many conservatives. But it’s revealing that they can’t summon outrage when government excess victimizes someone who isn’t white.

Like the National Rifle Association’s muted reaction after black gun owner Philando Castile was fatally shot by a police officer during a routine traffic stop, it’s hard to find widespread conservative backlash to a Trump election commission looking to purge voters in all 50 states. And Attorney General Jeff Sessions has largely been spared conservative criticism for scrapping a bipartisan push for criminal justice reform.

The 2016 GOP presidential field winked at white supremacy by refusing to make an issue of Trump’s birtherism. His cartoonish scapegoating of immigrants was so offensive to some on the right that they feared he’d wreck the GOP brand. Instead, he won.

Most Republicans refuse to participate in Trump’s brand of race baiting with the subtlety of skywriting. But they’re aware of the dirty deal their party has made, which is why they’re so eager for the president to shut his mouth before he blows the whole scam up.