Racists, like poker players, have 'tells'. “I’m not a racist, but ...”. “Some of my best friends are Black.” Take the most racist man to be President since Woodrow Wilson. Trump made the claim “Nobody has ever done for the black community what President Trump has done.” And perhaps the most ridiculous remark a President has made when during the protests after George Floyd's murder by a white Minneapolis cop, he said, “George is looking down right now and saying this is a great thing that is happening for our country. A great day for him, it’s a great day for everybody.”
He was celebrating an unemployment rate decline that was a boon to all demographics, even though Blacks still trailed whites in that metric. And it is hard to celebrate improving odds of getting a job when you are dead. Or at risk of being killed by a cop simply for your skin color.
Trump’s whole shtick is to denigrate minorities (“shithole countries”) to fire up the base. “I have black guys counting my money. … I hate it. The only guys I want counting my money are short guys that wear yarmulkes all day” — a racist two-fer.
While at the same time claiming some kinship with POC. "I have a great relationship with the blacks. I've always had a great relationship with the blacks. And in acknowledging a Black conservative candidate at a 2016 rally, “Oh, look at my African American over here. Look at him. Are you the greatest?”
The Republican Party also has Black friends — Hershel Walker and Kanye West. West is not running for anything. He is a publicity hound. And he is a contrarian dogged by questions of his mental stability. He is entitled to his opinions. And in America’s celebrity culture, he will get a lot of listeners. The GOP could not be prouder of this ‘best friend’.
If West convinces some democratic Black voters to switch teams, so be it. That is the way politics works. And no political party should take any demographic for granted.
Walker, on the other hand, is running for public office. And in his candidacy hangs the balance of power in the Senate. In a grown-up state, the GOP primary voter would have picked him for his policy positions, his knowledge of fiscal policy, and his informed opinion of what would make America a better country.
Instead, they picked Walker because Trump had anointed him. And Trump had blessed him because he was a NJ General when Trump owned the USFL team. And he has spent many years kissing orange ass.
The GOP went along because Walker was both Black and could strip votes away from his Black opponent. And because he is a hero in Georgia because 40 years ago, he led UGA to a national NCAA FB title.
In a way, you have to commend conservative whites. They have become color-blind. Back in the day, the idea of white rural conservatives in the South voting for a Black man would have been ludicrous. But today, they do not care as long as he checks the right policy boxes — pro-GOP Jesus, anti-abortion, pro-gun, anti-immigrant, et al.
It is like some plantation owner paying a black jockey to ride his horses. At the track, everyone will be back-slapping buddies, but there will be no invitations to come home to meet the daughters.
Georgia’s white voters will forgive Walker for his lies, hypocrisy, spousal abuse, serial fornication, child abandonment, ignorance, stupidity, and inability to form a sentence. Why not? They elected a man with all those “virtues” to the presidency.
The only thing that would have disqualified Walker would have been if the women he impregnated and abandoned had been white. And that is a maybe.