A year ago Kevin Drum at Mother Jones wrote a piece titled:
For those who may not get the classical reference, Drum has said what needs to be said. There is no legitimate excuse for the continued existence of the Republican Party. Angry white men with guns are the key demographic they’ve been cultivating for years, with dog whistle messaging and right wing media. Using the Second Amendment for a wedge issue, they’ve become the marketing arm for the NRA and the gun industry. Under Trump they have legitimized bigotry to the point where they can now say openly what they’ve always held in their hearts.
Way to go NY Times — brushing it off racist remarks by Reagan by calling it “...the latest reminder of the long history of racism by American presidents.” in the header. They cite LBJ to ‘prove’ racism is bipartisan because of his use of racial slurs, lumping him together with Nixon, Reagan, and Trump, along with other presidents from earlier times: Wilson, Teddy Roosevelt, Washington, Eisenhower.
The difference is that the modern Democratic Party has rejected racism, and it dates back to LBJ pushing through the Civil Rights Act and so many other policies. Words are one thing; deeds are another. The Republican reaction was to oppose the Civil Rights Act and use it to go after Democratic voters by exploiting the racial fears that were and are endemic in America (and fear in general) in order to get their votes. If one looks into Reagan Democrats, racism was one of the key things driving them to cross over.
Donald Trump is the end game; decades of GOP hinting around the edges and the more aggressive push from right wing media has brought us to where Trump can do this right out loud. Coupled with decades of the GOP pushing guns = freedom, is it really a stretch to look at the mass shootings by angry white men and not connect the dots all the way back?
Kevin Drum laid it out in the short piece referenced above. Written a year ago, it’s a recognition of what we’re up against. Read the whole thing, but here’s the key paragraph:
...Today, the Republican Party exists for one and only one purpose: to pass tax cuts for the rich and regulatory rollbacks for corporations. They accomplish this using one and only method: unapologetically racist and bigoted appeals to win the votes of the heartland riff-raff they otherwise treat as mere money machines for their endless mail-order cons...
How much higher will the death toll have to go before we address the real problem? Once is chance; twice is coincidence. Three times and way past three is enemy action.