The Buffalo mass shooting was the work of a lone gunman but not the product of an isolated ideology.
In a manifesto, the suspect detailed how he viewed Blacks as “substitutes” for white Americans. Saturday’s grocery store massacre casts a harsh light on “great alternative theory“Which authorities say he used to justify an act of racist violence – and about how that theory has moved from the far-right edge of American discourse to the political center of America.” Republican Party.
Republicans nationwide were quick to denounce the killings. But few party leaders appear willing to break with the politics of capitalism and fear that the party has accepted to retain the loyalty of right-wing voters inspired by Donald J. Trump.
One Republican, Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming, on Monday urged her colleagues not to do enough to destroy the extremist wing in her own party.
“Republican leadership in the House has enabled white nationalism, white supremacy, and anti-Semitism,” said Cheney, a former House Republican. number 3, who was removed from that role due to criticism of Mr. Trump, wrote on Twitter. “History has taught us that what begins with words ends much worse. @GOP leaders must renounce and reject these views as well as those who hold them.”
Republican leaders in the House have sometimes tolerated extreme views from some in their ranks. Last year, far-right Republicans in Congress circulated plans to create “America’s First Caucus,” in which the immigration section talks about the importance of “Anglo political traditions.” -Unique Saxon”. The idea was dropped but those involved continued to make waves because of their flirtation with white nationalism.
In February, when Representatives Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Paul Gosar of Arizona were participating in a conference led by Nick Fuentes, a white supremacist, Representative Kevin McCarthy, Republican of California and leader minorities, organizations, called their actions “horrific and wrong” but he did not formally rebuke or punish them.
Since then, Republicans have used rhetoric that shows a tacit willingness to try to appeal to far-right elements. Ahead of the midterm elections in November, Republican candidates have stepped up their warnings about the threats posed to what is seen as real or traditional America. The bygone era often goes unspoken: Caucasian, male-dominated, Judeo-Christian and heterosexual.
One issue after another is repeated as one reason Republican voters fear their culture and values: Transgender rights threaten girls’ sports. The removal of the statues risks erasing the history of the Confederacy in the South and other white historical figures elsewhere. Critical racial theory is portrayed as rewriting American history – and overhauling the way it is taught – to emphasize episodes of apartheid.
Even the recent shortage of baby formula has been wrongly re-imagined as acute as giving gifts to undocumented children.
More than a dozen candidates and outside groups ran ads warning of an immigrant “invasion” of the country or undermining the power of indigenous citizens. Some candidates have wrongly said that the Democrats are opening the borders specifically to let undocumented people to vote.
“If Joe Biden continues to transport illegal immigrants into our states, we will all have to learn Spanish,” said Governor Kay Ivey, a Republican of Alabama. in a TV commercial before the May 24 preliminary date.
In another, Ms. Ivey sees her conservative status as a bastion of disappearing values: “When I taught at school, we said a prayer, pledged allegiance and taught things. basic,” she said. “Today, the fruit teaches children to hate America. But not here. Biden’s Critical Racism: Racism, Mistakes, and Death as a Threshold. Transgender sports: toast. ”
Republicans have vigorously pushed back against accusations that their language and actions perpetuated the racism and xenophobia that appeared to be behind the Buffalo massacre.
Fear and discontent are the hallmarks of Mr. Trump’s rise, even though its roots predate him. A quarter of a century earlier, Pat Buchanan branded himself as the “America First” candidate in his right-wing challenge to former President George Bush in 1992, a slogan Trump would use again. . But Mr. Buchanan, who lost the Republican presidential nomination in 1992 and again in 1996, was largely shunned by his party for writing about “immigrant invasions” that erode Western society.
Mr. Trump opened his 2016 presidential campaign by calling Mexican immigrants rapists and soon after he pushed for a ban on Muslims entering the country. At the time, many senior party officials reacted with outrage.
Now, much of the Republican Party and conservative media are speaking with the same nationalist voice, from Tucker Carlson on early Fox News to tougher alternatives like Newsmax and One America News Network.
Mr. Trump no longer seems to be driving the conversation to the right as much as keeping up with it.
