Tim Scott should use the first debate to challenge GOP racism

It pains me to say this, but today’s GOP is the party of white nationalism. As Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) said in May, “I look at a white nationalist as a Trump Republican.”

He later walked back that damning comment, as well as his revealing and racist comment that white nationalists should be allowed to serve in the military because “I call them Americans.”

Last week, Tuberville’s fight with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, a Black man, extended to nearly six months. He is blocking more than 250 promotions for generals and admirals. Tuberville is doing this in protest of diversity training in the military and members of the military getting paid leave for health care that includes abortions.

President Biden responded by canceling a plan to move the headquarters of the U.S. Space Force to Alabama.

But what is the appropriate response to Tuberville’s painful view that white nationalists are the same as Trump supporters who dominate the GOP? It is hard to argue with Tuberville when the facts back him up.

Former President Trump has a commanding lead in the race for the party’s presidential nomination, even though as recently as 2020, 52 percent of the country, including 43 percent of whites, called him racist.

Then there is the fact that in an increasingly diverse nation, the GOP remains 85 percent non-Hispanic white, according to a Gallup survey of the party in the 2020 election.

Also, 61 percent of Trump’s supporters told Yahoo recently that they agree with “Replacement Theory” — the divisive idea that there is a secret movement to “replace native-born Americans with immigrants and people of color who share their political views.”

Tuberville’s identification of white nationalists with MAGA Republicans is also supported by the facts of the party’s political agenda.

In Tuberville’s home state, the Alabama state legislature is openly ignoring a Supreme Court ruling calling for new congressional district lines to create a second House district with close to a majority of Black voters.

In Arkansas, the state’s Republican attorney general is trying to end school desegregation with a school choice plan that would send government dollars into schools that are likely more racially segregated.

But the most alarming racist offensive by the modern Republican Party is its relentless assault on voting rights. Across the country, Republican-led state legislatures have introduced and passed restrictive voting laws with disproportionate impact on minority communities.

Following the lie from former President Trump that there was widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election, new laws increase difficulty to register to vote, limit early voting and restrict location of polls.

It is hard to avoid the conclusion that the party is engaged in suppression of black and brown voters.

The same hostility toward non-white people is evident in Republican governor Ron DeSantis’s effort to stop racial diversity training in Florida.

DeSantis raised eyebrows last month when his state approved a curriculum for public education that encouraged teachers to tell schoolchildren that Black people benefited from slavery because they learned skills.

This drew a sharp rebuke from Vice President Kamala Harris, who called it an attempt by  “extremist, so-called leaders” to rewrite the “ugly parts of history.”

The few Black Republicans in Congress also condemned DeSantis for whitewashing history.

Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) said no “silver lining” exists in the history of slavery and that it is “antithetical to who we are.” 

Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) said while he supported the “vast majority” of the curriculum, he opposed an “attempt to feature the personal benefits of slavery.” The DeSantis campaign responded by lecturing the Black lawmaker to “stand up for your state.”

“You got to choose: Are you going to side with Kamala Harris and liberal media outlets or are you doing to side with the state of Florida?” DeSantis said.

Five years ago, I wrote a book titled “What the Hell Do You Have to Lose? Trump’s War on Civil Rights.” I wrote that Trump, as the leader of the Republican Party and president, was systematically undoing decades of hard-won progress achieved by the civil rights movement.

The late Secretary of State Colin Powell, a Republican, famously said his party contained “a dark vein of intolerance” and “an identity problem” where some elements of the GOP “still look down on minorities.”

He cited as evidence Trump’s use of the racist “birther” conspiracy theory to demean the first Black president, Barack Obama, by falsely claiming he was not born in the United States and wasn’t eligible to be president. 

It is equally important to remember that Trump was not the first to tap into this racist vein in American politics. And the damage is unlikely to end when he departs from the national political stage. Unless someone makes a stand against the spread of racism in the GOP, history will record that the "Party of Lincoln" died at the hands of Trump, DeSantis and Tuberville. 

Scott will likely be on the GOP presidential debate stage later this month. He should use his time to speak out against racism in his party.

History will reward him, and perhaps the voters will too.

Senator Scott, please do the right thing.

Juan Williams is an author and a political analyst for Fox News Channel.