Vance's Reaction to Racist Group Chats Will Embolden the Worst Republicans
Shrugging off the radicalization of right-wing political culture is a mistake.
Vice President J.D. Vance—the guy who falsely claimed that Haitian immigrants were eating cats and dogs in Springfield, Ohio—was upset after Politico reported "leaders of Young Republican groups" shockingly "referred to Black people as monkeys and 'the watermelon people' and mused about putting their political opponents in gas chambers. They talked about raping their enemies and driving them to suicide and lauded Republicans who they believed support slavery."
However, Vance wasn't noticeably outraged by the 251 times these GOP activists used vile terms or proclaimed admiration for Adolf Hitler. He instead was upset by the "pearl clutching" criticism of the chat group. In a feat of moral gymnastics, Vance reprinted a series of offensive text messages from Virginia's Democratic candidate for attorney general. Vice presidents used to embrace their role as national leaders who could calm passions rather than partisans who rub salt in every wound. No longer.
Normal people have the capability of, you know, condemning both things. But in MAGA-world.\, one never backs down nor criticizes one's own side. The most disingenuous part of Vance's post is where he excused these comments as coming from a "college group chat." Young Republican groups do include some college-aged members, but also professionals nearly the age of Vance. Identified commenters are well into adulthood, with one a chief of staff for a GOP lawmaker and another an elected state senator.
To their credit, the Young Republicans organization issued a strong denunciation of the comments, although I was horrified by reading the online responses to it. A large number of MAGA responders savaged the group for apologizing. In reality, none of this has taken place in a vacuum. The Republican Party that I knew from the 1980s to 2010s had many flaws, but it never tolerated this kind of cruelty and bigotry. Parties rot from the head down, and you know what happened in 2015.
The conservative movement always had many members of what's known as the Old Right, as well as classical liberals, with the latter dominating after World War II and throughout the Cold War. Old Rightists were hostile to free markets and preferred big-government economic policies such as tariffs. They embraced a more isolationist foreign policy that despises international cooperation (NATO, the United Nations). They prefer exerting U.S. power rather than promoting what they see as namby-pamby concerns about human rights.
Most significantly, the Old Right always saw America as a nation built by a specific people (white Anglo-Saxons and Christians) and rejected the view of America as a democratic idea that's welcoming to all peoples. The Trump-controlled GOP signals the triumph of that form of conservatism and the end of Reaganism. Read former GOP presidential candidate Pat Buchanan if you doubt me. I'm not the first person to notice how closely the party now mirrors his ideas.
So none of this edge-lording is surprising in a party that has swapped Ronald Reagan's uplifting "City on a Hill" slogan for "mass deportation" placards. I admittedly spend too much time on social media, but I've been shocked over the last few years as I've read an increasing amount of bile from members of a party who used to know better. To paraphrase theologian David Bentley Hart, Trump removed the sewer cover, and we see what's oozed out.
Look at the online ecosystem. Candace Owens and Nick Fuentes have practically become mainstream. Popular broadcaster Tucker Carlson hosts guests with rather unusual takes about Nazi Germany. An older Republican activist, a few years ago, warned me that the new crop of online-focused young, mostly male GOP activists likes to revel in far-right tropes. Unfortunately, the party is no longer run by adults who can guide them. In a few months, I expect these Young Republicans to restart their GOP careers without missing a beat.
And the administration always doubles down. It certainly isn't interested in assuaging concerns about the authoritarian and racially tinged direction in which the movement appears to be headed. On the day the news broke about the chats, The New York Times reported that the administration is "considering a radical overhaul of the U.S. refugee system that would slash the program to its bare bones while giving preference to English speakers, white South Africans and Europeans who oppose migration." Old Righters have been calling for this for years.
Yes, yes, the Left has tons of its own anti-Semitic and racist baggage. I also know conservative activists are in some ways reacting to the oversensitivity of progressives, who built a cultural system that shames people for accidental slights such as referring to others by the wrong pronoun. But something is deeply amiss in the modern conservative movement. If you believe that concern about these chats is just pearl-clutching at "boys-will-be-boys" behavior, then you're not paying attention to the frightening radicalization of young MAGA culture.
This column was first published in The Orange County Register.