At a rally in western Pennsylvania this month, he railed against “illegal aliens” he said were pouring “into our homeland.”
“Our country is full, we can’t take it anymore,” he said. “They are trying to destroy our country.”
“Unfortunately, the party is becoming one of resentment and anger at odds with solutions and common ground,” said Mike DuHaime, a longtime Republican strategist. He doesn’t predict it will thwart Republicans in this year’s election but said it will ultimately pose a challenge. “Indignation and anger may win you in the short term, but it won’t build an executive coalition to build long-term policy change.”
Mainstream Republicans have repeatedly suggested that coercive lax borders are somehow part of the Democrats’ long-term strategy. In Missouri, Attorney General Eric Schmitt, a Senate candidate, speak on Glenn Beck’s show last month that the Democrats are “basically trying to change this country through their illegal immigration policy.”
Other Republicans are more specific, suggesting that Democrats have political goals.
In Wisconsin, Senator Ron Johnson, who will be re-elected this fall, said last year “you have to ask yourself why” the Biden administration wants, as he puts it, open borders. “Is it really so,” he postulated, “that they want to readjust America’s demographics to make sure they stay in power forever?” (On Monday night, he tweeted: “Giving the lie that criticizing these admin policies in any way supports ‘alternative theory’ is another example of corporate media working overtime to cover up the Biden admin failures.”)
And in Ohio, Senate candidate J.D. Vance faces potential accusations of racism. “Are you a racist? Do you hate Mexicans? ‘ he asked in the TV ad that opened his campaign. Later on the spot, he talked about how lax border policies have been to ensure “more Democratic voters pour into this country.”
This strategy of reclaiming racist labels – and seeing yourself as a victim – has also been used by Blake Masters, an Arizona Senate candidate who is backed by the same billionaire, Peter Thiel, like Mr. Vance.
“If you connect the dots as a candidate for office and say, look, obviously Democrats, they hope to change the demographics of our country,” he said. Masters said in a podcast interview last month. “They’re hoping to import a whole new constituency and they call you racist and bigoted.”
Political scientists and historians say harsher, more dehumanizing language that stirs fears of demographic change has become more common and more prominent among Republican voters as pro-business Republicans, once pro-immigration people have become fewer in their ranks, and Republican leaders have refused to push back against more extreme political language.
The great alternative theory have its Origin in France, where it was popularized by a 2012 book of the same name by critic and novelist Renaud Camus. Mr. Camus has primarily argued that demographic shifts in predominantly white, Christian countries in Europe threaten “ethnic and civilized displacement.”
By 2017, white supremacist groups had absorbed Mr. Camus’ ideas, using counter-conspiracy theories. They adopted a new slogan – alternately “Jews won’t replace us” or “You won’t replace us” – chanted at rallies, most famously at the rally. Unite the Right in Charlottesville, Va., that August, where a white nationalist killed a protester. White supremacists committed mass murders in Christchurch, New Zealand, and El Paso, Texas.in 2019, both mentioned the theory in their respective manifestos.
“These conspiracies are at the core of the Republican Party right now and I don’t think so,” said Amy Spitalnick, executive director of Integrity First for America, which won the case against the Charlottesville organizers in 2017. Which party would say that? rally.
Representative Elise Stefanik of New York, who represents a Northern New York district and who replaced Cheney last year as a Republican in the 3rd House of Representatives, ran an online ad. last fall on how an “amnesty” for the undocumented would “overthrow our current constituency. ”
Her office released a statement Monday accusing the smear news media of “disgraceful, dishonest and dangerous” in linking her rhetoric to the attack. Public Buffalo in any way.
“The shooting was an act of evil,” said her spokesman, Alex DeGrasse, who added in a statement about “illegal conduct” that she “never supported any take any racist stance or make racist statements”.
Senator John Thune of South Dakota, the #2 Republican in the Senate, said Monday that “unfortunately there are websites where these people come and get these crazy ideas in their heads and act on it.” When asked about his colleagues, who have repeated elements of substitution theory, he added: “No one should voice or advocate in any way for some this.”
Report contributed by Azi Paybarah, Karen Yourish, Jennifer Medina, Jazmine Ulloa and Charles Homans.
