President Donald Trump traffics in racial epithets.
Since his first year in office, Trump's displays of xenophobic, misogynistic, LGBTQ-phobic and racist remarks ( to name just a few from his laundry list of bigotry ) appear to have no cutoff point.
The Republican Party under Trump doesn't seem to have one, either.
In a recent YouGov poll, 70 percent of Republicans said they believe diversity unfairly advantages Blacks and hurt whites, 59 percent said Blacks don't have as much motivation as whites, and 59 percent said the judicial system treats Blacks fairly.
And, two of Trump's top staffers are just the tip of the racist iceberg. For example, in June 2018, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions used the biblical passage Romans 13 to defend Trump's indefensible "zero-tolerance" immigration policy.
"I would cite you to the Apostle Paul and his clear and wise command in Romans 13, to obey the laws of the government because God has ordained them for the purpose of the order," said Sessions. "Orderly and lawful processes are good in themselves and protect the weak and lawful."
The scripture has been used as a text of terror by miscreant thugs in power throughout history, including slave owners, Nazi sympathizers, apartheid enforcers, supporters of Japanese-American internment, and loyalists opposed to the American Revolution.
In 2017, Boston-born White House Chief of Staff John Kelly came off as a diehard lost cause apologist on Laura Ingraham's Fox News show. His remarks reopened a divide deep in this country about slavery when he told the conservative media television host that he viewed Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee as "an honorable man" and that "the lack of an ability to compromise led to the Civil War."
But, if a tape of Trump using the N-word appears, a tape that former White House staffer Omarosa Manigault Newman said a while ago exists, will the GOP have a cutoff point? What stance will the Republican Party take? Impeachment or apology? Or will it be too feckless to move forward?
The N-word is one of the most odious of words deriving from this country's original sin of slavery. And, it is firmly embedded in the lexicon of racist language that was and still is used to disparage African-Americans. If Trump used the N-word, then he has breached his oath of office to respect and represent "all the people" as one who holds the highest office in a democratic society.
Trump has a history of racist statements and actions toward Blacks. He mocked LeBron James' intelligence, called CNN anchor Don Lemon the dumbest man on TV and said Auntie Maxine Waters has a low IQ.
Trump has also called NFL players "sons of b*tches" for taking knees at games, created birther fearmongering and came to national attention when he took out full-page advertisements in four New York newspapers calling for the return of the death penalty for the Central Park Five—and he continued his call after they were exonerated.
Trump's embrace of white supremacy showed itself in his statement about Black immigrants from what he depicted as "sh*thole countries." And Trump's removal of white-supremacist groups—the Ku Klux Klan, Identitarians, Identity Christians, Neo-Nazis and neo-Confederates, to name a few—from a list of violent extremist groups put out by the Southern Poverty Law Center highlights the Jim Crow era Trump wants the country to time travel back to when he says "Make America Great Again."
The GOP has already demonstrated an allegiance to its party over the country. White nationalists are gradually winning state and county seats, and Democratic incumbents are running scared in states with huge numbers of Trump supporters.
Republicans have no cutoff point when it comes to Trump's demands and his supporters. With no spine or moral compass, the GOP will neither impeach Trump nor make him apologize. The Republican Party—whether willingly or unwillingly—is dragging its feet and has become the party of racism.
