The GOP is continuing to project its own extremist impulses and absolutist end game. The latest tactic is the manufactured threat of Critical Race Theory.
First, it’s important to understand how this particular strategy works. Much has already been written about Donald Trump’s pathological projection, but it bears reminding that projection is an unconscious self-defense mechanism in which people attribute their worst motives and inclinations to others. It allows the person to avoid responsibility, as well as feelings of guilt and wrongdoing. It’s also a more sophisticated form of “I know you are, but what am I?”
The GOP can justify its most anti-democratic actions to its base by suggesting that anyone opposed to its dangerous right-wing agenda is the real enemy—an urgent, totalitarian threat committed to “replacing” their power, freedoms and values. Nearly 28 percent of Republicans agree that “because things have gotten so far off track, true American patriots may have to resort to violence in order to save our country” from the rest of us, who are allegedly all woke, liberal, gay, Satan-worshipping pedophiles who pray to Mecca and are working for the deep state.
ADVERTISEMENT
In fact, the entire Trump Presidency is a testament to the GOP’s rousing success of using projection and deflection as a political blitzkrieg. For example, Trump’s incessant attacks on Hillary Clinton as a “liar” and “grifter” were more of a self-reflection and confession about his own character. Regardless, these projections helped to significantly damage Clinton ahead of the 2016 election.
CRT panic is the perfect vehicle to carry a fictional narrative of perpetual victimhood and grievance. CRT is an academic movement that is taught in post-grad and unknown to most Americans. It examines how systemic racism has intersected with U.S. law to negatively impact and marginalize people of color. Not that you would know that, listening to the right. For conservatives, it is now “revolutionary program that would overturn the principles of the Declaration” and “displace the Christian God.” A “Reject Critical Race Theory” toolkit created by the conservative Heritage Action for America is helping parents “stop CRT” in their school districts. (It warns them that CRT is seeking to “dismantle the United States” and teach their kids to hate white people. Newsweek opinion editor Josh Hammer, who supports the CRT bans, now even equates CRT with Holocaust denialism.)
As I explained in an earlier article, GOP strategists and activists have deliberately misdefined CRT as a threat using the anti-Sharia playbook from a decade ago. The people who are terrified of CRT can’t define it or cite where it’s being taught in elementary schools, but creating the “red herring” is the point in order to distract from the GOP’s actual end game of minority rule and a full throated, and violent, embrace of white supremacy.
As a reminder, a violent mob overran the U.S. Capitol in order to cancel a free and fair election and keep their Chosen One as President. Five people died in the mayhem. The GOP, aided by the Supreme Court, is launching a full scale assault on voting rights across the nation, specifically targeting Black voters. Republican elected officials, such as Paul Gosar and Marjorie Taylor Greene, openly support the “replacement theory,” a white supremacist conspiracy and a national security threat that claims that Jews secretly use people of color and Muslim immigrants to weaken and replace the white race. As Republicans whine about cancel culture and protecting their first amendment rights, the GOP has transformed into the party of cancel culture: It is literally in the midst of trying to ban critical race theory and racial justice initiatives from elementary schools, and attempting to withhold funding from schools that teach the 1619 Project.
Their commitment to this ideological project of white supremacy and minority rule is so strong that they’re willing to stab their most loyal allies in the back, even turning on “woke corporations” and Rep. Liz Cheney. Even Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley, once one of Trump’s favorite generals, has now become a villain of the right, with Trump calling on him to be fired. Why? Gen. Milley defended the studying of critical race theory in the interest of promoting education, curiosity, intellectualism, and cultural awareness. In response, Fox News host Tucker Carlson disparaged the nation’s top general as a stupid pig and Laura Ingraham, who is against defunding the police, is now all about defunding the military. In fact, the right is launching a full-scale attack on our armed services for policies that are promoting inclusivity and combating extremism, specifically white supremacy, in its ranks. The service chiefs of the Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard shut down accusations that the armed services were “increasingly woke and more concerned about social justice than warfighting.” That hasn’t stopped Rep. Dan Crenshaw from creating a website asking service members to anonymously report on “woke ideology” in the military.
