So Sen. Mark Kirk was super racist in his debate with Rep. Tammy Duckworth Thursday night, attacking half-Thai Democrat’s family background. It was a stunning and appalling moment—but let’s not pretend it came out of thin air, as many reports seem to suggest. Kirk has a reputation as a moderate Republican, and even has the endorsement of the Human Rights Campaign. He also got a lot of press as an early unendorser of Donald Trump. What, then, is Mr. Moderate Republican doing being super racist?
Kirk is trailing in the polls. He’s desperate, and he clearly decided that being insulting and aggressive on a number of topics was his best debate strategy. That’s the immediate context for his remark. But there’s a bigger context, too.
Let’s review how it went: Duckworth said “my family has served this nation in uniform going back to the Revolution. I’m a Daughter of the American Revolution. I’ve bled for this nation.” Kirk’s response was “I forgot that your parents came all the way from Thailand to serve George Washington.” While Duckworth’s mother is Thai, her father was, yes, a white person whose family had been in the U.S. since the Revolution.
A shocking moment, no doubt. But not one without precedent. We’ve lived through years of birthers insisting that a president with one African parent is not a real American, with the birther in chief becoming the Republican nominee for commander in chief. Why, then, would we be surprised to hear a House member and Senate candidate with one Thai parent attacked in the same vein by another Republican? The substance of the attack was within the Republican mainstream—Kirk just wasn’t supposed to say it quite so bluntly. And how many times have we said exactly that about things Donald Trump said?
Tammy Duckworth has a solid lead over Kirk. But she needs company in the Senate. Can you chip in $1 to each of the candidates on our Senate slate?
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