by Noah
Perhaps nowhere is it more obvious that Donnie Psycho is still the physical and spiritual leader of the Republican Party: The evidence can be clearly seen in his taking the lead role in attacking Major League Baseball for engaging in the fight against racism when they moved their annual All-Star Game and related festivities from Atlanta, Georgia to Denver, Colorado after the Georgia's republican majority legislature and Governor Brian Kemp went all Jim KKK Crow in drawing up and passing their new massively race-based voter suppression laws.
Since at least 1968, Republicans have always leapt to the fore when it comes to defending racism. That was true in 1968 when Nixon ran on racism by adopting his infamous southern strategy to appeal to republican voters and former dixiecrats. It was true when another racist, Ronald Reagan, made a point of launching his campaign in Philadelphia, Mississippi because he knew the town was symbolic and considered hallowed ground for racists. From there, it was 8 years of made up stories about "welfare queens driving Cadillacs" and all the rest. And, let's not forget Mitt Romney making "minorities getting free stuff" a central gripe of his campaign pleas to republican voters. Romney failed to win but the sight of a black president in the White House in 2013 caused a republican freakout that is still reverberating today. The freakout was so large that later in 2013, the Supreme Court, led by Chief Justice John Roberts finally achieved one of the two Republican Party holy grails (the other being doing away with Roe v. Wade)-- the overturning of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. It was the judges appointed by George W. Bush that led the way.
Just overturning the 1965 Voting Rights Act wasn't enough for republicans. Since achieving that goal, the Republican Party has turned a corner and headed full bore into trying to make sure we never see a black face behind the oval office desk again. Hence the Republican tidal wave of state-based anti-voting rights legislation. It was horrific before we had a black president. Now, with a woman of color as a vice president, the freakout is growing even more. As you read this, over 300 voter suppression laws have been introduced by republicans in 47 of the 50 states. As stated by republicans across this country time and time again in multiple ways, black and brown votes are to be considered "illegal votes," votes that should never be, votes that should not count. Endless recounts and recounts of the recounts of 2020 votes in carefully selected black precincts are a lurid testimony to that. Voting while black is the new driving while black. This is one of Trump's biggest legacies, right there with his attempted coup on 1/6. Long term, the mounting extremism of the republican voter suppression jihad looks to be even bigger than the more than 500,000 deaths due to COVID-19 (COVID-45) that Trump willfully caused. The Republican Party's anti-voting while being black or brown laws have a goal of ending democracy itself. The end goal is an autocratic nation where you vote for the republican or else. Welcome to Russia, or North Korea. No wonder Trump likes Putin and Kim, so much.
Whether it was refusing to rent his apartments to African-Americans, publicly calling for the death penalty for the Central Park Five even after they were shown to be innocent of the charges, or his own campaign announcement which amounted to a psychotic racist diatribe, Donald Trump has always gone the extra mile to expresss his racism bonafides and lead his party to do the same. It takes an especially hate-infested bigoted cretin to do that but, let's face it, the reality is that the politicians I mentioned above knew exactly what would motivate registered republican voters to go to the polls and vote for them.
On 1/6, masses of white supremacist Republican voters proved that they, the ones who have always chanted incessantly that they are the "law and order party," showed us that they will even choose beating and killing cops, in defense of their right to be racists and support their white supremacist maga-boy. It was a clear cut case of Racism (with a capital Republican 'R'') first, cops defending democracy, a very distant second. It's the same sick mentality that has them watching fellow white supremacists like consonspracy monger Sean Hannity and Tiki Torch Tucker on their beloved GOP/KKK TV network every night, adoring their every word like they are oracles.
So there we have it, Trump is taking the lead in attempting to ruin anyone or any entity that speaks out or stand up against racism. You knew he wasn't going to let Brian Kemp, Greg Abbott, or some other Grand Wizard wannabe steal his thunder. He took on the NFL when players started kneeling to protest against racist cops. He even sent Pence to a game just to make a show of walking out in a huff. Now Donnie Psycho is trying to take on baseball and Coca-Cola (even while trying to hide his Diet Coke behind his phone in a photo-op. Baseball? Coca-Cola? I can't wait to see what he and his fellow party miscreants are planning for Mothers Day.