Ultimately, this CRT-panic reveals the utter depravity and depths to which the right will go to preserve myths that soothe white anxiety, the main driver for Trump voters, and maintain white power. They will self-immolate if necessary to protect the myth of exceptionalism, a narrative in which white men are the benevolent, rugged protagonists of the American narrative who, as Rick Santorum alleged, “came here and created a blank slate” and “birthed a nation from nothing.” People of color are allowed to exist, as long as they stay in their lane, as sidekicks, beneficiaries of white, Christian mercy, able to partake in delicious cuisine of fried American glory thanks predominantly to the hard work, pioneering spirit and intellectual eminence of our white ancestors.
Sure, these benevolent whites once owned slaves, but those slaves weren’t treated that poorly, were they? Even if they were, that’s in the past, and we should all move on. Whining and complaining isn’t allowed unless it’s Ted Cruz’s Twitter feed and Trump’s daily rants. Also, Obama’s election is proof we now live in a post-racial society, right? Those who complain about systemic racism are simply race hustlers who are playing the race card and attempting to guilt white people into giving up their power, earned solely by merit and not privilege, and doling out welfare and free handouts. In fact, most white people now believe they are the most oppressed racial group in America, hated for simply being white, unable to express white pride, and it’s the awful, liberal, woke orthodoxy that has become the most oppressive ideology.
One can see why Critical Race Theory-panic, and any measure that seeks to address systemic racial inequality, unveils all these projections. Racial justice endeavors, such as the 1619 Project, and diversity, equity and inclusivity measures seek to expose these myths and fill in the missing gaps, offering a corrective that uplifts those voices and communities that were historically marginalized and still oppressed. The aim is to replace white supremacy with a narrative of equality and inclusivity that transforms America into a country where anyone, regardless of ethnicity or gender, can be its co-protagonist. However, equality looks like oppression to those who are in power. This explains televangelist Pat Robertson’s recent comments where he refers to CRT as a “monstrous evil” that teaches Black people to take “the whip handle” from white people and “rise up and overtake their oppressors.”
Recently, 21 members of the GOP couldn’t vote to honor the U.S. Capitol police who saved their lives during the Jan. 6 insurrection, but 120 of them voted against removing Confederate statues from the U.S. Capitol. Their votes reveal who and what they value, and preserving the romanticized and whitewashed legacy of racist traitors who carried “the whip handle” and fought the Civil War to continue slavery seems to be on the top of their list.
Instead of keeping the focus on CRT, Democrats should be asking why the GOP and its allies are actively promoting hateful, white supremacist groups and conspiracy theories that are embraced by international terrorists. Specifically, this week’s full attention should be on GOP Congressman Paul Gosar, who just denied that he’s going to attend a fundraiser for a white supremacist group, America First, even though he’s prominently featured on the invitation. In fact, he already gave a keynote speech at their conference earlier this year. After attending that event, Gosar even tweeted a well-known white supremacist slogan and took a chummy photo with the group’s founder, Nick Fuentes, who is, among other things, a Holocaust denier.
Instead of allowing the GOP, and fellow Democrats, to keep bashing their favorite pinata, Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, as an antisemite, the Democrats should target Republican leadership and publicly ask why they have yet to condemn Gosar for his relationship with Fuentes, and his continued belief in “the replacement theory” that unites white nationalists across the globe and inspired terrorists in New Zealand and El Paso, Texas. If they’re up to it, Democrats should also keep asking why Marjorie Taylor Greene hasn’t renounced her support for the replacement theory. Also, they should ask if Republican leadership is fine with their base, members and allies, such as former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, promoting the QAnon conspiracy, which is now a national security threat, according to the FBI.
Democrats should also ask Republicans why they aren’t responding to the recent DHS intelligence bulletin that warns of potential domestic terror attacks by right-wing extremists nearing the anniversary of the El Paso shooting and Charlottesville car attack? Also, why are GOP talking points being used and weaponized by Russia to win over their conservative base? I’d love for Democrats to openly keep asking, “Why is the GOP wasting its time attacking critical race theory when real threats to our national security are arising from their fellow travelers? Why isn’t the GOP acting accordingly? Their failure to respond must mean they agree with the hateful beliefs or at the very least tolerate them, right?”
Next time Republicans yell “squirrel” or “critical race theory,” instead of taking the bait and getting distracted, Democrats should instead attack the GOP, reveal their projections and expose them for the hateful, counter-majoritarian force they’ve become, which is aggressively careening towards violent extremism, willing to compromise and corrupt everything and everyone to maintain power.
