It’s been obvious for some time that the outrageously racist “Great Replacement” theory has gone mainstream. For those who don’t know, it's based on the notion that whites were being “replaced” because people of color were bringing more of their children into the world. But lately, we’ve heard supposedly mainstream Republicans sound like the likes of Richard Spencer and The Daily Stormer. It’s gone as far as the third-ranking Republican in the House, Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York.
Well, this weekend another supposedly mainstream Republican was caught essentially chanting, “You will not replace us!” Namely, American Conservative Union chairman Matt Schlapp. While speaking at a Conservative Political Action Conference gathering in Budapest, Schlapp claimed that the potential overturning of Roe v. Wade is a perfect solution to this supposed “replacement,” since it will allow more white children to be born.
Schlapp was speaking to American reporters who asked him about a speech given by the conference’s host, Hungarian dictator Viktor Orbán. In it, Orbán claimed the rate of immigration in the West was tantamount to “suicide” for white people. Schlapp’s response amounted to a standing ovation, per VICE News.
“Roe v. Wade is being adjudicated at the Supreme Court right now, for people that believe that we somehow need to replace populations or bring in new workers, I think it is an appropriate first step to give the … enshrinement in law the right to life for our own unborn children,” he said.
Pressed further for what he meant, Schlapp added that he thought overturning abortion and immigration were “separate issues,” but then contradicted himself almost immediately.
“If you say there is a population problem in a country, but you’re killing millions of your own people through legalized abortion every year, if that were to be reduced, some of that problem is solved,” Schlapp said. “You have millions of people who can take many of these jobs. How come no one brings that up? If you’re worried about this quote-unquote replacement, why don’t we start there? Start with allowing our own people to live.”
Wow. Schlapp isn’t even trying anymore. He was essentially accusing Planned Parenthood and others of being part and parcel of this supposed effort to “replace” people. Let’s not beat around the bush, Matt—by saying this, you have revealed yourself to be a full-on racist. And no, don’t try to claim that you can’t be a racist if you’re married to a Cuban American woman. The connotations of the “replacement” are so well known that you cannot even attempt to argue that you didn’t know what you were saying.
Once again, we have learned that a party that was founded to end slavery has openly embraced racist yacht horns. Then again, this was to be expected when it continued to stand behind a president who attacked some of his biggest gadflies in Congress as “savages”—and did so when he damned well knew he was attacking a Latina, two Black people, a Palestinian, and two Jews. The only question is how it took this long to happen after the GOP threw its doors open to segregationist Democrats in the 1950s and ‘60s.
Moreover, if this is any indication, the pro-life/forced-birth crowd can’t keep its own talking points straight. For some time, they’ve tried to wedge Blacks away from the Democrats by claiming that abortion amounts to a form of ethnic cleansing. As a Black man who is a charismatic/Pentecostal Christian, on paper I should be receptive to pro-life arguments. But this sort of talk is a reminder of why I was never all that comfortable as a non-traditional pro-lifer. It’s also why I believe I didn’t leave the movement in 2011 and ultimately swung back all the way to being pro-choice in 2014.
Looking into Schlapp’s history, his moral bankruptcy comes as no surprise. After all, he was the ringleader of the 2000 Brooks Brothers riot that shut down the attempt to recount votes in Miami. He displayed that moral bankruptcy once again when he tried to clap back at CNN’s Jim Acosta for calling Orbán a dictator.
Um, Matt? That election earlier this year was held in a climate that didn’t meet any reasonable standard of fairness. And Orbán has all but eliminated any independent press in Hungary. By your logic (as a number of Twitter users reminded him), we can’t call Vladimir Putin a dictator either. So if you can see all of this and claim with a straight face that Orbán isn’t a dictator, it’s no wonder that you have no qualms about blowing a blatant racist yacht horn.